No sound on Blu-Ray rips.

[freewheeling]

I'm using an HD200 in not-standalone-mode (the nomenclature really confuses me). I can play DVDs and DVD rips just fine, but when I try to play Blu-Ray disks or Blu-Ray rips using SageTV through the extender I get the video without any sound. Someone told me that this had to do with the fact that I don't have a DTS decoder or something, and I just left it at that even though I didn't really understand his answer. But I see lots of people play Blu-Ray rips using the extender so can't see why my system doesn't do it. I can play the Blu-Rays directly on my computer using the VLC player, but not using SageTV, so it can't be a hardware problem. It has to be something in the setup.

(Just tried to play the Blu-ray using SageTV on my computer and got an error that said there was "a problem rendering the audio." I don't think I've ever been able to play Blu-rays using SageTV. I used to be able to at least play the video without getting this error, but it would be without sound. Again, VLC player has no problem with this rips except that it's really herky jerky, which is why I want to use the extender.)

[stanger89]

What's your extender connected to?

[freewheeling]

The extender is connected to the HDTV via an HDMI cable. But again, my computer is also connected to my HDTV (as a different component) and SageTV directly on the computer won't play Blu-ray sound either. The VLC player will, though.

[stanger89]

Does VLC say what the audio track is?

You need a decoder for the audio, and on a lot of BDs that's DTS. The HD200 can't decode DTS, nor can most TVs. As far as SageTV goes, it sounds like you don't have a DTS decoder installed (or configured in Sage) on your PC so Sage can't play it.

VLC has all it's decoders built in, it doesn't rely on external decoders, nor does it share it's decoders with anything else, so the fact that it plays in VLC but nothing else basically shows it's a decoder issue.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Does VLC say what the audio track is?

You need a decoder for the audio, and on a lot of BDs that's DTS. The HD200 can't decode DTS, nor can most TVs. As far as SageTV goes, it sounds like you don't have a DTS decoder installed (or configured in Sage) on your PC so Sage can't play it.

VLC has all it's decoders built in, it doesn't rely on external decoders, nor does it share it's decoders with anything else, so the fact that it plays in VLC but nothing else basically shows it's a decoder issue.

As far as that goes the blu-ray disc has AC3 Stereo output in addition to DTS. So you think it's a decoder problem? If SageTV could use a 3rd party decoder on the home PC would that work? Can you purchase or beg those? Again, I've never quite understood why the sound on blu-rays doesn't work. There's something hinky.

The actually error I get for SageTV on the home computer is (-5, 0x8004020). There are a number of different options for audio renderer including: Speakers (Realtek HD), DirectSound: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek HD) etc.

I can also use the Realtek HD Audio Manager to make some output adjustments, but I don't know what to do with it.

Again, I'm not sure why I'm not getting satisfactory output for Blu-Rays since they apparently have the option of Stereo AC3 instead of DTS.

[Fuzzy]

On the PC client, you should be able to download and install ffdshow. It will contain all the audio decoders you need for BluRay playback. On the HD200, there's really nothing that can be done. The HD200 can't decode DTS (which is the standard audio on BluRay). It CAN output it in its untouched digital form if you've got it connected to a home heater receiver via the digital audio connection - but that's the only way it's gonna work. (FWIW, the HD300 doesn't have this limitation).

[freewheeling]

I enabled HD Audio. I had it disabled because I figured it would then output the AC3 stream. There is now sound on SageTV on the main computer, but it's very broken up (as is the video). That's *probably* a function of the fact that I'm using onboard video. However, there is still no sound when the video is played through the extender. I still don't understand some of these concepts, because it seems to me that if I'm able to output sound to the TV when playing on the computer (even if it's broken up) then it should be OK when played through the extender. What am I missing?

Also, why is both the video and audio so much better when played through VLC?

Finally, I decided to try playing these Blu-Rays on my fast 6 core computer, where I also installed SageTV. The sound is OK, but for some reason the the video is playing at about 6 times the normal speed. Of course this was just a matter of curiosity since I don't plan to actually use this "work" computer as the SageTV server, but it's odd that I can't get Blu-rays to work via Sage on any of my computers.

[Update: Having mulled it over for awhile, it occurs to me that the sound that's output from the HD200 is just passed through as is, without any decoding at all. So unless I use an amp or buy and HD300 I'm out of luck.]

[stanger89]

Right, compressed audio (like DTS) is useless without a decoder. That decoder needs to be somewhere, and at a high, conceptual level, each device that can't decode it passes it untouched (bitstreamed) to the next.

So with the HD200, it doesn't have a decoder, so it passes it to the TV, which also doesn't have a decoder, so you're SOL.

VLC has a decoder so it works fine. SageTV (not sure what exactly you changed) doesn't come with a decoder so you have to install your own.

Many PC apps rely on "shared" decoders (DirectShow Filters) for this type of stuff, Sage is one of them. VLC doesn't, it has everything it supports built in, so it's not depenent on having 3rd party, shared decoders available.

Further VLC doesn't provide any shared decoders so VLC doesn't "help" Sage by providing a decoder.

[Fuzzy]

Actually, SageTV DOES come with AC3Filter, which CAN decode DTS.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Right, compressed audio (like DTS) is useless without a decoder. That decoder needs to be somewhere, and at a high, conceptual level, each device that can't decode it passes it untouched (bitstreamed) to the next.

So with the HD200, it doesn't have a decoder, so it passes it to the TV, which also doesn't have a decoder, so you're SOL.

VLC has a decoder so it works fine. SageTV (not sure what exactly you changed) doesn't come with a decoder so you have to install your own.

Many PC apps rely on "shared" decoders (DirectShow Filters) for this type of stuff, Sage is one of them. VLC doesn't, it has everything it supports built in, so it's not depenent on having 3rd party, shared decoders available.

Further VLC doesn't provide any shared decoders so VLC doesn't "help" Sage by providing a decoder.

Well, there are two problems with BD rips that it has taken me this long to figure out:

First, the "menu page" on a BD never plays, although it does play on DVD rips. So, if there are three or four episodes on the BD it'll only play the first. Of course, this also means that I don't have the option of choosing an AC3 audio track, if it's there. And it will play the DTS without ever trying to play the AC3. I discovered this by created a BD rip that *only* had AC3, with the DTS track excluded. If I do that the sound will play on the extender, but it will still only play the first episode without a menu. So, it's not playing BDs correctly.

[Fuzzy]

You CAN change audio tracks with the Options menu (the option is labeled Audio Language). It will list all tracks in the currently playing playlist. You can also choose which playlist to play with the options menu as well.

[freewheeling]

Thanks. I feel like I'm at least getting closer, but I don't see an Audio Language option until after the first video starts playing. That is, I don't seem to be able to choose the video I want to watch, only change it once something starts. There should also be some place to set a priority for the audio track to use, but I don't see that either. Oh well, getting there.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Actually, SageTV DOES come with AC3Filter, which CAN decode DTS.

Ah, didn't remember that. For some reason I thought AC3Filter only decoded AC3. Maybe it didn't last time I used it.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Actually, SageTV DOES come with AC3Filter, which CAN decode DTS.

Why isn't it, then? I still get no sound if I use the DTS track, even on the main computer. And I'm using the SageTV audio filter.

[Fuzzy]

Because the SageTV audio filter DOEN'T do DTS... You have to choose AC3Filter in Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio -> Audio Decoder

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Because the SageTV audio filter DOEN'T do DTS... You have to choose AC3Filter in Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio -> Audio Decoder

Ah, thanks. I'm not sure why I couldn't get my head around this stuff. Took me awhile.