DVB-T and selecting audio stream

[three6zerocool]

Hello. Pretty new Nextpvr user here.
Been messing around with the software for a week now. Had some issues with IR blasting, but a post or 2 later, and the experts on this forum got me sorted.

I had quite a bit of issues getting my STB working right, and would keep losing audio after channel changing between channels that contained AC3 audio, which would result
in recordings with no audio. Finally worked out that my STB (NZ MySkyHDi box) defaulted to outputting Dolby Digital AC3 by default.

My capture card is a Hauppauge Colossus, and NPVR just does not work correctly detecting audio streams, regardless of Decoders used.

What happens, is that it falsely detects the audio as AAC in the first instance, and then pops up error saying I have no AAC decoder selected. (but I do)
If I stop playback, and select channel again, it correctly detects the AC3 audio.

I would like to have the best audio stream, but having Dolby Digital selected on the MySkyHDi causes a lot of issues for my configuiration, and basically makes the PVR functions unreliable.
I also have Mediaportal TVServer, and it does not have issues on the local MP client itself, but remote clients like Kodi etc do the same thing, and can not detect audio on the first attempt, but do on the second attempt.

To cut a long story short, I had to change the MySkyHDi audio output setting from Dolby Digital to 'Auto'
Doing so gives me perfect channel changes for the STB channels and retains audio when changing channels.
(am guessing this is an issue with Hauppauge drivers)

Question 1: Does this mean I will not get surround sound, or it that it is surround sound, but just not Dolby Digital?

Question 2: Now, I have the opposite issue with DVB-T channels that contain an AC3 audio stream.
Is it possible for Nextpvr to always play the AC3 stream from DVB-T channels like NZ TV1, TV2, TV3 etc?
By default it always plays the HE-AAC audio stream, but right clicking and selecting Audio Stream gives option of AC3 stream, which if chosen triggers my AVR to show 'Dolby Digital'. Is the HE-AAC audio stream 'Surround'?, or is there something I am overlooking?, like can Nextpvr not play the 'best' audio by default?

[three6zerocool]

Update:

While searching the forums, I found a 'PreferAC3'reg setting.
Don't know if it is still applicable to current Nextpvr version, but I tried it, and it does seem to do something.

Still have my STB set to Auto for audio output, but now when I select a channel that has surround sound, my AVR switches to Dolby Digital when such content is playing.
It would appear that with the STB set to Dolby Digital, and Nextpvr not using the PreferAC3 setting, that NPVR seems to get confused when initialising the audio stream for the Colossus
card via HDMI.

Will have a further play, but am definitely getting Dolby Digital on the Sky Movie Channels.

[mvallevand]

That certainly helped for my hdpvr but the only thing that helped me was adding a pause after tuning and having the stb output fixed video.

Martin

[three6zerocool]

Update 2:

Might have been a bit premature in my report. Still having issues changing to STB channels with Dolby Digital Sound.

ie. If I set my STB to PCM/Mpeg...the channel changes without issue. (presumably as it is not trying to determine AC3, and it using 2 channel)
The same thing occurs if I go into the Colossus Encoder settings and disable AC3 over HDMI. (forces PCM for audio), the channels change fine.

If I re-enable Dolby Digital on the STB, then Nextpvr has major issues channel changing between channels with PCM audio and AC3 audio.

Oddly enough, MediaPortal seems more reliable in this respect. More relaxed timing?.. I don't know, but it has channel changing for the Colossus that is about 98% success rate using AC3, while Nextpvr is kinda something like 20% using Colossus with AC3. Disabling AC3 tho really makes the difference for Nextpvr, but then I lose audio quality.

Can you please elaborate on how you 'pause' after tuning? (for this newbie)

[mvallevand]

I created a batch file that I call that added a pause after the tuning. I read a post recently that there might be a problem in 4.2.4 calling a batch file instead of an exe

Martin

[sub]

From memory the problem happens when the device is running and the audio stream changes, since the device resets the clock in the stream. When you're able to set the set top box to always output a fixed format, the Colossus behaves better and the clock just continues to increment normally, and channel changes are relatively quick.

If you needed it to handle dynamically changing audio formats, you probably need to configure you IR Blaster to be a batch file, where you can do the channel change, followed by a couple of seconds of sleeping, so that the clock has settled down by the time NextPVR starts capturing the stream.

[three6zerocool]

Oh, well I did notice that it currently only seems to accept'*.exe' files, which makes messing around a bit more problematic. ((grin) for me at least)
Apparently am supposed to use cmd.exe, so will have an experiment.

Thankyou for the prompt response!. (a point of difference I have discovered on these forums in comparison to MediaPortal)
In other words.... the support on here is 'most excellent!' (sorry Bill and Ted)

[three6zerocool]

I think your memory is really good!. (grin).
That is 'exactly' what I suspect is occurring. Apparently a limitation of the type of device the Colossus/HDPVR devices are.

Thankyou very much for the suggestion sub and Martin!.

Is there a preferred batch command I should be using in my batch script to pause?
I have a macro editor program that creates self executing macros, so could create an .exe that runs a macro, then freely edit the macro.

Will experiment. (tho think I'm experimenting more than watching TV

[three6zerocool]

Having some issues running script to delay IR blasting.
Not sure what is going on, but created a script called 'Blast.cmd',which contained commands to delay for several seconds, and points to the HaupBlast.exe.

I can windowfy Next PVR and run my script modified, by adding a channel number. When I run the batch script, it triggers the Hauppage IR Blaster of my Colossus card, and changes the channel.

I then try to get that working in Nextpvr, by editing the Device channel changing tab.
I use CMD.exe, and then on arguments line use /c "C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\Blast.cmd" {channel}

If I select channel changer to HaupBlast , then IR Blasting works, but my script using CMD.exe seems more dead than disco.

[Graham]

If I select channel changer to HaupBlast , then IR Blasting works, but my script using CMD.exe seems more dead than disco.

The channel changer script/exe runs in the logon context of the "system" user because the NextPVR Recording Service runs as "system" user ... all folder paths should be specified in full ... i.e beginning with C:\etcetera