[Windows] AudioEngine testers - Windows platform only

@jayhawk785 - please do grab a log and post it here. If you're using Aoen Nox and have the same pvr-spam bug it will certainly affect the higher bitrate files like DTS-MA/TrueHD. They stream at very high rates, so a thread tying up CPU cycles will interrupt the flow and cause that issue. Your setup has more than enough horsepower to do the job but an errent thread being tied up will bring any processor to it's knees, especially with time-critical stuff like high-def playback.

I also do not recommend Sync to Display as mentioned - it's almost forcing errors in audio or video output.

Nice selection of amps BTW - big Denon fan here as my sig shows

@liquidskin - how confident are you that 24p (23.976hz) material is better synced now? Can anyone else confirm? I've tightened up the code and timing calcs and it's great on mine, but my GPU always had decent timing control to begin with.

(2012-04-02 16:08)DDDamian Wrote:  @liquidskin - how confident are you that 24p (23.976hz) material is better synced now? Can anyone else confirm? I've tightened up the code and timing calcs and it's great on mine, but my GPU always had decent timing control to begin with.

Well, it looked spot on with TrueHD and most DTS-HD audio. However i must admit, on some DTS-HD audio's it looked ever-so slightly out. I thought it was eyes! I'll check all DTS-HD stuff again and let you know.

I'm on a AMD 6450 by the way, however in the past i've had the audio sync problem on a NVidia GT 520 and standard XBMC as well.

Cheers

Thx liquidskin - I have the same GPU and it's awesome as far as sync - even rated as one of the best at the dreaded 23.976hz nightmare. Highly recommend for those doing an HTPC build - and the price is amazing right now.

If anyone else can chime in on the sync it would be great (as well as any other comments good or bad)

(2012-04-01 22:30)DDDamian Wrote:  @ix400 - had a look through the log (thanks for that) and noticed one big issue:

Code:

08:44:33 T:2940   DEBUG: Error: Requested setting (pvrplayback.signalquality) was not found.  It must be case-sensitive
08:44:36 T:2200   DEBUG: Previous line repeats 90 times.

The log is full of it. It was a bug in the Aeon skin where it was compiled with pvr-enabled, and when it can't find the pvr it spams the log with a ton of error messages. This ties up all kinds of CPU cycles and can easily cause playback glitches like you're seeing on high-bitrate files. Not related to AE, but will affect it big-time.

See here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=114383

I'd start by eliminating that. Try a different skin and if that doesn't help you'll have to do a clean install unfortunately. Once that issue is gone you should see much better results overall. For the buffer value i'd recommend anywhere from 50msec to 100msec as a starting range (I may have to change that default value), but you need to eliminate that pvr spam bug or you just won't get any performance out of 1080p and DTS-MA with it stealing CPU time.

Thanks for having a look.

I did a fresh install of your latest build and used the default skin. I also disabled the video sync feature. However, I still observe the permanent switching between PCM and DTS-HD, and I get no sound. Playing around with the buffer setting seems to influence the frequency of the switching in the display of my receiver.

Here's a log with a setting of 100ms buffer size:

http://db.tt/Ypd2LPgW

Funny thing is that the whole HD-audio business is working with DanielA's non-AE HD-audio build. Even with the erroneous skin and the sync feature enabled.

Any ideas? Let me know if I can do some further testings.

Chris

(2012-04-02 18:19)ix400 Wrote:  Funny thing is that the whole HD-audio business is working with DanielA's non-AE HD-audio build. Even with the erroneous skin and the sync feature enabled.

Thats the biggest thing for me as well--but then again, I didn't code either patch or AE---so who knows what they do differently.

I will put this build back on and see if I can reproduce with the default skin.

(I dig denon, had pioneer elite for a while--but never got to liking their mcacc or whatever)

I am experiencing the same "switching-bug" as ix400 and getting no sound. I also have a Pioneer receiver, VSX-1020. DanielaE's patch build works fine. I have also tried older AE builds the last couple of months, and compiled builds myself and they all experienced the same issue.

(2012-04-02 15:46)DDDamian Wrote:  @jayhawk785 - please do grab a log and post it here. If you're using Aoen Nox and have the same pvr-spam bug it will certainly affect the higher bitrate files like DTS-MA/TrueHD. They stream at very high rates, so a thread tying up CPU cycles will interrupt the flow and cause that issue. Your setup has more than enough horsepower to do the job but an errent thread being tied up will bring any processor to it's knees, especially with time-critical stuff like high-def playback.

I also do not recommend Sync to Display as mentioned - it's almost forcing errors in audio or video output.

Nice selection of amps BTW - big Denon fan here as my sig shows

Ok, so I put this build on another machine (another room) vs. the denon 4311, disable sync audio and everything is good (in case you want to review the debug log http://notbusy.com/xbmc.log.working )

I found the log from the other machine vs. the denon 3311 but I didnt have debug on, just errors/notices: http://notbusy.com/xbmc.log

I'll try to get debug info on this machine if it still exhibits the problem.

I've tried again but the ION HDMI just doesn't want to play ball. I've tried all kinds of setup combinations for Audio but it will always freeze or give the initialization error. The log only shows this:

20:09:12 T:2640 ERROR: CAESinkWASAPI::InitializeExclusive: Unable to initialize WASAPI in exclusive mode -2004287473 - (AUDCLNT_E_ENDPOINT_CREATE_FAILED).
20:09:12 T:2640 ERROR: CAESinkWASAPI::Initialize: WASAPI initialization failed.

Btw, the Peter Gabriel plays perfectly with the HD patch, my Yamaha RX-V3067 shows DTS 96/24 in its OSD.

Hey great - lot's to go on here. Give me a bit to go through your logs and have a look.

Sounds like on some setups/receivers it works fine and on others it flickers between PCM and DTS-HD - that'll obviously be the priority to fix. The logs should give me some answers there - thanks all.

@HeresJohnny - I tried Peter Gabriel - Play on mine. I ripped the full ISO on that one and can confirm the AC3 track plays perfectly but the DTS 24/96 does not, so I can reproduce that and will get that format working.

I'll come back with answers and/or a patch shortly.

Just as an FYI, the AE branch is basically a complete teardown of the existing code, including a full re-write of PAPlayer and changes to the DVDPlayer. It's huge. DanielaE probably did the smart thing in her patch, which took the AE HD demux and associated code and applied it to Windows builds with minimal changes, and it works flawlessly. I use it with some mods as my main player. But the AE code supports all major platforms and beings much greater fidelity to everything from mp3 to high-def FLAC. At last count it was over 90,000 lines of code, so there are some major differences and a whole lot more debugging to do. Thanks for your patience and the testing efforts - without which it'd be impossible to get this major overhaul of the ground!

Cheers,
Damian