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Only getting 2-channel audio for 6-channel EAC3 videos


davesurfer

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davesurfer

So for a few videos that are 6-channel EAC3, I only get 2-channel audio playback. My receiver/amp shows "PCM" when playing. How can I get 6-channel playback for these videos? Most other videos play with 6-channel fine. Here's the attached playback info on an example video. I've also posted the audio settings from Emby Theater as well. Thanks for any help!

 

 

playback info.png

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If you setup an external player such as VLC do you get all audio channels during playback through Emby?

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sooty234

For some reason, it's decoding the audio instead of passing it through. And you probably have Windows audio configured to stereo, when it should be configured to your speaker count. So too should the audio in Theater, be. But the correct question is why it's decoding. You're using the test build. Does it happen in the release (3.0.11)?

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davesurfer
13 hours ago, cayars said:

If you setup an external player such as VLC do you get all audio channels during playback through Emby?

Nope, can't get VLC to play ANY videos in 6 channels, they all play stereo.

8 hours ago, sooty234 said:

For some reason, it's decoding the audio instead of passing it through. And you probably have Windows audio configured to stereo, when it should be configured to your speaker count. So too should the audio in Theater, be. But the correct question is why it's decoding. You're using the test build. Does it happen in the release (3.0.11)?

I always got all channels in the previous build, the only reason I'm using the test build was because playback buttons weren't showing (common glitch)and my HEVC videos weren't playing. Now that all works, but now I have these EAC ones only in stereo. Also I don't know where you'd change the Windows audio settings for speakers, wasn't that only an old thing in Windows XP or something? And I'm using SPDIF and passthru which shouldn't rely on speaker config you'd think?

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sooty234

The audio config for Windows is bottom right, next to the clock. Click on it and make sure it's configured correctly, 5.1 in your case. And as you're using optical on an older receiver, DD+ (eac3) probably isn't supported. Didn't you make an mpv.conf to convert it ac3? For that to work, you need to only enable dts and ac3 passthrough in theater. Optical won't support any more than that.

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davesurfer
10 hours ago, sooty234 said:

The audio config for Windows is bottom right, next to the clock. Click on it and make sure it's configured correctly, 5.1 in your case. And as you're using optical on an older receiver, DD+ (eac3) probably isn't supported. Didn't you make an mpv.conf to convert it ac3? For that to work, you need to only enable dts and ac3 passthrough in theater. Optical won't support any more than that.

LOL oh yeah I know where the sound settings are :)  But yeah I was thinking that the older reciever can't decode EAC3. No I didn't do any conversions. How does that work now?

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davesurfer
1 hour ago, sooty234 said:

Try configuring your audio settings like this, and see what happens.

42864620_Annotation2020-07-30191256.thumb.jpg.38a843e4e28e408277c6ec58ef87eeb3.jpg

So before I read your reply I unchecked EAC3, and left all the other ones checked, I also put the speaker layout to 5.1 -> but still only go the 2 channels. Which I'm wondering how I can change Windows to see the 5.1 set up. I'm still not sure where to specify speaker layout, I'm going to the classic sound settings, not the Windows 10 metro interface one, can't find anything there.

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sooty234

It's because you're using optical. It only has enough bandwidth for core 5.1 compressed (AC3 or DTS) or stereo uncompressed (PCM). mpv is decoding it because it can't be passed through, and it's downmixed to stereo because that's all that can fit in the optical cable. So no EAC3, DTS-HD or TrueHD. mpv can re-encode those to 5.1 AC3, which will work. 

Use the audio config I posted above, and unzip the attached zip file to: C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming

mpv.zip

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davesurfer, sooty234 answered before I could about the optical connection.

However I've been down this road before and can help you get 5.1 via windows most likely 90% success.

Try what sooty234 mentioned above first but if still not working, shoot me a PM and I'll remote in and help you with windows changes.

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davesurfer
30 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

It's because you're using optical. It only has enough bandwidth for core 5.1 compressed (AC3 or DTS) or stereo uncompressed (PCM). mpv is decoding it because it can't be passed through, and it's downmixed to stereo because that's all that can fit in the optical cable. So no EAC3, DTS-HD or TrueHD. mpv can re-encode those to 5.1 AC3, which will work. 

Use the audio config I posted above, and unzip the attached zip file to: C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming

mpv.zip 303 B · 0 downloads

Damn! That worked awesome thanks!!! This was sounding so familiar, I think you or someone most likely helped me do this in the past, and that's why before I formatted the PC, it was working. I'd just forgot that there was that conversion going on for the non-compatible codecs that my receiver couldn't handle! I definitely need to put this in my "install process" instructions for future reference! Thanks!!

So I do have a coax connection for digital audio input on my receiver, is this the same bandwidth as the optical? I think I need to think about getting a new receiver, my old Yamaha is showing it's age. Then I could just use HDMI for everything.

22 minutes ago, cayars said:

davesurfer, sooty234 answered before I could about the optical connection.

However I've been down this road before and can help you get 5.1 via windows most likely 90% success.

Try what sooty234 mentioned above first but if still not working, shoot me a PM and I'll remote in and help you with windows changes.

Thanks for the offer that's super nice! Looks like he got it going for me. This conversion thing is what I had before I formatted Windows, I'm sure of it.

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Awesome Dave.

I thought it would work but had you covered with a backup just in case.

Sooty234 is da man :)

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