[junk]

Hi,

I'm running XBMC 9.04.1 on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04. Everything is working nicely, except there's no sound in some AC3-movies. I'm using S/PDIF to my receiver by toslink cable.

I'm guessing this is a problem with the receiver, just want to make sure. It plays all DTS-movies just fine. According to the manual, AC3 is supported but this receiver is a few years old now.

If I look at a movie that works and one that don't, there's no difference in codecs at all (using the 'O'-button during playback).

Anyone know anything I could try to confirm it's an issue with the receiver?

Thanks in advance!

[Haggy]

Please see the sticky about reporting a problem in a useful manner.

[junk]

Sorry. I didn't put it in the Linux subforum because I had the same issue on Windows, but I understand you moved it since I didn't write that in the post =)

OS: Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04
Architecture: i686
XBMC: 9.04.1

Here's the debug log: Debug Log.txt]http://pix.sonhult.se/Debug Log.txt[/url]. I started XBMC, played Braveheart with working sound AC3, then played ConAir no working sound AC3 and then quit XBMC.

Would be nice to rule out the software bit so I can motivate buying a new receiver =)

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Found some information about my receiver: http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product....chive=true

The interesting part is:
Dolby Digital, DTS, and Dolby Prologic II decoders built-in

What does that tell me? Isn't AC3 Dolby Digital?

[Haggy]

Could you try playing those files with another player - like vlc or mplayer and see if they work? The files look the same, only difference is "Conair" is contained in a rar archive - which might be the problem (just a shot in the dark). As you got the issues on windows as well (same files?) maybe just the files are bad.

[junk]

I tried unpacking and then playing Conair yesterday, same result, so that's not the issue.

Will try another media player tonight. See if I can get hold on another receiver to try with aswell.

Thanks for helping!

[junk]

Got sound with Totem 2.26.1, but only 2 channels. Maybe it downmixed the AC3 5.1 stream? Shouldn't XBMC do that?

EDIT: Just noticed Totem downmixes all AC3-movies to 2 channels, maybe outputs as PCM instead? The receiver switches to 2-channel mode if I play in Totem, but displays 5.1-mode when playing from XBMC. Maybe the audio stream is too "heavy" for the receiver?

[tslayer]

XBMC has the option to downmix as well. Check the Settings in XBMC.

[junk]

You are absolutely right! For some reason I had thought that was the same option as "Send stereo to all channels" which is a per-movie setting, and totally missed the downmix setting.

This kind of solved my problems. I unchecked "AC3 capable receiver" and checked the downmix option. Now all my AC3 movies plays in stereo (even those who earlier worked in 5.1) and DTS still plays in 5.1. I'm happy it is working at all!

Thanks Haggy and tslayer! Sometimes it's just that little "did you check this" reminder that is needed =)