Sage DVD Player vs. Zoom/TT Players

[Jesse]

Hi,

Finally got around to setting up sageMCE16x9 to work with DVD Profiler. Very nice, and it seems that the sage dvd player will work fine for me. I tried it on the monitor (no sound) so dont know about playback on my tv yet, but usually if it works in one place it will in the other.

I set DVD playback for VMR9 and the Default Direct Sound. I am using the nvidia decoder. Will the FSE setting also apply to DVD playback, or just sage recordings?

Jesse

[stanger89]

FSE will apply to DVD (if you've got DVD set to VMR9).

[Jesse]

Hi,

Thanks stanger. That is good news. Looks like its bye bye zoomplayer, DVDLobby and Mainlobby Server on my client. This will also allow me to run FSE since I will no longer have to worry about it breaking zoomplayer.

Sweet. Why did'nt I do this sooner?

Jesse

[Rogue9]

Well, I HAD DVD (disc & ripped) playback working in Sage. But now I've got subtitles that I can't get rid of. Sage says subtitles are OFF. I tried turning them ON in Sage to see if it would remove them, but instead it added ANOTHER set of subtitles! So I turned them off again in Sage, but still don't know how to get rid of these subs.

Any ideas?

[ben_95sl1]

Late to the party, but I exclusively use the sage dvd player as well: one all encompassing application was very important to me. Any problems I've had have either been codec/setting related - but I guess that is the issue when the codec is external and you have to get them to work together, and sage doesn't have the settings built-in like zoomplayer. I've also recently discovered how fabulous radlight filter manager is.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Rogue9

Well, I HAD DVD (disc & ripped) playback working in Sage. But now I've got subtitles that I can't get rid of. Sage says subtitles are OFF. I tried turning them ON in Sage to see if it would remove them, but instead it added ANOTHER set of subtitles! So I turned them off again in Sage, but still don't know how to get rid of these subs.

Any ideas?

Can you post your DVD settings from Detailed Setup?

[Ken C]

When using SageTV to play DVD's, has anyone been able to set the audio up for Dolby Digital output to an external surround sound receiver and analog stereo output to the TV ? If so, how are you doing it ? Using Sage, I can get analog stereo but the surround sound receiver defaults to Dolby Pro Logic. I would like to use Sage but can't figure out how to have both outputs.

Ken C

[Jesse]

Hi Ken,

I dont think you are going to be able to do that seamlessly.

Are you saying that you sometimes want stereo from the pc to the tv and sometimes want digital (optical or spdif) from the pc to your receiver? If this is the case may I ask why?

In my family room I use digital out to my receiver. The receiver will detect what sort of signal is being sent. If it is a sage recording it will, of course, be in stereo only. If it is a dvd with DD 5.1 then the receiver senses that and outputs in DD 5.1.

In the bedroom we only have the tv for sound, so that means stereo only.

The other area that can be an issue with ripped dvd's is which audio tracks have been retained in the rip, and what your decoder (audio portion) will tolerate. I only retain the DD 5.1 audio in my dvds. For some reason the nvidia decoder did not like trying to downmix the DD 5.1 audio on my ripped dvd's to 2 channel stereo. The AC3 decoder did it no problem.

In any case, to do both at the same time would require that sage somehow use two audio renderers simultaneously. I dont think that can be done, but you may be able to get the same effect by having a rather advanced sound card "distribute" that single audio output to both an analog and digital output (eg M-Audio Delta 410 sound card). I am not even sure that in the end you would have both a DD 5.1 signal and a stereo signal. It may just downmix the DD signal to stereo during all the processing.

You could just go into detailed setup and change the audio renderer when you need to, but like I said, not exactly seamless.

HTH

Jesse

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Jesse

For some reason the nvidia decoder did not like trying to downmix the DD 5.1 audio on my ripped dvd's to 2 channel stereo.

That's because the nVidia decoder won't decode AC3 outside a Dolby Certified app (WMP, MCE, nStantMedia).

[Jesse]

Ahhhh. Since I just use spdif passthrough in my family room the nvidia decoder is not actually doing any of the work, it's my receiver that is actually doing the "decoding." Makes sense now.

Jesse

[Ken C]

Right now, Sage sends analog stereo to the TV speakers and some sort of digital signal to the Denon surround sound receiver via spdif. WinDVD also sends analog stereo to the TV speakers and a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal to the Denon. There isn't any audio decoding, at least on the digital side, is there ? The digital signal is a pass-through, right ?

Ken C

[Rogue9]

Can you post your DVD settings from Detailed Setup?

Well, I'm at work now, so I'm going from memory.

But I'm pretty sure everything is set to default, with the exception of VMR9 and NVidia Video Decoder.

I'll check again when I get home.

[Jesse]

Hello Ken,

It is my understanding that a digital out is just going to be pass-through, leaving your receiver as the actual "decoder." If your software was doing the decoding you would need 6 (ie 5.1) discrete analog outputs from the pc.

What is your configuration? How have you managed to have both an analog and digital out at the same time?


Jesse

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hello Ken,

It is my understanding that a digital out is just going to be pass-through, leaving your receiver as the actual "decoder." If your software was doing the decoding you would need 6 (ie 5.1) discrete analog outputs from the pc.

What is your configuration? How have you managed to have both an analog and digital out at the same time?


Jesse

That's how I understand it as well. For some reason, Sage (or something) disables the DD 5.1 signal. There is a digital signal being sent, it's just not DD. The receiver defaults to Dolby Pro Logic, not good.

The DVD Audio Renderer choices are;
Default
Realtec AC97
Default DirectSound
Default Wave Out
DirectSound:Realtec AC97

Currently set to Default Directsound

The DVD Audio Decoders;
Default
AC3 Filter
Intervideo MPEG Audio
Nvidia Audio
SageTV MPEG Audio

Currently set to Nvidia

I have tried a bunch of combinations.

There is a utility on the task bar, installed with the mb audio drivers, that allows selection of both spdif and analog outputs. I have played with it and it seems to work, certainly with WinDVD.

Ken C

[stanger89]

You have to set the audio decoder to Digital, or S/PDIF Passthrough, if you want 5.1 to your reciever over S/PDIF.

[Jesse]

Hi Ken,

There is a utility on the task bar, installed with the mb audio drivers, that allows selection of both spdif and analog outputs. I have played with it and it seems to work, certainly with WinDVD.

That is what I was wondering about.

First, I have read that anything other than "Default DirectSound" for the DVD audio renderer can cause problems.

As a test I would set-up your spdif as the Windows default sound device and stop the mobo from putting out any other audio. Set the renderer as Default Direct Sound, select the nvidia decoder and set the audio portion of the decoder for spdif pass through to a receiver. This works great with my receiver. I get stereo for sage recordings and DD 5.1 for DVD's. If it works go back to both analog and digital output in your mobo utility and see if anything changes (ie, you loose DD 5.1 to the receiver in DVD playback)

Let us know how it goes.

HTH.

EDIT: Looks kinda like stanger beat me to it.....
Jesse

[Ken C]

Stanger, Jesse,

Thanks, guys, I'll try it and let you know what happens. Might take a day or so, visitors from California just stopped by.

Ken C

[Ken C]

Ok,tried the suggested settings to no avail. One strange thing ... When playing a DVD the nVidia icon shows up in the task bar. Right click brings up Decoder Properties and About. Click on About and up pops the nVidia info, click on Decoder Properties, nothing. So I can't check the nVidia settings.

I'm putting this in the same category as FSE, just won't work on this machine. WinDVD does what I want, it just would have been easier to use the Sage player.

Thanks,

Ken C

[stanger89]

Go into WMP Tools->Options->DVD->Advanced, will bring up the decoder properties for the system default (preferred) DVD audio decoder. It should be nVidia if you installed it last (Deccheck can tell you what preferred is).

I also posted the registry settings for nVidia and S/PDIF output in another thread.

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Go into WMP Tools->Options->DVD->Advanced, will bring up the decoder properties for the system default (preferred) DVD audio decoder. It should be nVidia if you installed it last (Deccheck can tell you what preferred is).

I also posted the registry settings for nVidia and S/PDIF output in another thread.

Stanger,

WMP Tools ? Does this refer to Windows Media Player ? It is not installed. I'll go ahead and install, see what happens, and post the results.

Ken C