No Colossus Audio?

[ygeller]

Hey,
I am a new nextpvr user - moving away from 7MC.
Love the ease of installation so far - but have two issues:

1. No audio? Setting up channels is super easy, I use SPDIF optical cable from the set-top box to my colossus and select SPDIF - but no audio. Audio works just fine in 7MC - but not in nextpvr.
I installed R2 patches to 2.5.9 - still no go...

2. Video quality is not as good as in 7MC - lots of artifacts. What is the best codec to use? I tried LAV - doesn't work - I get a black screen... FFDshow is also so so. Any ideas how to improve video quality? I know it can be better since it is in 7MC...?

Thanks!!

[Graham]

I and many others use SAF ...

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post414049

Send a forum Private Message to Hoborg to get the "unlocked" version.

[sub]

Hey,
I am a new nextpvr user - moving away from 7MC.
Love the ease of installation so far - but have two issues:

1. No audio? Setting up channels is super easy, I use SPDIF optical cable from the set-top box to my colossus and select SPDIF - but no audio. Audio works just fine in 7MC - but not in nextpvr.
I installed R2 patches to 2.5.9 - still no go...

Reproduce the problem, then zip and attach the nrecord.log and I'll check it's using SPDIF

2. Video quality is not as good as in 7MC - lots of artifacts. What is the best codec to use? I tried LAV - doesn't work - I get a black screen... FFDshow is also so so. Any ideas how to improve video quality? I know it can be better since it is in 7MC...?

LAV doesn't work at all well for H.264. It doesn't play nicely with the Microsoft Demultiplexer. I usually use either the ArcSoft video decoder. On Win7 I usually used the Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder.

[ygeller]

Awesome! SAF and playing with the codecs fixed the problem.
Now -to the video - from people's experience with colossus / hd channels, is the Microsoft codec the best ?
Feels like picture quality is not the best... Lots of artifacts and noise.

[sub]

Some Colossus users have had a problem where the device is not correctly reporting the resolution, which causes the app to default to lower SD bitrates, which might be what you're seeing. A workaround for this is editing the config.xml, to edit the <ModeSD> settings to increase the bitrate.

[saitoh183]

Some Colossus users have had a problem where the device is not correctly reporting the resolution, which causes the app to default to lower SD bitrates, which might be what you're seeing. A workaround for this is editing the config.xml, to edit the <ModeSD> settings to increase the bitrate.

Yes i had to do this to get my video to work properly, i use the exact setup for codecs proposed on SAF thread for video...everything is stellar now

Code:

<ModeSD>
      <Bitrate>9000000</Bitrate>
      <BitratePeak>13500000</BitratePeak>
      <BitrateMode>VBR</BitrateMode>
    </ModeSD>

[ygeller]

Great, many thanks.
Between unlocking SAF and the bitrate settings things are great...

Alas - the new codec cause videos to have no audio in xbmc now...?!

[saitoh183]

XBMC has its own codecs and is not affected by anything you add outside of xbmc. For me to get everything working, is to make sure you have plugged all the wires of your component cable to STB (including Audio Red and white) and starting either wintv or arcsoft and checking if everything is working and that audio is detected as AC3. if its not when the video is running, the video is either choppy or smooth but no audio, i just unplug and replug the SPDIF from the card and then it was all good in any software i used including XBMC.

[SVoyager]

saitoh183. Just quick question. I am squashing the last few issues I am having with my new setup and one of them is the audio that is not making it thru all the channel changes. I will lose it randomly, not on specific channels. Upon checking the logs, I see that it is sometimes detecting the audio as AAC instead of AC3 (and the issue happens whenever its on AAC). The issue is easily reproduced, happens about 30-40% of the time. However for me, I am not in xbmc yet, the issue is happening in npvr directly!

You say that replugging SPDIF fixes the issue, all while having rca audio cables connected. Do you have to reset often like this??

For me, the STB is hidden and having to reconnect SPDIF whenever this happen would be a pain. Could there be a more permanent solution? Forcing it in AC3 maybe? (I don't really know if its a driver issue or something that can be done in npvr?)

edit: looking all around the forums for ideas. tried force spdif in the configs, that didn't fix. Tried prefer ac3 in registry, no fix either.

[saitoh183]

I figured out that my Optical wire was acting weird when i plugged it into the Colossus. I replaced it with another one and since then i have had no ACC issues. I used the faulty one to connect my XBOX to my Surround but havent tested it yet to see if i have audio issues with the XBOX as well. As for re-plugging, you just have to do it on the HTPC side not on your STB.