Dolby Digital Plus

[fbures]

Simple question:

Can SageTV play a video file with Dolby Digital Plus? If so, how?

So far I had to play these files with VLC or transcode the sound to plain Dolby Digital.

Thanks
Frank

[UgaData]

Yes, Sage can play DD+ files.

What CODEC/Filters re you using? I use LAV Filters (audio and video).

I also explicitly set Sage to use the LAV filters.

[fbures]

Originally Posted by UgaData

Yes, Sage can play DD+ files.

What CODEC/Filters re you using? I use LAV Filters (audio and video).

I also explicitly set Sage to use the LAV filters.

I use LAV filters as well and have the same settings.

The problem is that when I play a DD+ video, I do not hear the sound coming from the center. I only hear the other channels. So I hear the music and sound effects, but no dialogs, or, in the best scenario, the dialogs are muted to the point of incomprehensibility.

Did you have to set up the LAV filters in any specific way for DD+? If so, how?

Thanks
Frank

[trk2]

I have some old HD-DVD rips that use DD+ and I just confirmed they play correctly through a 5.1 system. My lav configuration is pretty much stock, I do have "convert output to standard channel layouts" checked, but I think that is a default setting. Are you bitstreaming to a receiver? Or using analog outs?

[fbures]

Originally Posted by trk2

I have some old HD-DVD rips that use DD+ and I just confirmed they play correctly through a 5.1 system. My lav configuration is pretty much stock, I do have "convert output to standard channel layouts" checked, but I think that is a default setting. Are you bitstreaming to a receiver? Or using analog outs?

Sound connection from my PC to my DENON receiver is via a fiber from the S/PDIF output of the PC. I do not use the sound part of my NVIDIA video card. STV is configured to use the PC's sound chip.

I tried various settings of LAV but to no avail. The center channel is still missing when playing DD+ video with STV.

The files I play are downloaded mkv files that originated as web-rips.

I am about to give up.

Thanks for your help anyway.
Frank

[trk2]

OK, I think I know what's going on. DD+ can not be bitstreamed over toslink. Lav is converting DD+ to 2 channel PCM so that you get some sound. VLC is re-encoding so you don't lose the channel. Try the following in LAV Audio Configuration:

1. Make sure Dolby Digital Plus is not checked under Bitstreaming
2. "Fallback to PCM is Bitstreaming is not supported" should be checked

You can test if that fixed that issue, if not try this in LAV Audio Configuration:

1. Go to the "Mixing" tab and check "Enable Mixing"
2. Select the appropriate output speaker configuration
3. Under "Matrix Endoding" you'll have to experiment which setting works the best since it depends on your receiver's supported features.

Hopefully that fixes it. Good luck.

[fbures]

Unfortunately, I tried all the suggestions to no avail.

However, I noticed that in the Win 10 sound settings under Realtek Digital Output (optical) Properties and Supported Formats there are only two: DTS Audio and Dolby Digital.

Perhaps nonexistence of DD+ is the problem?

Thanks
Frank

[trk2]

Yes, that is part of the problem but it's not a driver or realtek problem, optical itself is incapable of transmitting DD+. Essentially you need to find a way of decoding DD+ and re-encode in a supported format (DD or DTS) or you need to change how you are connected to your receiver (or give up on DD+). The best would be to change to HDMI or analog 5/7 channel if your PC and receiver support it. That would allow LAV to bitstream (HDMI) the audio as is or convert everything to analog.

If you're stuck with optical than AC3 filter might be able to re-encode DD+ to DD. Depending on the age of your Sage install AC3 filter may already be present. You may have to change some properties since I think it was deprecated in later releases. Hopefully someone who still uses ac3 filter can give better details.

[fbures]

Well, I reached the same conclusion.

The reason I am using the S/PDIF connection is historical. I used to have an ONKYO receiver in the pre-HDMI era.

When I replaced it with DENON I ran into the problem that DENON does not have any sound outputs except HDMI and one front panel headphones jack. I have two sets of wireless headphones (Sony and Sennheiser) and I needed the sound signal for those. To pull the signal from the front panel headphone jack would in order of magnitude exceed the maximum value of WAF. So I stayed with the optical connection that is branched into the receiver and the SONY headphones and then converted to RCA for the Sennheiser.

What's more I am not even absolutely sure how the sound is wired as I did not take any notes and the DENON installation is at least 4 years old.

However, I will try to reconfigure the STV and the DENON for HDMI sound from my NVIDIA 1050 card (the cable is already in place for video) when I have time and report back.

Thanks for your interest in this matter. It was appreciated.

Cheers
Frank

[fbures]

OK.

I got it working.

After the switch to HDMI sound I could not set up Windows for more than 5.1 sound. There was no higher option.

I had to download Dolby app from MS Store, reboot and I got the 7.1 option available.

Now I can play any sound of any video in my library.

I did not test the availability of the headphones, but that can wait for another day

Cheers
Frank