DVD audio missing

[McBainUK]

evaluation PureVideo codec

Has it expired? I'm sure I read somewhere that it disables things when it expires - possibly even sound...?

Also, the SourceForge AC3 project is what I used to get surround sound before I upgraded to the platinum version of PureVideo.

[Braklet]

[HIP] only works with GBPVR, right? Not stand-alone.

No, it's a standalone application that is designed to allow the user to define the remote control/computer interface. It is very powerful, hence has a lot of configuration detail. My short attention span has only resulted in my being able to drive a few GB-PVR functions via remote. I need to work more on this, but I am positive one can drive multiple applications via HIP.

I can't use it to remap the controls for Media Center can I?

I'm afraid I can't answer that, not having ever run MCE (I use GB-PVR on an XP Pro base). If you wanted to decouple the remote/MCE bond you'd probably have to play with the remote drive, but perhaps that is what the alternate driver (search the GB-PVR Wiki for details) is for?

Maybe I can use PureVideo for the video decoding and AC3Filter for audio decoding.

I believe some forum posters are using that configuration. In my experimentation, I also ended up with PureVideo as my default video codec, and FFDShow as my default audio codec, which was weird. Took me a while to whittle things down so that PureVideo took care of all MPEG/AC3 decoding by default, but it works well on my system.

Yes, I've used [GSpot]. It helped, but I really don't undertand what I'm doing. It was helpful to (un)register codecs

I don't blame you. I only understand about 10% of what it tells me. However, I was able to order codec defaults by manipulating the appropriate merit values. This could be dangerous, but if you only make simple changes and keep manual track of what you're doing, it can be useful.

I found this Microsoft article useful as far as figuring out which decoders DirectShow selected when it tried to open media. It might be helpful if you end up trying to decode what's buried in your registry entries and GSpot output.

[McBainUK]

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...ideo+codec

Post #3 is interesting.

[cwineman]

No, it's a standalone application...

Ok. Then as long as a can use HIP to handle the signal from the remote before any other application, I can do what I want. You're right, sounds powerful and therefore complex. I might look into it after I get this audio issue figured out.

I found this Microsoft article useful...

Wow. It took me a few perusals to figure what was "useful" about that link. But now I think I see what your saying. By comparing the rules from that link with what GSPOT is spewing out, I might be able to configure things so that I can use PureVideo for audio and video.

I hope to hell it doesn't come to that.

McBainUK,

Yeah, I saw that link, but thought that poster was using AC3 for audio and video. I didn't want to sacrifice the good video quality of the PureVideo codec. I didn't realize that AC3 was just for audio. I'll give that a configuration a try later today.


Thanks for the advice, guys.

[Braklet]

Wow. It took me a few perusals to figure what was "useful" about that link. But now I think I see what your saying. By comparing the rules from that link with what GSPOT is spewing out, I might be able to configure things so that I can use PureVideo for audio and video.

Probably should have warned about heavy code content, but you seem to be a smart guy.

Microsoft has a nasty habit of burying useful info in the bowels of their programming specifications. Why don't they have that "DirectShow takes your media file and does one of three things with it" in some FAQ? Don't ask me.

Anyway, you should never have to dig around in the registry to decode that stuff by hand. That is what GSpot is for; it correlates registry, file type, etc. in one series of windows so that you can see what DirectShow is going to do when you render that file.

GraphEdit can also be useful by graphically portraying a set of "filters" (codecs, etc.) that DirectShow plans to use to render a media file. I used this to determine which specific codecs were interfering with DirectShow and edited their merit values with GSpot accordingly.

These are just tools to play with, not a hard and fast guide on fixing your problem. I still think that uninstalling every codec in the system and reinstalling one-by-one is the best way to proceed.

Good luck.

[cwineman]

Probably should have warned about heavy code content...

Well, I'm a software developer, so I guess I shouldn't act so overwhelmed, but I've managed to stay happily Win32/DirectShow ignorant so far and if I can manage it, I'll stay ignorant.

At least I know what tools to use and what to look forward to if I decide to troubleshoot this. But like I said, I hope not to have to.

I am going to shoot for the PureVideo + AC3Filter approach. You mentioned that you were once using FFDShow for audio. What was the reason to go beyond this and try for a "pure" PureVideo for audio and video approach. Does it sound better? Is there any reason that I should?

[cwineman]

Things just got weirder.

I installed the AC3Filter. Now if I set Audio Decoder = System Default, I can finally hear DVD audio. I can't specifically select the AC3Filter. If I try that the DVD fails to play. No error, it just gets stuck or something. I also can't hear DVD audio if I select PureVideo or MPEG Audio decoder, the other 2 options in the list. I can see it, but not hear it. Only System Default works. Even more odd is that I can't unregister the AC3Filter either. To hear audio, I have to have it registered, but I can't specifically select it. WTF.

None of this weirdness seems to affect the Live TV audio. It happily plays with any Audio Decoder selected. However, if I exit ungracefully, I sometimes get a windows error popup: "GBPVR has encountered and error...yadayada".

BTW, I wanted to remove all audio codecs and start clean, but I can't get rid the MPEG Audio decoder. It's inlcuded in a quartz.dll which I think is something that comes with the OS, but I'm not sure. When I tried to unregister it, GBPVR wouldn't start. It complains: "The system does not appear to support VMR9". Here's something I found in a log pertaining to that problem if it means anything to anyone:

1/22/2007 7:57:55 PM.609 VERBOSE [1] Initializing renderer: VMR9
1/22/2007 7:58:03 PM.796 ERROR [1] System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException: External component has thrown an exception.
at GBPVR.xbb1566157f5f8b1f..ctor(String directPlayFileName, Boolean mvpMode)
at GBPVR.xbb1566157f5f8b1f.xfb409e85bd292293(String[] xf18a926310372520)

Is that normal? Should I be able to unregister quartz.dll or not?

Anyway, I'm not sure what's going on. It was nice to hear a DVD play, but I wish things were less mysterious. It seems like the Audio Decoder dropdown list from the DVD tab and the list of audio codecs actually installed are out of sync. Just a guess and I don't know how to test this.

Finally, from GSPOT three codecs are ominously flagged in red/orange as "Problem". They are Deinterlace Filter, GB-PVR Parser, and Nero Digital AVC Video Enc. The problem for all three seems to be: ** File Missing: . Should that concern me?

-cwineman

[stubright]

I had the same problem and used the ac3 approach but then decided 'I paid for the full version of pure video so I'm going to use it'. After much fiddling and remembering a setup I used when I was using the god forsaken windoze mce I got it working on my system.

If you play an mpeg file in media player you get the pure video icon next to the clock.
Right click on it and select decoder properties.
In the audio tab select speaker setup and check the boxes marked connected to a receiver and via an spdif cable. This then passes the audio through pure video to the sound card which then decodes it. No cables required as it's an internal thing. So the sound card settings control your speakers, whether they are 5.1 or 2.0 etc setups and not pure video.
Make sure your spdif-in is not muted in the sound card volume control.

This worked with my Creative Audigy2 ZS card but it should work, in theory, with any card with an spdif input.

I hope other people can shed some light on other sound cards and this method.

[Slice]

Yeah, I saw that link, but thought that poster was using AC3 for audio and video. I didn't want to sacrifice the good video quality of the PureVideo codec. I didn't realize that AC3 was just for audio. I'll give that a configuration a try later today.

Hi there, just stumbled on this and just to clarify, I use the Purevideo codec for video and the AC3 for audio. I can't get any audio when I select the purevideo codec from the config. But as said above I'm more than happy with the results now.

You don't have any of the big codec packs installed do you? I had some on in the beginning and had lots of problems.

[Henry]

I had the same problem and used the ac3 approach but then decided 'I paid for the full version of pure video so I'm going to use it'. After much fiddling and remembering a setup I used when I was using the god forsaken windoze mce I got it working on my system.

If you play an mpeg/dvr-ms file in media player you get the pure video icon next to the clock.
Right click on it and select decoder properties.
In the audio tab select speaker setup and check the boxes marked connected to a receiver and via an spdif cable. This then passes the audio through pure video to the sound card which then decodes it. No cables required as it's an internal thing. So the sound card settings control your speakers, whether they are 5.1 or 2.0 etc setups and not pure video.
Make sure your spdif-in is not muted in the sound card volume control.

This worked with my Creative Audigy2 ZS card but it should work, in theory, with any card with an spdif input.

I hope other people can shed some light on other sound cards and this method.

I appreciate you sharing this information. I was having problems with my DVD audio (only in GBPVR) and changing these settings fixed it! Thanks a million!
Finally down to my last configuration issue