[D-tyme]

Try removing the 2 ch. track and see if that works

[sceaga]

D-tyme: if you look at previous posts I've already tried that and was unsuccessful. I've tried ac3 first, ac3 second, and ac3 only and none show 5.1 despite the fact that the audio file has 6ch audio.

[D-tyme]

PS - It's too bad the HandBrake preset for AppleTV doesn't make the pass-through the 1st audio track ... DOH!

Ever think there was a reason for that... Try getting the AppleTV OS (Quicktime) to play the AC3 track any other way.

Please note, with the swapped audio tracks, the audio does now automatically play the 6 channel pass-through audio now:

Code:

11:46:17 T:2959171584 M:725204992  NOTICE: Creating audio device with codec id: 86020, channels: 2, sample rate: 48000, pass-through

So why does it still say 2 channels? There are 2ch AC3 tracks...

D-tyme: if you look at previous posts I've already tried that and was unsuccessful. I've tried ac3 first, ac3 second, and ac3 only and none show 5.1 despite the fact that the audio file has 6ch audio.

You say that, but you didn't show any evidence of such...

1. Remove the title from your library and from the scanned folder.
2. Update library and make sure the movie isn't added and you cannot see it in the library.
3. Copy the "single" AC3 6 ch movie to the folder to be scanned.

If you truly have a AC3 Passthru 6ch track, then it should flag properly.

[sceaga]

I have done exactly those steps several times now and it doea not work. I have verified with mediainfo that the single ac3 track encoding has 6 channels. Also, if you read all the postings about ac3 passthrough playback you will see that they are actually output as a hack of S/PDIF of 2 channels which is what my output shows.

What can I post to prove to you that I've done exactly what you state and prove that it does not work?

[tuckbodi]

I've used the Handbrake AppleTV preset with stereo the first track and AC-3 as my second. I went through the same rigmarole (posted around here) and nothing worked until the day I tagged everything using Ember Media Manager. The next time I scanned my files in they displayed the 5.1 symbol correctly. One disclaimer though, sometimes the file in EMM will show the 5.1 and in XBMC it will show a 2.0 or a WMA or etc. with no rhyme or reason. Regardless, most of them are now showing 5.1. Give Ember a shot..

[D-tyme]

I have done exactly those steps several times now and it doea not work. I have verified with mediainfo that the single ac3 track encoding has 6 channels. Also, if you read all the postings about ac3 passthrough playback you will see that they are actually output as a hack of S/PDIF of 2 channels which is what my output shows.

What can I post to prove to you that I've done exactly what you state and prove that it does not work?

The issue isn't that it doesn't work; it's that it is not working for you. if you can post a sample of the file ~50bm - 100mb, I'll be more than willing to see if it is indeed your setup or a bad file...or something else.

[sceaga]

tuckbodi: Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have access to a Windows box to use / run Ember. It would be nice to know what it's tagging in the file to make it show up correctly, as then I could add the appropriate info to my M4V files.

As another test, I ran the same dual audio track and single audio track encodes I was doing to M4V files, and instead encoded them to MKV files. Both versions (dual and single audio track) both correctly appear as Dolby Digital 5.1 in XBMC's interface. This is obviously not a solution for me, as the AppleTV cannot handle MKV files very well.

There is clearly something odd going on with M4V files and AC3 pass-through tracks. I just wish I could find what little mystery piece I'm missing to get this to work! Ugh!

[D-tyme]

This is obviously not a solution for me, as the AppleTV cannot handle MKV files very well.

Not sure where you get that idea. All I use, now, are mkvs; on both my AppleTV and MacMini. I don't see why the container would matter anyway. Its not like you are using the AppleTV OS. I don't see how there would be "hardware" requirements for a container...

[sceaga]

Well, I guess the container would not matter other than it's not portable for me to use in iTunes when I'm not using XBMC. So in any case MKV is not really the way I'd like to go if you say M4V's should work as I would expect.

I've create a sample test encode for you to look at. It has a single AC3 pass-through track with 6 channels. Mediainfo shows:

Code:

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                   : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                         : ac-3
Duration                         : 20s 832ms
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 448 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 1.11 MiB (38%)
Language                         : English
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-12-01 06:39:05
Tagged date                      : UTC 2010-12-01 06:39:20

This file still only shows Dolby Digital 2.0, and not 5.1 as it should. Please take a look at it and tell me what's wrong.

Posted at: https://public.me.com/robert914
File: encoded-single-ac3-6ch.m4v

[D-tyme]

Well, don't know what to say. It does show up as Dolby Digital 2.0. The good news is that it is only cosmetic.

[sceaga]

I was hoping you would say something was wrong with the file ... ugh. Now I'm still stuck, as I don't know if my dual track versions are really working as I expect. I guess I'll have to run some tests and check my A/V equipment to see if it's actually getting the full 6 channels or not.

I really don't want to have to go back and re-encode all these movies with a single AC3 track (or a AC3 track that's first)... but I suppose if I have to, then I have to. I sure wish it displayed properly so I could easily tell which ones were still wrong.

[tuckbodi]

tuckbodi: Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have access to a Windows box to use / run Ember. It would be nice to know what it's tagging in the file to make it show up correctly, as then I could add the appropriate info to my M4V files.

Are you on a Mac? If you have an Intel box you can boot into Bootcamp and run Ember or use VMWare or Parallels. That's how I do it and Ember rocks. Seriously, it somehow fixed my display of 5.1 vs. 2.0. And this is with files with first track AAC stereo and second track of AC3 Passthru.

[sceaga]

Are you on a Mac? If you have an Intel box you can boot into Bootcamp and run Ember or use VMWare or Parallels. That's how I do it and Ember rocks. Seriously, it somehow fixed my display of 5.1 vs. 2.0. And this is with files with first track AAC stereo and second track of AC3 Passthru.

I am on a MacBook Pro, but I didn't really want to have to install Windows just to run Ember, however, I may have to do that in order to determine what Ember is changing in the file. I suspect it may have something to do with the audio codec name, as if I look at the AC3 track of my M4V and compare it to the AC3 track of my MKV encoded with the same settings (therefore the only difference is the container), I see:

M4V audio track:

Code:

Codec ID                         : ac-3

MKV audio track:

Code:

Codec ID                         : A_AC3

These should be identical since the container should not change this information. So I suspect that possibly HandBrake is incorrectly naming the codec ID on the M4V files vs. the MKV files. I seem to recall seeing some reference to this in a post I found during searching this issue, but I cannot find it now. Even so, there was no posted solution as to how to correct this.

[sceaga]

Here is that post, he is basically having the same / identical problem I am seeing:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=81499

[sceaga]

Another odd media flag behavior I also see between M4V and MKV files is the video type for M4V shows as "WMV HD" (incorrect) but the MKV file shows "H.264" (correct). This also appears like a difference in the Codec ID in the files. Mediainfo shows:

M4V video track:

Code:

Codec ID                         : avc1

MKV video track:

Code:

Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

I really suspect that XBMC's parsing of the codec information is not as robust as it could be someplace.