Ian

Comment #153 from Ian [Reply]

But you only describe part of the problem. You don’t talk about how do you actually change the volume, once you have this configuration? The only way I have found is to go into AC3filter control panel and adjust the gain slider whilst file is playing back. This is not much use – clearl you want to be able to press “volume up/down” in either your playback app or the system volume control…do you have any thoughts?

MHealy

Comment #154 from MHealy [Reply]

Once you’ve disabled SPDIF pass through the ac3filter should be decoding the SPDIF stream then retransmitting the digital stream with processing such as gain done automatically.

After following these steps I was able to get volume control through my MC remote, though there seem to still be some problems with Windows 7 sound processing in the beta. A lack of Windows 7 specific drivers at this point can also complicate matters.

MHealy

Comment #155 from MHealy [Reply]

You can find quite a bit more information on using AC3Filter with SPDIF at http://ac3filter.net/guides/ac3filter_spdif as well.

Anonymous

Comment #156 from Anonymous [Reply]

So, does it work w/b7022? Seems like a lot of work if the remote won’t work…I’ll probably try it anyways…

Ian

Comment #157 from Ian [Reply]

thius is the only page I have ever found discussing the use of this feature of ac3filter. actually I am using plain vista, and testing with mediaportal as well, but it shouldn't make a difference to the way ac3filter is behaving? I have followed all these guides, and I am 100% sure I am getting AC3 decode->process->recode to AC3 behaviour of ac3filter. I move the ac3filter gain slider – the spdif output DD5.1 signal level changes. But any other slider (in the system sound volume mixer) has no effect.

which volume sliders (open system mixer) move for you when you are getting a change in output volume? Is your receiver definately getting a DD5.1 signal?

MHealy

Comment #158 from MHealy [Reply]

Actually the first program I got this to work in was Media Portal on a Vista machine. I remember finding a forum post on it back when I was running Media Portal. I’ll see if I can find it again. I went back to test this again today on my 7MC, I normally use FFDShow audio, and low and behold I can’t get it to work again either.

When I was using Media Portal it would output a DTS stream with a modified gain just fine for me though.

MHealy

Comment #159 from MHealy [Reply]

I was able to get this working again using an older version of my soundcard drivers for some reason. Disabling passthrough and setting output to PCM allowed the soundcard to output a DTS Interactive stream. I’m not sure if it was something the soundcard was doing to the stream or how well it would work on other systems though. I don’t recall having to set the audio to PCM mode in my Media Portal setup.

Ian

Comment #160 from Ian [Reply]

those last two comments really helped, figured it out based on that. the mediaportal solution is
- use AC3filter as codec in MP
- configure AC3 filter to decode AC3/DD sound to PCM 5.1 (3/2.1 as they call it)
- configure sound card to encode PCM5.1 to DTS 5.1 (DTS interactive)

windows / application volume control now works for DD 5.1 audio tracks, they reach the receiver as DTS 5.1

MHealy

Comment #161 from MHealy [Reply]

Glad you got it working. It takes a bit of mucking about to find the right combination of settings between the ac3filter and the sound card. If you need to control spdif volume through windows for whatever reason though it’s worth the effort.

Michael

Comment #152 from Michael [Reply]

I have some problems with this. If I choose not to Use AC3 encoder I’m able to control the volume, but the signal is not reached as DTS 5.1.

I have a SB X-FI, and using Vista. I have set up VMC to use AC3Filter for AudioDecoder.

Shawn

Comment #1354 from Shawn [Reply]

Arggg, on my vista media center I had my volume control working and my codecs (wish I could remember if I was using ac3filter). Anyway, now when I do the ac3filter thing it breaks my ability to play divx (and xvid I think) files (mkv files seem fine)

What’s going on, I really don’t want/can’t use another remote for the receiver.

Michael Healy

@Reply #1357 from Michael Healy [Reply]

What happens when you try to play a Divx video inside Media Center, is there an error that comes up or simply a black screen? Also, could you check what codecs are being used with Graphstudio? Render one of the videos that aren’t working see what codecs are being used and if you can play the videos through that program.

Shawn

@Reply #1361 from Shawn [Reply]

well, it just won’t play (error). But I did get it once to black screen (and in wmp if I scrolled through the time it would have the still frames, just wouldn’t play). I use that graphwhatever and the priority program thing but I don’t really get what I want to change things to? The AC3filter seems to be on the graph, what do I want the video renderer to be? This is SOOO overly complicated! I remember I figure out how to get it working in vista, so maybe some day I’ll get it. I still can;t even get HD signal tv and analog tv sount to be equal levels. why so hard?

Michael Healy

@Reply #1365 from Michael Healy [Reply]

What is the video decoder currently being used for the Divx videos? You may have some better luck installing FFDShow tryouts and deselect the audio component during setup which would leave AC3Filter to control audio.

Shawn

@Reply #1367 from Shawn [Reply]

Hmmm, well I went back and can get everything to work without ac3filter —- but then I have no volume control

It seems the ac3filter is what breaks everything (except for the volume control, it’s great for that).

Shawn

@Reply #1369 from Shawn [Reply]

Oh well, I tried. I got very close. But could never get all three (Live Tv-w/MC remote controlled sound, Divx, and MKV) working at the same time. With ac3filter and ffdshow I had everything except live tv was black sound worked and was controllable . I tried mpg in avi in ffdshow codecs but no luck. Right now I just can’t access my movies , but at least my wife can use the tv. Maybe in a month or so I’ll have time to spend 48 hours straight trying to get things to work! Seriously Microsoft – show me some love here – why is this so difficult – I’m a freaking neurosurgeon for goodness sake

Shawn

@Reply #1370 from Shawn [Reply]

I forgot to mention, I can get everything to work great with graphstudio, it’s just in MC and wmp it has a crazy mind of its own.

Shawn

@Reply #1372 from Shawn [Reply]

Haha, I’m posting like crazy.

Well, with no ffdshow and just the AC3 I got it ALL!! So I thought (I was lumping xvid and divx together), I had divx, mkv, and live tv with spdif mc remote controllable sound (granted HD channels versus analog channels have a big sound difference)…. Then tragedy struck, media center won’t play xvid

Son of a…

Actually just checked it out with Graphstudio (all work in there, again its just media center). But very interestingly SOME xvid work and some don’t in MC. The ones that work go from the avi splitter to the green MP3 Decoder DMO to AC3Filter to default direct sound device. The ones that don’t go directly from the splitter to the ac3filter. How the heck do I fix that??

Sorry for the never ending diatribe

Michael Healy

@Reply #1373 from Michael Healy [Reply]

Grab one of the Xvid files that doesn’t work and load it into MediaInfo. Find out how the audio has been encoded in those files

Shawn

@Reply #1389 from Shawn [Reply]

Strange, it simply says it’s AC-3 (like it’s not encoded?) No button for a link to the decoder website. I have media info and media browser so I quickly scrolled through and it’s only xvids with AC-3 that don’t play, my 720p and 1080p movies with ac-3 work.

FIX- Oh, hillarious, I saw the same prob on some other site and the guy was like – I’m thinking of just remuxing to mkv – So I just renamed the avi to mkv and BAM it works.

So finiky

Thanks for the help.

Jason

@Reply #5962 from Jason [Reply]

So renaming it to .mkv totally works.. thats the dumbest thing ever. I’ve been trying to get this stinkin’ thing to work for weeks. And all i had to do was rename it.. whatever it takes thanks for the tip

bitzorro

Comment #1473 from bitzorro [Reply]

i have made every step right,and mc/mediaplayer uses the ac3 filter!but there is no way i can control the audio volume? i am running 7100 rc1 x86.
what am i doing wrong?
mvh bitzorro.

Skip

Comment #6153 from Skip [Reply]

I recently got a ClearQAM tuner and was looking for a way to control the volume of the digital channels with MC. Of course I use this site frequently to find ways of customizing MC and am troubled by how difficult this solution seemed. So after some searching I came across a post indicating that there was an easier way:

Uncheck “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device” in the Advanced tab of the digital output audio properties panel.

I was skeptical but I immediately tried controlling the volume using my MC remote and it worked perfectly. There was no other modification made. I just wanted to let everyone know and see if they can verify it was that easy.

nimbus

@Reply #6188 from nimbus [Reply]

not working for me… no AC3 at all after disabling that !

no solution for the moment to remote control the volume of the SPDIF output !!! grrr….

wxman

Comment #7300 from wxman [Reply]

I was very happy to find this solution since it is annoying when switching between HD signals or movies and analog tv, which requires having to change how the volume is controlled (windows vs. my receiver).

But unfortunately I have found that when using this solution it noticeably impacts sound quality from a digital source such a Dolbly Digital stream from a movie or HDTV, which I find disappointing. Regardless, excellent information (as well as the rest of the site)! Thanks!