Help with Audio Renderer

[alfi33]

I am having trouble playing MP3s if I select anything other than "Default WaveOut Device" for Audio Renderer.

The MP3s will play but the sound quality is terrible. It's sort of clippy. If I change to WaveOut, it plays perfectly.

I am using AC3Filter and I am passing the audio to my receiver via S/PDIF.

I don't think that it's always been this way but it has for a good while now. The main reason I now don't want to use WaveOut is because I'm not able to get AC3 5.1 from my imported videos using this setting

This post by Shield seems very similar to my issue but his fix didn't make any difference for me:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...37&postcount=1

Any ideas on how to be able to use DirectSound would be very much appreciated!

[alfi33]

No one?

I've noticed that I don't have this issue when playing WMA files in Sage. They sound just like they should when I select "DirectSound Device" (or anything else) for Audio Renderer. It's only MP3s that sound bad.

I've also noticed that I don't get the AC3Filter icon in the systray when I play MP3s (or WMAs) like I do when I play just about anything else. Should I?

[babgvant]

ac3filter shouldn't join the graph unless you have PCM enabled (and you probably don't want it setup that way) in the settings.

the sage log will list the filters in the playback graph; take a look to make sure only the correct ones are listed.

[alfi33]

I checked the Sage log for the list of filters in the playback graph when I play an MP3 file.

This is what it looks like when I have "DirectSound" selected for Audio Renderer (which results in POOR quality playback):

DShowGraphFilters=Default DirectSound Device,InterVideo Audio Decoder,
MPEG-1 Stream Splitter

This is what it looks like when I have "WaveOut" selected for Audio Renderer (which results in GOOD quality playback):

DShowGraphFilters=AudRend,MPEG-1 Stream Splitter

So AC3Filter does not seem to be involved in either scenario. Can I rule it out as a possible cause?

How is InterVideo Audio Decoder getting in there when I use "DirectSound"? Could that be my problem? If so, how do I remove it?

[babgvant]

try putting - videoframe/mp3_audio_decoder_filter=MP3 Decoder DMO - in the client properties file.

if that doesn't work dl graphstudio and lower the merit of the InterVideo Audio Decoder to unlikely.

[alfi33]

Thank you, thank you!
Lowering the merit did the trick and now MP3s play perfectly!

This one has been bothering me for a while. Thanks for helping me get it sorted out.

[babgvant]

np, glad you got it sorted.