Can not Play 5.1 sound MKV files?

[Justintoxicated]

Reading another post I tried editing a few things in the sage.properties file with no luck.

I'm using the AC3 filter and it should be setup properly 3/2 5.1 option selected. Aparently though the filter is not being used, so I'm guessing it's not using ac3 codec?

VLC is using AC3 to play the file and delivers 5.1 as well as WMP but for whatever reason sage is only delivering 3.1

This means I have to use VLC player to watch many movies on my comp with no remote support.
Aparently Sage treats mkv as mpeg4
Anyone know how to fix this issue within sage?

mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback=false
mplayer/audio_renderer=dsound

[talbot3]

You need to set always_use_dshow_player=true if you want directshow playback with mkv files. Otherwise you need to set mplayer for ac3 passthru and change the render to wavout instead of directsound if you want spdif. If you want mplayer to decode to 6 channels you need to set:

extra_mplayer_args=-channels 6

[Justintoxicated]

Thank you I will play with these setting when I get home. I'm not trying to send anything through SPDIF.

[Justintoxicated]

Originally Posted by talbot3

You need to set always_use_dshow_player=true if you want directshow playback with mkv files. Otherwise you need to set mplayer for ac3 passthru and change the render to wavout instead of directsound if you want spdif. If you want mplayer to decode to 6 channels you need to set:

extra_mplayer_args=-channels 6

When I change :
always_use_dshow_player=true

I get a video playback error and cannot watch the mkv file at all.
Setting to false and I can play the mkv file again, but only with 3.1 audio.
What am I doing wrong?
Also I am getting multiple SageTV Transcoder processes running that are spiking my CPU (both Cores) to 100% and the processes do not die even after I close sage. This only happens when playing mkv files.

edit: Re-Installed teh Combined Comunity Codec Pack and I now have 5.1 sound. However I can no longer use VMR9

[mangriotis]

The transcoder issues could be from Sage trying to generate thumbnails for mkv files (a process that uses sagetranscoder.exe)... this fix helped my system.

Change the following sage.properties line:

video_thumbnail_extraction_time_offset_sec=0

(mine was set to 15 originally, I think)

See this thread for additional details.

[Justintoxicated]

I got everything working now the dshow player trick worked.

THANKS!

I think the transcoder problem had something to do with the problems I'm having with VMR9, it does not seem to happen if I just use overlay mode.

Should I still do this anyways to prevent future problems?
"video_thumbnail_extraction_time_offset_sec=0"

[Justintoxicated]

Well I still don't have acceptable audio.

Everything plays fine with VLC player so I have been using that for the past months and have pretty much given up on SageTV...>What a huge waste of money the tuner + sage has been for me.

Now if I could get audio levels where I didn't have to crack up the knob for my Logitec Z5500's I would be happy.

I have the Audio Renderer set to my SB X-Fi Audio [BC00]
and I have tried all filters. Once I got surround working, however, it was barley audiable. I wont to use Sage so I can use my media center remote (Actualy my Logitec 880) but i'd rather have surround sound than remote. Getting very frustrated. Also when I exit sage after playing an MKV file I have to manualy close the SageTVTranscoder.exe with device manager or it sits there loading one of my CPU cores to 100% load.

I can't believe how buggy this program is, seems like every time I want to watch something I have to spend 4 horus re-configuring stuff first...

[mp328]

mkv files are still a problem on sage, but thats about it

i had (still have) the same issue with mine and 5.1 not working and the transcoder was getting stuck at 100%

and the only way i found around it, is just to play the mkv files externally, using the SageMC external command function. so every time u hit play an mkv file it fires up zoomplayer (in my case) or any other program u prefer to play the mkv files in. only problem with zoomplayer the 880 doesnt have any FF/REW functions. but i dont wanna skip anything if im watching a movie anyways, so i can live with it.
only thing i gotta keep remember to turn the external media player on/off when im watching regular .avi files

and the transcoder issue was fixed on mine just by changing that one value the guys already recommended to u... "video_thumbnail_extraction_time_offset_sec=0"

[Taddeusz]

What version of SageTV are you using and what kind of audio do your MKV files have? I've been converting my DVD's to MKV with H.264 video and AC3 or DTS audio and have absolutely no problems getting 5.1 channel audio on my client machine which is running Vista x64.

SageTV didn't officially support MKV until, I think, 6.2. So if you're not at least running that version MKV files aren't going to play well if at all.

[m0ng00se30]

Sorry to bump up an older post but I've ran into an issue and wonder if anyone has seen the same thing.

I've set always_use_dshow_player=true and now I get AC3Filter being used with the mkv files I've made with Automkv. However as long as always_use_dshow_player=true is set I can't play any video podcast, and I can't play any downloaded .mov podcast (I'm sure the reason is that same!) Is there anything I can do to help with this?

Do I need to install QTalternative maybe?

Thanks!

--Mike

[m0ng00se30]

To update my own post... I tried QT, but didn't help. I'm open for anyone who has suggestions, or I'd like to know this is what most people see. Maybe its normal, and might be fixed when Sage puts a little more work into mkv files.

I hope they do put some work into mkv files... they seem to play better than MP4 files encoded with Nero to me.

--Mike

[gplasky]

Remove QT and try QT Alternative. As long as you have always_use_dshow_player=true then you need a directshow filter that can handle QT. I think QT Alternative is the only one.

Gerry

[m0ng00se30]

I should have been a little more clear... I did install QT alternative and it still didn't work... come to think if it tho... I didn't try a reboot. Maybe i should go give that a try. I so very seldom have to reboot I don't think bout it sometimes!

--Mike