AC3 passthrough issues on Mac

[sandor]

***Macintosh Version of SageTV***

Wondering if anyone has seen the same issue...

with the last 6.4.x release, i had AC3 passthrough working great with Sage. Now, since trying the 6.5.1 6.5.2 and 6.5.3 betas, i have lost AC3 passthrough.

The exact same media files will passthrough AC3 in both Quicktime and VLC, but not with Sage... is there a way to force/make sure that Quicktime is being used within Sage?


Also, and perhaps unrelated, with all the 6.5.x betas, live tv will work fine, but as soon as a show is *done* recording, the audio will not play. Works fine outside of Sage, and after re-encoding the TS file to something else, it works fine.

This is all OTA ATSC with a pair of HDHR tuners.

[Taddeusz]

The preferred method of recording is now a program stream (MPG) not a transport stream (TS). In the properties file you need to find your HDHR tuners and change the following line to be as follows:

mmc/encoders/XXXX/100/0/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=true

Where XXXX is your tuner.

The difference, of course, is that the ts file is exactly what has been received. SageTV tends to work better with program streams and is the preferred method. Give this a shot and see if it works for you.

You may also want to upgrade your HDHR drivers to the latest version if you haven't already.

[sandor]

sounds good. i'll do that when i get home.

still wondering about the AC3 passthrough though - this affects all files (recorded TV as well as imported DVDs and encoded movies (avi, mkv, mp4, etc) They all work fine through Quicktime and VLC, but Sage outputs stereo audio.

[Taddeusz]

Make sure you have AC3Filter set as your audio filter. If you haven't installed AC3Filter separately run ac3config.exe from your SageTV program folder. Otherwise run it from Start->All Programs->AC3Filter. Make sure "Use SPDIF" is checked in the upper left corner of the window. Then on the SPDIF tab make sure all the formats you want to passthrough are checked. Then click ok. See if that works for the audio in SageTV.

You may also need to adjust the merits on your filters so that AC3Filter is the default audio filter. You can use the DirectShow Filter Manager in combination with GraphEdit to make sure the filters you want are chosen by default. You need to reboot after any merit changes you make in DSF Manager.

[Mark SS]

I seem to remember having similar problems after upgrading previously. I think I unregistered and renamed the ac3filter in the Sage directory, then installed the latest version of the filter to get it working again.

[sandor]

Ah, just realized this thread was moved.... i posted in the Mac section...


This is happening with the Macintosh version of the server - so no AC3Filter, no DirectShow, no GraphEdit.

[sandor]

so does no one else use SageTV for Mac with digital output to an audio receiver??

=)

[pratt733]

I used to use the Mac version and stopped for that reason, among others.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by pratt733

I used to use the Mac version and stopped for that reason, among others.

thanks for the data point.

If/when sage uses Quicktime as the default player, i get passthrough without an issue... this 6.5.x beta series just isnt using QT....