[Windows] AudioEngine testers - Windows platform only

**DDDamian** · 2012-03-07 01:22

P-I H Wrote:Made some more testing and if
<multichannellpcm>true</multichannellpcm>
is set to false on my configuration xbmc will crash.

I believe this is only when <allchannelstereo> is enabled in advancedsettings.xml - your receiver must be able to accept multichannel signals to output to more than 2.0.

I'll add some methods to make sure disabling it in the settings overrides <allchannelstereo> so there's no crash and maybe add a pop-up to warn user.

liquidskin76 · 2012-03-07 01:48

Hey dddamian,

Tested new version. Again couldn't get it to misbehave in debug. It works perfectly then! Not sure why?

Anyway, with debugging off, i get similar results as before...

TrueHD... either hang or no audio after seek
http://pastebin.com/YQDDh163

DTS-HD... either hang or no audio after seek
http://pastebin.com/pYjxrGSn

Getting the error 'CAESinkWASAPI::InitializeExclusive: IsFormatSupported failed' for both.

Also, when it seeks ok (like with debugging on), audio is still slightly delayed in starting after a seek, so vid plays without any audio for a few seconds.

'Sync to Display' and 'Adjust Display Refresh Rate' are both off for all tests. Happens on both full screen window and true full screen.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

**DDDamian** · 2012-03-07 01:52

liquidskin76 Wrote:Anyway, with debugging off, i get similar results as before...

Dammit! That's an awesome bug - turns itself off as soon as you turn debugging on lol. That said, at least that's a clue. Thx again liquidskin - gonna track that sucker down!

-JK- · 2012-03-07 02:08

Thanks for your effort, been trying it out before, and it seems that there is a problem with some 24bit FLAC files with high sample rates and the audiophile setting as these don't play correctly on my system. I tried Beck's Sea Change SACD rip (88.1kHz) and Justice's Audio Video Disco (96kHz), Radiohead's TKOL 48kHz Blu-ray converted FLACs play fine (and in 5.1) though. Hope the log helps!

http://pastebin.com/PJDu0AZd

**DDDamian** · 2012-03-07 09:30

@liquidskin - Bingo! found bug with skip/seek - will be fixed in next upload. Awesome brother - good catch.

@JK - looks like we introduced a new bug - that was all working perfectly Laugh

I see from the log it defaulted to stereo for the multichannel 88khz Beck - Sea Change FLAC (great pic - i have that too in SACD and FLAC). Will be fixed in next upload.

Thanks both of you - this kind of thing will get it mainstream and stable sooner. Good job.

liquidskin76 · 2012-03-07 11:04

DDDamian Wrote:@liquidskin - Bingo! found bug with skip/seek - will be fixed in next upload. Awesome brother - good catch.

Excellent, well done. Looking forward to it. Wink

Any ideas on the delay on audio returning after seeking, where vid plays for a few seconds without audio?

On builds like DanielaE's hd audio, plus external players using filters like LAV audio and ffdshow audio... i believe there is a slight delay in audio returning as well, however not as long as the Windows build of AE (not sure if ae on other os's have the problem?).

I'm sure i tested a gnif build a while ago and bitstreamed truehd hd audio played instantly after a seek. I can remember think 'great!'.

Standard DD, DTS, and flac don't suffer from this problem. It's only TrueHD and DTS-HD.

It might be that your fix will sort or improve. I'll let you now.

Cheers

**DDDamian** · 2012-03-07 15:53

liquidskin76 Wrote:Any ideas on the delay on audio returning after seeking, where vid plays for a few seconds without audio?

That's been found as well, basically same issue as the seek bug. All players will exhibit some pause as the a/v streams are re-synced and buffers cleared, and often as the receiver locks onto track again, but the excessive delay was caused by that skip bug you found Smile

**DDDamian** · 2012-03-07 16:52

@JK - did some checking and I guess I assumed from your log and my copy of Beck - Sea Change that this was a multichannel FLAC and was being decoded as stereo which would have been a huge bug lol.

But that may not be the case. Can you describe exactly what is wrong/happening when you play those files? And just to rule it out are they multichannel or stereo?

With that same build and <audiophile> enabled all my hi-def stuff is playing back correctly.

P-I H · 2012-03-07 18:17

I have done some more testing today and made a lot of changes
- changed audio settings in Vista
- changed quality settings in Catalyst
- changed video and audio settings in XBMC
- copied Pink HD from my NAS to the local HDD
However I still has dropouts and there was no difference if I played from the local HDD or the NAS.
Answeres to the specific questions
- All my media is on a NAS that sits on a gigabit network
- Sync playback to display is disabled

I have no advanced settings.xml, only the guisettings.xml
Is that OK?

**DDDamian** · 2012-03-07 18:26

@P-I H, that confirms a lot thanks. Rules out some obvious things, and this has been the main bug for a while now.

For anyone seeing the audio-dropouts: we're trying to confirm if these happen only with DTS-MA/TrueHD or all audio codecs during movie playback, just to narrow it down. It's a tough bug as it's intermittent and I for one don't get it on a fast machine. Likewise gnif has a very powerful machine, so we may be missing these and that makes it harder to capture.

If you do notice it on non-HD formats pls let us know Nod