Audio Problems

[njohnf]

Hello,

First time post. Bought a WinTV 250 today and installed the trial version of SageTV 2.0. Everything worked great for the first hour. While I was saving the network logos to my drive, I shut down Sage and restarted it to refresh the logos. From that point forward I have had horrible audio (ie. Loud tones, broken up audio). I have played around with the "Audio Renderer" and "MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter" settings to no avail. I either get no sound or horrible sound when modifying these choices. My specs are below.

I have also tried upgrading the PVR 250 drivers to the latest and reinstalling SageTV. But I receive the same results.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Audio works fine when I play MP3s through the Sage interface.

Any help would be appreciated.

Sage TV running on WinTV PVR 250
Output to: Computer Monitor
CPU: Pentium 4 2.4b
Ram: 1 GB
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2
Video Card: GeForce FX5900

Thanks,
John

[carlgar]

Have you rebooted since installing SageTV? Not sure if it helps, but I have a theory. I had stange problems including audio on one my SageTV 2.0 test. The system froze forcing a reboot and all problems seem to gone.

[njohnf]

Thanks for the quick reply. Have rebooted multiple times with the same results.

[njohnf]

Stumbled upon the answer. One of the last selections.

Audio Renderer: Default Waveout Device
MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter: Default

I now have clear audio again.

Thanks

[kny3twalker]

you can find out what your default audio decoder is by checking in medai player under DVD then advanced
then you can change it in sage to that decoder as well and you can tweak the audio
by default I hear nothing out of my rear speakers until I tweak then get 5.1 stereo for TV and 5.1 DD for DVD

[njohnf]

Ok. My modification only worked until the next time I started Sage. I have no idea how to make this work consistently.

Can anyone please help me. I'm at a huge loss.

My choices under Audio/Audio Renderer:

Default
SB Audigy 2 Audio [9400]
Default DirectSound Device
Default WaveOut Device
DirectSound: SB Audigy 2 Audio [9400]

My choices under Audio/MPEG2 Audio Decoder:

Default
MPEG Audio Decoder
Intervideo NonCSS Audio Decoder for Hauppauge

I believe I have tried every combination a few times tonight. All of them producing ranges from no sound to crackling to ear piercing tones. I have gotten clear audio 3 times and all three times it has gone to silence the next time I loaded SageTV.

kny3twalker : My default audio decoder under Windows Media Player is itiaudio (Intervideo)

Someone please help this Sage Newbie.

[kny3twalker]

ok what kind of speakers are you using?
desktop (2,4,4.1,5.1,6.1,7.1)?
home stereo speakers with a reciever?
do you not have any other DVD programs maybe like something bundled with hardware?
you can adjust the intervideo one though through radlight filter manager but you only have the options of mono, stereo I believe maybe surround too but not sure
you may also want to look at your creative card and adjust some of the settings in it
I found with mine not to mess with too much
I opened the creative player and turned on CMSS
I turned down the center channel a little in the mixer
I muted everything but mp3/wave
I turned on the DSP living room and modified it by turning off all the sound effects
but had problems when adjusting the trebal and bass levels similiar to what you are saying
I just used the speaker controls that stand alone (with speakers) to adjust that stuff
turn up sub etc.....
I would find or buy another decoder
some cheap ones are sold as deecoder packs for MCE but are only around 15 to 20 dollars
you can get NVDVD from newegg for 7 but it has issues with its audio decoder and crashing
look at sonic the decoder is the most stable for audio and video and quality
powerDVD is flacky, WinDVD is not the greatest quality, NVDVD has issues with audio crashing, sonic is very stable
you can do stereo, suround, and enable and disable spdif with sonic's 15 dollar decoder but no 5.1 analog or anything
try using direct sound default or sound blaster direct sound with the intervideo one
spdif is good to use with default wave out

[njohnf]

Thank you for the reply. Answers are below.

ok what kind of speakers are you using?
Logitech Z-640

desktop (2,4,4.1,5.1,6.1,7.1)?
Computer Desktop Speakers 5.1

home stereo speakers with a reciever?
No Receiver. Just testing on my Home PC.

do you not have any other DVD programs maybe like something bundled with hardware?
I don't believe I have any other DVD playback software. What software would you recommend? Why do I need this?

I opened the creative player and turned on CMSS
Already On

I muted everything but mp3/wave
How do I do this?

I would find or buy another decoder
some cheap ones are sold as deecoder packs for MCE but are only around 15 to 20 dollars
you can get NVDVD from newegg for 7 but it has issues with its audio decoder and crashing
look at sonic the decoder is the most stable for audio and video and quality
powerDVD is flacky, WinDVD is not the greatest quality, NVDVD has issues with audio crashing, sonic is very stable
you can do stereo, suround, and enable and disable spdif with sonic's 15 dollar decoder but no 5.1 analog or anything
try using direct sound default or sound blaster direct sound with the intervideo one
I am using Analog 5.1. Doesn't look like Sonic would help since I'm using 5.1 Analog.
I tried both of the suggested configs and get either silence or a morse code sound.

[stanger89]

As a sanity check, have you verified that you don't just have a corrupt recording?

[kny3twalker]

ok to mute everything but wave/mo3 and master volume
jst open surround mixer and mute evrything by checking the boxes except master volume control and wave/mp3
or you can do it from your task bar volume icon just double click it

ok I found to get good sound you need to do either spdif with wave out rendering or do analog 5.1 with direct sound rendering
to do spdif or 5.1 analog you need to set it up in the decoder
the decoders are just DVD programs that you install and use the decoder pert without the stupid player they include and use the sage UI

the best again is sonic DVD for stability reasons
to do 5.1 analog with sonic you will have to buy their cineplayer surround player full version but you can do any upgrade if you have an old version laying around

just to let you know you will never be able to play back DVDs with your current decoders
the intervideo decoder non css from hauppauge will not decoder retail DVDs
so you will need a DVD program to watch DVDs in sage
you can do spdif out though with the sonic decoder for MCE (windows media center) but I found the voice to be muffled whenanalog cable but fine from digital satellite/digital cable

and you are not using analog 5.1 decoding just because you have analog 5.1 speakers
that is what I am referring to

I bought powerDVD cause I could get the upgrade from cheap and get 5.1 analog but the decoder was flacky
the video decoder could not do VMR9 but overlay looks good
and the audio decoder does not behave well with NVDVD video decoder
I am using the cyberlink render which helps but the audio decoder does play well with the sonic video decoder
I have the DVD decoder pack for MCE

here is what I have done
for both DVD and TV sonic video decoder with overlay rendering
I tried to get NVDVD to stop stuttering with VMR9 which would be preferrable even when using another audio decoder but no go
I am using cyberlink audio decoder with cyberlink render for both DVD and TV as well
I found the cyberlink/ powerDVD decoder for video was good but sonic has just an egde up and nvDVD video decoder was just not smooth enough in playback
even with overlay but looked about the same as sonic in overlay rendering

remember these last few statements are my opinion and differ from others

now to get either spdif or 5.1 analog output I have to adjust the audio decoder itself
there are two ways
if the DVD program is the lat one you installed you can open windows media player and adjust it by going options DVD then advanced and the audio decoder will pop
the other is using radlight filter manager you open it find the direct show section then just find the decoder
it is listed as the same as in sage
like sonic audio decoder not cineplayer audio

and then you just setup the audio decoder for 5.1 if you got the full version or spdif it you bought a DVD decoder pack
it is real easy to adjust
most of the time the interface looks the same as when you adjust it in the standalone player ex. cineplayer

also you will get better quality with other decoders
just stay away from winDVD, it uses the same decoder as intervideo hauppauge non css and the picture quality is not that good in comparsion to others especailly with VMR9 rendering very blurrly and the decoder is much harder to adjust like registry editing and adding keys and such but it is stable
stability is the only thing going for winDVD
but hard to set the decoders for third party applications like sageTV
I hope you can understand all this and if you need radlight I will post but it is posted several times already

furthermore as I understand it if you get the full version of cineplayer surround you can just adjust the audio decoder from the contorl panel
with the MCE DVD decoder pack though you will need to use radlight to set up spdif
there will be a control application but you will onyl be able to choose stereo or surround
to enable the spdif output you will need radlight

but there is also one registry edit you will have to do
if you tell me which DVD program / DVD decoder pack you buy I will post the edit and you can just execute it
but it is enableAC3spdif output
you change it from 0 which is off to 1 which is on

I hope all this helps

http://www.cineplayer.com/default.asp

http://www.cineplayer.com/decoder/default.htm?from=

do not waste money on the mp3 crap

http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/p....jsp?ProdId=28

remember flacky sometimes

http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/p...nxp_plugin.asp

this one will probably do VMR 9 cause the ATI oem one does it but again no 5.1 analog audio decoding

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...164-001&depa=6

it is oem and the audio decoder causes crahing but the video will VMR9 is top notch and I will be happy to get you the update to version 3 if you go this way

not going to suggest intervideo again
(and they are the most expensive)
also one more thing if you do find an old CD with a decoder on it (they are oem so no 5.1 analog decoding other than in the player included not in sage) but also you can use it to buy the upgrade software for cheaper pricing
but buy the correct one or it may not work if you tell them you are upgrading from the wrong version

any questions

[kny3twalker]

the ones you find would be bundled with like hardware you bought
I got my version of powerDVD which I used to upgrade from a DVD rom I bought
they are included with video cards (ATI cyberlink decoder) or (NVDVD from nvidia)
motherboards, etc...
but do make sure your recording is ok play it in media player

LOL, sorry stanger89 did not think about that
just setup my stuff this weekend and got sound perfect last night

also check and make sure all your cords are connected tightly and try unplugging and replugging the either coxial cable or audio RCA input cable/cables

[njohnf]

Originally posted by stanger89
As a sanity check, have you verified that you don't just have a corrupt recording?

This is for all recordings and Live TV.

[njohnf]

Ok. Still no success. Here are the highlights since last time.

Installations
1) Installed PowerDVD which gave me Cyberlink audio choices.

2) Installed Sonic Cineplayer Decoder Pack which gave me "Sonic Cinemaster @ DS Audio Decoder" selection in the filter option.

Observed Results
1) Same problems exist with audio when watching Live TV or recorded shows no matter what combination of Filter and Renderer is used.

2) DVDs play sound perfect through the Sage interface. Full 5.1 sound. Also play good through WMP and PowerDVD.

-----------------------------------------------------

Questions
1) Has anyone seen my scenario where someone can't get audio or clear audio for Live TV/Recordings but can get perfect sound through DVDs?

2) Which Sage settings do Live TV / Recorded video pull from? (Audio Filter & Renderer or DVD Audio & Renderer)

3) I am a technical person (Programmer) but feel so lost when it comes to this. There have been alot of suggestions in this topic. Please let me know if I have missed anything based off what I have said.

Again, Thanks for all the help!!! Love the Sage product, just wish I could get audio.

[kny3twalker]

ok sounds like something may just be wrong with sage
you may want to uninstall and reinstall make sure java is up-to-date and there are no old versions installed

try adding a recording to your import list something that is not a sage recording or DVD and see if it does the same thing?

if goes ok try adding a sage recording to the achieved recordings and see how it does

do you have any codec packs installed non DVD players or OEM decoders?
did you mute everything else in the volume task bar icon?

You may just want to reinstall though before all this trouble shotting to see if that fixes the problem

[stanger89]

I would try re-installing the drivers and/or the TV card. It sounds to me like you're recording the bad audio. Especially since other audio works (DVDs etc). Can you go back to the recording that worked earlier? Does it still work?

I'd go through the whole hwclear/erase all traces of hauppauge SW. Maybe even pull the card, try a different slot.

[njohnf]

Stranger and kny,

Ok. I will remove all software and reinstall the card in a different port. Will let you know how everything goes.

Thanks again,
John

[kny3twalker]

wait I thought you said the shows played fine in media player?
Why uninstall the card if that is the case
it just a sage problem then and only with playback if it is recording ok

[njohnf]

The shows have the same results in all players (Sage, WMP). The only thing that works are DVDs.

Well I performed the following:

1) Uninstalled SageTV, PowerDVD, Cineplayer Decoder Pack, Hauppauge Programs, Java RunTime. Deleted all directories associated with these programs.

2) Shut Down machine

3) Removed WinTV 250 card

4) Rebooted

5) Installed Java Run Time 1.4.2_04

6) Shutdown machine and installed WinTV 250 card into different slot.

7) Booted machine

8) Installed card drivers from Hauppauge CD (Version 1.17.390.22029)

9) Installed MPEG SW Decoders and IR Remote Control Application from Hauppauge CD.

10) Rebooted

11) Installed SageTV

12) Rebooted

13) Checked SageTV and no or distorted sound.

14) Installed Cineplayer Decoder Pack.

15) Rebooted

16) Checked SageTV and still no or distorted sound.

Where to next?

[stanger89]

What does the WinTV software do?

[kny3twalker]

try using the software that came with the card winTV2000
also you need to install the driver update to get the remote to work
and you will need to install the driver update to get winTV 2000 to work
I am not referring to updating the driver there is an actual .exe update you install after the system drivers

what input are you using?

is the cineplayer decoder pack registered?

do you have some setting on the audigy card turned on that may cause this

Mine is oem (audigy card) so I do not know what all the features are of the retail also yours is an audigy 2

but I thinking thats the problem
or your input to the card or the card itself

if you are using RCA for audio
can you try different cables?


RCA, svideo, or coxial cable jack?

are you sure you are install the drivers correctly ?
what are they listed like in the device manager and where did you buy the card?
where did you get the drivers, from the CD that came with the card?

also can you open system tools and check the system info and tell me if your card is sharing with the audigy or any other device

if so please post your IRQs and sharing of them