I tried to find any previous threads about how to get AC3 audio out of DVD's. Could not find. Sorry if this has been discussed before.
I am not sure how to do that.
I have vdr-1.3.23 and dvd-0.3.6-b03 and DVD with AC3 sound is not producing any sound in FF cards audio out.
Should I have AC3 bitstreamout plugin and get AC3 sound out from soundcard?
\Kartsa
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Doesn't anybody have any hints? I tried the -a option but if I try a DVD with AC3 sound vdr just exits and restarts on the channel it happend to be before trying the DVD play. MP2 audio DVD's works fine.
Oh, and I updated to vdr-1.3.43 with dvd-0.3.7_pre20060204. Also updated firmware to 2622.
And the log does not tell much Mar 4 10:37:06 vdr: [7342] dvd-plugin thread started (pid=7342, tid=7342) Mar 4 10:37:06 vdr: [7342] dvd-plugin: BitStreamOutActive=0, HasBitStreamOut=0 (0) Mar 4 10:37:06 vdr: [7342] dvd-plugin: SoftDeviceOutActive=0, HasSoftDeviceOut=0 Mar 4 10:37:11 lircd 0.7.0[4667]: removed client Mar 4 10:37:21 vdr: [7349] VDR version 1.3.43 started
\Kartsa
Kartsa wrote:
I can not help you more than saying that AC3 audio with DVD-plugin and VDR-1.3.43 and firmware 2622 works for me.
I use DVD-plugin from CVS and do not set any options.
Here you find CVS version: :pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/dvdplugin
I believe that AC3 basically works on your system (on TV-channels) ?
Regards Peter
From: "Peter Juszack" vdr@unterbrecher.de
The problem is that there is no TV channels with AC3 sounds that I can verify with. But the same DVD can be played back on my DVD player which is connected to my A/V receivers coaxial input.
The problem is that vdr quits when I've specified the -a option and I try to watch a DVD with AC3 sound.
I take that you use the -a option with vdr? May I ask what your vdr start command looks like?
Anyway I'll have to try the CVS version of DVD plugin.
Maybe the reason is that my FF card is a dvb-c Technotrend :)
\Kartsa
I was in the impression that the AC3 stream would come out from the SPDIF connector which I have connected to my A/V receiver which has the decoder. Or am I missing here something? I have vdr -a ac3play.
\Kartsa
Kartsa wrote:
You are right - the AC3 decoder is your A/V-receiver. For me it works and I do not set the -a option at all. Just ./vdr -Pdvd ... Did you tried the dvd CVS version?
You said that you never used AC3 before because you do not receive AC3-channels from your cable network. On my Hauppauge FF-card the firmware must do a trick do deliver AC3 on the SPDIF by encapsulating the AC3 pakets in PCM. Some AV-receivers cannot handle that. I believe that Technotrend is the same.
Maybe that's a problem but it is probably not the reason why VDR crashes when replaying AC3 DVDs.
So please try the following:
- install CVS version of DVD plugin - start VDR without -a option - verify setup (VDR and plugin) that AC3 out is enabled.
Regards Peter
On Sun, Mar 05, 2006 at 02:42:03PM +0100, Peter Juszack wrote:
For S/P-DIF the AC3 pakets are encapsluated into non-linear PCM[2]. The problem is that within the S/P-DIF containers[1] for the AC3 data there are some more bits which are used to indicate `AC3 used'. Now the hardware of the DVB-S cards can not set this `AC3 used' bit and if AV receivers test for this bit and ignore the special PCM structure[2] the AC3 data will be handled as linear PCM which is generating nasty noise.
[1] S/P-DIF is part of ISO/IEC 60958 [2] Nonlinear PCM for AC3 over S/P-DIF as described in ISO/IEC 61937
Werner
Now I tried without the -a option and got the PCM light on in the receiver but there were no sound. Not even noise. I got VDR somehow freesed while I was testing when I was trying to select the audio (for some reason there seemed to be two audio tracks on the DVD even though I had put there only one :/). There was something like "tried to open OSD although OSD allready open" in the log file (I can not verify that right now). So I had to reboot in order to get normal working state again. Then it began to record and I could not test with a commercial DVD (wife factor, you know). But I have to say that the DVD I made works fine in my set top DVD player.
Anyway the reason can then be my receiver if it tests the bit and ignores PCM structure but somehow stops the noise.
So how is it that this setting seems to work for some and not for some (unles it is all about the receiver).
I will test with another DVD still and report what happens :)
\Kartsa
On Tue, Mar 07, 2006 at 09:04:59AM +0200, Kartsa wrote:
For small AC3 frames (each with a delay of 32ms at 48kHz) which are filled into a PCM frames of 6144 bytes (32ms at 48kHz) with a special start sequence and padded with zeros you get for the most time silence if the PCM frames are handled as a linear PCM stream.
So how is it that this setting seems to work for some and not for some (unles it is all about the receiver).
IMHO the receiver will work if and only if the nonlinear data bitw is set in the S/P-DIF data transfer stream. The problem could be that not only the DVB-S FF cards can not set this bit but also some older soundcards or soundchips can not set this bit.
On the other hand, without the nonlinear data bit some receivers may not like gaps in the data stream caused by underruns (e.g. high load or high data rates which can not handled by the dvd plugin and/or VDR) and switch back into linear PCM mode.
Werner
From: "Dr. Werner Fink" werner@suse.de
So now I have tried with a DVD I made and a commercial DVD. Both DVD's works in my settop DVD player. Both lits the PCM sign in my external decoder. I have connected my vdr box straight to decoder from ff cards J2 connector. I've checked and double checked that J2 is connected the right way. When SPDIF is connected to decoder normal channel viewing becomes impossible because the picture becomes mosaic as if I would have poor antenna signal but it does not affect the quality of DVD picture. Detaching the cable restores the picture. This could ofcourse be due to the fact that both vdr and receiver are connected to antenna wall outlet (not the same though).
I've also checked http://www.vdr-wiki.de/wiki/index.php/DD-Receiver my receiver and the list says Status PCM is OK.
Now I have vdr 1.3.43 with CVS DVD plugin. Btw, what do I have to have to get subtitles out of DVD? I have normal subtitle plugin installed for DVB subtitles.
Any suggestions :(
\Kartsa
Kartsa wrote:
Use an optical SPDIF like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-SPDIF-Out-Module-W-Cable-4P-Optical-Coaxial-NEW_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ31492QQitemZ5836718451QQrdZ1 It will both protect the receiver from the often reported receiver fry due to too high voltage on the coax SPDIF (5v peak instead of 1v peak) and isolate the ground between the VDR and the receiver. I use one myself and it works as expected.
/Richard
Hi Klaus,
I encounter a strange behavior with vdr 1.3.44. The names of recordings are displayed wrong (some cryptic chars).
You can see some examples @ vdrportal:
http://www.vdr-portal.de/board/thread.php?postid=433905#post433905 http://www.vdr-portal.de/board/thread.php?postid=433962#post433962 http://www.vdr-portal.de/board/thread.php?postid=435407#post435407
I already tried some hints:
1) genindex
2) VDR without plugins
3) Vanilla VDR
Unfortunately, nothing works. VDR 1.3.42 worked as expected and name of recordings on hard disk are fine.
Can you give me a hint?
Thanks,
Alain
Hi Klaus,
I found the bug with some further testing:
Chose the following settings
Show date: yes Show time: yes Show length: no
in settings/recording and you will find the cryptic chars I got. Should be an error in source code I suppose...
Regards,
Alain
I demand that Alain Vaslet may or may not have written...
You can see some examples @ vdrportal:
I found the bug with some further testing:
Chose the following settings
=> patched VDR. Check what patches you're using; I'm not seeing this problem with liemikuutio 1.3.
-
Alain Vaslet -
Darren Salt -
Dr. Werner Fink -
Karl Herz -
Kartsa -
Klaus Schmidinger -
Peter Juszack -
Richard Lithvall -
Rolf Ahrenberg