No sound in windows 7

[kamikaze2112]

welp, tried a different sound card, i had a soundblaster live 24bit with a digital I/O breakout cable that i used to use back in the XP days, and it wasn't any better. in fact, it was worse. couldn't get any system sounds to work at all.

anyway, I've had enough dicking around with this. I think I'm going back to XP for a while. it's too bad, cause this setup has never been so stable, aside from the audio issue. Win 7 seemed to fix all my little gremlins.

[Fuzzy]

I've had GREAT success in win7, using AC3Filter for the decoding, channels set to As Is, output set to PCM Float (SPDIF off), then rendered to ReClock, which encodes to AC3 if > 2 channels, and outputs to the sound card in WASAPI mode (New direct access mode in Vista/Win7). There is a slight stutter in the sound as everything syncs up about a second after playback starts, then it is flawless.

[JonTom]

Originally Posted by kamikaze2112

maybe it's too cold up here for sage, eh LOL

If i could pick your brain a bit, I'm assuming you're using SPDIF output to a receiver? Are you having problems with all audio, or just some formats? I find that anything that uses MPlayer for output seems to work fine, but everything else is fubar. What sound card are you using? I'm using the built in sound on my gigabyte mobo, which is a Realtek card. I wonder if using a different sound card might make a difference

I use spdif on my main htpc (on a gigabyte/realtek mobo) without any problem, but this problem exists on my office client, where i'm just using analog stereo output (gigabyte/realtek). all sound formats are affected, but only in sage.

[Ender]

With my setup, when I went to Windows 7, I had an issue with the no sound problem after a reboot. But, after I went into the setup, and set the audio renderer on default, instead of selecting Realtek digital output all was fine.

I have not had an issue with it since.

[jryan15]

I ran into the same problem using windows 7 and the latest version of sage. I tried all kinds of things until installing a full version of ac3 player as recommended above which resolved the issue so far.

[Savage1701]

I have not tried ReClock, but the odd thing with my setup is that I have a Sage client on 2 almost identical Asus boards running Win 7 64. One works fine on the audio from any source. The other, problematic one (which of course is the one I need to work) barely gives me any audio on H.264 recordings and none on OTA ATSC stuff. Since both clients are side by side, I put them both on the same settings. Both CPU's give me great slider control of multiple audio sources to speakers out in both cases (no HDMI or SPDIF as I use only stereo speakers) from a IE or FireFox audio stream, etc. Just not Sage and only on one system.

Any ideas? ReClock? A "full" AC3 filter? What is that? A full delete and reinstall of Sage Client? (My UAC nanny is set to minimum).

Oddly, or perhaps not, at several points even the problematice Win 7 system had no Sage audio problems.

It's kinda scary when an OS actually makes you sort of pine for Vista...like having XP and wishing you could just go back to Windows ME...

[Fuzzy]

If you're on win7, and just using stereo speakers, I'd just use the Microsoft decoders. they do a pretty good job of mixing everything down to whatever speaker config you have setup in the sound control panel.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

If you're on win7, and just using stereo speakers, I'd just use the Microsoft decoders. they do a pretty good job of mixing everything down to whatever speaker config you have setup in the sound control panel.

How do I access those? They don't show up as a choice for me.

[shaunb]

Seems that Win7 has changed the DirectSound interface somehow. The net effect is that Sage 'loses' the state of the system sound level.

So changing the sound level in the system does not alter the Sage sound level.

This worked for me when using nornal 2 channel output from Sage.

1. Sound 'Level' in Sage.

The Sage sound level bar shows 0 (Changing the system level does not change it)

Use the mouse or keyboard to move this to 100% - in sage - you may still not have any sound.

2. Change the AC3 filter to 'WaveOut' - NOT DirectSound
A. Exit Sage
B. Run c:\program files\sagetv\tagetv\ac3config.exe
C. Change to system Tab and select Default Audio Render - 'Use wave out by default'.
D. Click OK
E. Restart Sage - hopefully the sound now works.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by shaunb

Seems that Win7 has changed the DirectSound interface somehow. The net effect is that Sage 'loses' the state of the system sound level.

So changing the sound level in the system does not alter the Sage sound level.

This worked for me when using nornal 2 channel output from Sage.

1. Sound 'Level' in Sage.

The Sage sound level bar shows 0 (Changing the system level does not change it)

Use the mouse or keyboard to move this to 100% - in sage - you may still not have any sound.

2. Change the AC3 filter to 'WaveOut' - NOT DirectSound
A. Exit Sage
B. Run c:\program files\sagetv\tagetv\ac3config.exe
C. Change to system Tab and select Default Audio Render - 'Use wave out by default'.
D. Click OK
E. Restart Sage - hopefully the sound now works.

Thank you - I will try that tonight and hopefully it does the trick. I appreciate your time.

[GMan78]

I have spent dozens of hours since early December getting my SageTV customized to my liking including the use of a R-5000 HD STB. About a week ago out of the blue my 2 channel stereo sound stopped working. I noticed that if I did a system restore the audio would come back for a day but then disappear yet again without correlation to any configuration or system change.

I have installed the AC3 filter as proposed above and configured the output to default. I primarily run audio through my ATI HDMI HD audio output but I am also unable to get audio from my realtek speakers. All other sounds play fine outside of SageTV...in fact, if I playback my H.264 HD R-5000 files through Windows Media Player they look and sound great....but as soon as I use SageTV for playback I get no audio.

Final obvservation, the SageTV mixer slider seems to go to 0 Level everytime I make a change to the decoder, even so, when I push the slider back up to 100 I see the green db level dancing happily but no sound from the system. Please help!

THANK YOU!

[Fuzzy]

Can you post a screenshot of the main AC3Filter screen when this is happening? Would help us to determine WHY the bars are jumping (meaning it is decoding and outputing), but not actually doing anything.

[GMan78]

Hey Fuzzy, thanks for the note. To be clear...my comment about the db level dancing around was in the Windows Mixer...not AC3. I have attached a screen shot for you to review where you will note that nothing is happening in AC3 in spite of the fact that it is the selected deocder in SageTV. Also note that the "SageTV" volume slider does show activity but that "Speakers" show none. THANKS!

[Savage1701]

shaunb - perfect - sound is back. Thank you for your time.

[GMan78]

OK, my bad. My previous posting showed no activity on the AC3Filter screen because I launched it from the start menu rather than from the systray. Anyhow, please see the attached which now shows healthy activity on AC3 as well as the Windows Mixer control, but alas no sound from the speakers.

HELP! My WAF is starting to tank as we have not had TV for a week due to this.

I really don't understand what changed since SageTV go live. I went about 6 weeks with no audio issues whatsoever...now this???? THANK YOU!

[Fuzzy]

Seems to me there might be a filter AFTER AC3Filter in the chain. Scroll further down in the AC3Filter 'Decoder Info' window to the Filters Info section, and see if anything is listed after AC3Filter.

The only thing after AC3Filter should be the renderer for your chosen sound card output.

[GMan78]

Thanks Fuzzy, I have copied and pasted the entirety of data found in the Decoder Info box for your review. I am a little confused as I do not see AC3Filter listed at all??? Thoughts/Ideas?

**********************************************************
Input format: MPEG Audio - 48000
User format: PCM16 2/0 (stereo) 0
Output format: PCM16 2/0 (stereo) 48000

Decoding chain:
(MPEG Audio - 48000) -> Decoder -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Processor -> (PCM16 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Dejitter -> (PCM16 2/0 (stereo) 48000)

Filters info (in order of processing):

Decoder:
Stream format: MPEG Audio 2/0 (stereo) 48000Hz
Bitstream type: byte stream
Frame size: 1152
Samples: 1152
Bitrate: 384kbps
SPDIF stream type: 0x5
Frame interval: 1152
Actual bitrate: 384kbps
MPEG Audio
speakers: 2/0 (stereo)
ver: MPEG1
frame size: 1152 bytes
stream: 8 bit
bitrate: 384kbps
sample rate: 48000Hz
bandwidth: 20kHz/20kHz

Processor:
(Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Input levels -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Input cache -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> SRC -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Mixer -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Bass redirection -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Equalizer -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Dither -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> AGC -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Delay -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Output cache -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Output levels -> (Linear PCM 2/0 (stereo) 48000) -> Linear->PCM converter -> (PCM16 2/0 (stereo) 48000)

Dejitter:
-

[Fuzzy]

hmmm... what is the 'Audio Renderer' setting in SageTV set to?

[GMan78]

Default....thanks.

[Fuzzy]

They specifically choosing your realtek high Definition Audio as the renderer.