Live Tv only uses left/right speaker. What happened to the rest?

[smashjt]

Long story short - I have a videomate dvb-t200a that came with comproDTV. Compro was schocking. Fine SD, sutter on HD, poor PQ. Crashes, bugs, etc so goodbye to compro.:p

I then tried the trial Showshifter 3.1 and everything was perfect. Great pictures for both SD and HD. With Showshifter the Australian AC3 audio format worked perfectly on ALL 6 channels. But the Showshifter trial ended and no way was I going back to Compro so I decided to try GBPVR.

So far all is good EXCEPT that I can only use my left/right speakers and not the rest. I know my hardware can do it so what am I missing? If my existing codecs worked perfectly before, why not now?

In GBPVR config I notice no difference between Nvidia(not purevideo) and system default audio codecs. This is driving me insane trying to get it to work. Is it currently a limit with GBPVR?

This is for Live TV. I haven't yet tried recording etc. Any help much appreciated.

Pentium D 2.8
Videomate DVB-T200a tuner
Realtek Ac'97 onboard sound (set up with converted Mic/line in ports to act as speakers. NO Spdif)
Geforce 7600gs
1.5 gig ram

[-Oz-]

it is definitely a codec thing. I think you would want to use Nvidia purevideo. Someone else may have figured this out though.

[K.S.]

you should check the recording source & the scanned channels. the channels broadcasting AC3 might show up twice in channel scan (one channel for the broadcast in AC3, the other stereo), try if there is a difference. if there's no difference, try to playback a recording with some other app if it's got AC3 then. if so, -Oz- is right, get a decoder with AC3 support like this here http://ac3filter.net/ or nvidia purevideo (which comes in different flavours, only the expensive ones support surround sound)

[smashjt]

Ok, I installed the ac3filter but have come up with mixed results. On Channel 7, the rear speakers have a weird "sqiurrely" sound (strange distortion, kind of liquidy. Hard to describe) and Channel 10 has no surround at all. Still just left/right. All the other channels seem to be ok.

I also downloaded a version of purevideo, but I don't seem to be able select it in GBPVR config. Is it supposed to appear as Purevideo or does it simply display as Nvidia video? This is a "licensed" version of purevideo, not sure which version.

I know these relatively simple questions can get kind of tiresome. So I'm grateful for your help and patience.

I haven't even started to ask about recording problems yet...(ie doesn't work)

Thanks

[smashjt]

quick update: I manually recorded channel 10 and the playback gave me full surround. It's great that it does, but why no surround when it's live?

[K.S.]

Ok, I installed the ac3filter but have come up with mixed results. On Channel 7, the rear speakers have a weird "sqiurrely" sound (strange distortion, kind of liquidy. Hard to describe)

wait for a show with distortion in live tv, then record this show. does the playback in GBPVR of the "finished" recording (wait till it's finished or cancel the recording after some time, else it uses an other filter) sound ok? if so, only sub can give you a hint what to do next

quick update: I manually recorded channel 10 and the playback gave me full surround. It's great that it does, but why no surround when it's live?

i guess the playback of the recording was with GBPVR? do all recordings on that channel have ac3? simple & stupid check to narrow it down: start recording a show, cancel that recording & check for ac3, if present, check for ac3 on live tv. if it's ac3 on the recording but not on live tv: ask sub

I also downloaded a version of purevideo, but I don't seem to be able select it in GBPVR config. Is it supposed to appear as Purevideo or does it simply display as Nvidia video? This is a "licensed" version of purevideo, not sure which version.

sorry, i have a FX5200 card but i'm not happy with it, so i don't see why i should spend additional bucks on purevideo. someone using the purevideo decoder would have to answer that one

[smashjt]

Alright, done some quick recording samples. All recording/playback done within GBPVR. Channel 7HD live says AC3, sometimes has squirrely sound, sometimes has no sound at all. On recording playback it has full sound.

Channel 10HD live says AC3, no surround,recording playback has surround.

The AC3 on live seems to be intermittent. Sometimes channels that were in surround before, lose that capability. ie ABC2, ABCHD, SBSHD, 9HD. (as a matter of fact, all of them


I've actually spent more time playing silly buggers with the settings than I have actually watching TV so I can't tell if there are patterns or not. Only time will produce a more accurate average.

On a quick side issue, is there a way to use the mouse wheel to change the channels? The OSD + - occasionally won't change channel up, it just switches back and forth between the next and previous channels. Alternatively is there a mouse driven quick channel change ability similar to the keyboard quick change?

I've tried so many different combinations that I'm starting to feel as silly as a wheel

[pastro]

Have you selected an audio decoder and renderer, or is it on system default. I think it is possible that different ones are selected for live TV versus playback.
Are you familiar with graphedit? When you have distorted sound or no sound but the playback works correctly, exit GB-PVR and look at lastgraph.grf (in the GBPVR dir) with graphedit. That will show which filters were actually selected. Do the same thing during playback and see if they are different.

Yes, the PureVideo Decoder shows up as Nvidea Video Decoder.

[K.S.]

I think it is possible that different ones are selected for live TV versus playback.
Are you familiar with graphedit? When you have distorted sound or no sound but the playback works correctly, exit GB-PVR and look at lastgraph.grf (in the GBPVR dir) with graphedit. That will show which filters were actually selected. Do the same thing during playback and see if they are different.

that's the reason for the dumb tests i've proposed (during live tv & timeshifting it's definitely using a custom filter from GBPVR for the file access), i didn't know that graphedit saved that infos regardless of live tv vs. recorded show, nice to know, might give me a chance to tackle one problem i'm fighting with ;-)
smashjt: try to keep it to one change at a time, else it's frustrating to tweak settings

[pastro]

that's the reason for the dumb tests i've proposed (during live tv & timeshifting it's definitely using a custom filter from GBPVR for the file access), i didn't know that graphedit saved that infos regardless of live tv vs. recorded show, nice to know, might give me a chance to tackle one problem i'm fighting with ;-)
smashjt: try to keep it to one change at a time, else it's frustrating to tweak settings

It's a very useful debug feature to stop whatever is running exit GBPVR and look at lastgraph.grf with the exception of a DVD which writes lastdvdgraph.grf. I put graphedit.exe in c:\ and when I dclick on a grf it finds graphedit and opens it. (I know how to associate the apps and files, I just didn't bother).