DD/DTS 5.1 Audio playback on mp4/m4v not using AC3Filter/SPDIF (outputs as PCM)?

[Shaw]

I have been wrestling with a problem for a few weeks now since I finally upgraded my SageTV to 6.6.2 (last version my license covers, I cant go to 7 now it seems).

Background First:
For the longest while, I had been using VLC to play all my m4v/mp4 DVD Rips I made with Handbrake, because my prior version of SageTV would not play them at all. VLC ran them all just fine, audio sent to my receiver over SPDIF was DD or DTS (or PCM if the original DVD was old and simple). I am running the current latest VLC version.

Then recently I finally updated SageTV to 6.6.2, which surprisingly now plays all these H.264 m4v/mp4s I have. It plays them, but they ALL output as PCM to my receiver.

OTAHD Recordings from Live TV on SageTV -DO- playback as Dolby Digital just fine. Those work! Its all these other video files I have that don't.

Now, I have read over a few threads:
Audio playing in PCM mode not Dolby DIgital
AC3 Filter and digital audio problem
5.1 audio with an MP4 file?

I tried all the steps in post #10 on the first thread, which dealt with setting up AC3Filter to use SPDIF passthrough and to not pass MPEG Audio. That seemed to have zero effect on the situation.

I turned on to "Show System Tray", and that tray icon only pops up when I am playing back OTAHD Recordings in SageTV. It does not show up when playing anything else in SageTV (m4v,mp4,avi,mkv). So that leads me to believe that somehow, for all other video types except the ones SageTV originally records itself, are NOT using AC3Filter.

Really don't know what to do at this point. I'm open to any suggestions, fiddlings, setup adjustments. I've been poking at so many things over the days, I just don't know what I'm doing now.

Hardware:
Nvidia GPU card (Platinum nvidia codecs)
AverMedia recorder card (OTA HD)
Onboard RealTek HD Audio (setup in SPDIF mode)
MSI Board, AMD Chip, Lots of ram, HD's, DVD drive, etc

I'm fairly up to date on drivers. They really haven't changed in quite a few years it seems. Got the latest SageTV 6, and VLC.

Help? Please?

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by Shaw

I have been wrestling with a problem for a few weeks now since I finally upgraded my SageTV to 6.6.2 (last version my license covers, I cant go to 7 now it seems).

Have you seen this thread?

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56225

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Shaw

I have been wrestling with a problem for a few weeks now since I finally upgraded my SageTV to 6.6.2 (last version my license covers, I cant go to 7 now it seems).

Yes you can see here. Sorry don't have a suggestion to fix your playback problem.

[Shaw]

Oh. Didn't see that. I kind of thought everything locked due to the google thing.

Does SageTV 7 have some more settings/control over the audio output methods when playing back mp4, m4v, h.264 for digital surround audio? It took me this long to get to 6.6.2 hahaha! I guess I will ISO up my system drive and try this 7 for a spin.

Thanks for the link guys.