[BDPNA]

I have a feeling this has been debated until blue in the face, but I wanted to see if any progress has been made (assuming I am still not the only one with this problem) regarding missing audio channels in some files.

In particular, I see this problem happen with random .MOV file movie trailers downloaded from the Apple Quicktime Trailers site.

On my NVidia Mac Mini (all latest updates) connected via Mini-Out for audio (HDMI for video), many trailers play fine, but some seem to confuse XBMC with the central voice track (you don't hear the main audio).

This only happens in XBMC, but not when you play it in Quicktime, which tells me this must be something fixable in XBMC if I know the trick.

A recent example of a video that does this is the HD version of the trailer for "Paul":

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/paul/

When downloaded, saved to the Mac, and played with XBMC.

Can anyone duplicate? Is there a fix? I'm using Cinema Experience so it's annoying when a random trailer is pulled with no audio from my collection.

Thanks.

[mischi]

We just got our new Panasonic TX-P50GW20 and I also struggle with the following setup:
Macbook Pro -> HDMI (via adaptor from miniDisplayPort) -> TV -> optical cable -> Panasonic AV SA-HE7 (yes it's old )
With this, I can only get the other channels to work, can't hear voices.

[BDPNA]

Thanks for posting your results.

I really wish others here could try this Paul trailer on their Apple and tell me their results. The key is inside of xbmc, of course, when playing with regular Quicktime, works fine.

I'm wondering if this is just a bug that they could never resolve or if we're discovering something new...Or just something we've got set wrong.

[filmfreak71]

On my NVidia Mac Mini (all latest updates) connected via Mini-Out for audio (HDMI for video), many trailers play fine, but some seem to confuse XBMC with the central voice track (you don't hear the main audio)..

I have exactly the same problem (although I'm sending my audio out via the HDMI as well), but not just with trailer, it seems to be videos encoded with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. For some reason, XBMC is only outputting the left and right channels and ditches the centre channel with mainly contains the dialogue, which makes watching any movie with a DD5.1 soundtrack totally impossible.

In the end I switched over to Plex, it works perfectly, but all the useful features like trailers have been dropped for the moment and development on that is just sooooo slow as they are just concentrating on the media server back end, I really want to come back to XBMC.

[BDPNA]

I think there's a lot more concentrated on the Apple TV 2 from the XBMC devs right now too, which makes sense, it's the new hotness, so I don't expect a ton of bug fix movement on this version for the Apple OS either. I'm curious though if this is just a long known problem as it's been doing this for over a year now, pre-Dharma. I just always thought it was me but after several reformats I realized it was the software itself.

I'd understand if it did this in Quicktime and Plex too, but the fact it's only dropping center channel dialogue in XBMC tells me there's something to fix.

I think on my mac mini anyway I still get sound out of the center channel too but it's just a mix of the LR channels, because like you said, any sound that was supposed to come out of that center speaker is missing.

I'll have to try this on my Crystalbuntu and new Apple TV 2 boxes to see if it does the same thing. Maybe that will help the devs. Logs look clear.

[filmfreak71]

I'd understand if it did this in Quicktime and Plex too, but the fact it's only dropping center channel dialogue in XBMC tells me there's something to fix. .

It's not just dropping the center channel on mine, it is also dropping the rear channels and the .1 sub as well. It seems to be down mixing the 5.1 track to 2.0 by simple removing center, both rears and the sub from the mix, hence no voice. It incredible frustrating as until Plex pull their finger out and start developing the fun side of the app rather than the server technology I want to come back to XBMC, but considering I can't play movies on it, its pointless

[BDPNA]

It's only doing this for you on Apple trailers tho right? I've never had this problem with other formats, just MOV.

[filmfreak71]

No, any MP4 with a single Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack

[thomash72]

I have the same problem with mp4 files... Dialog (centre channel?) missing, while the rest of the audio track is OK.

[clambert]

For what it's worth...

I seem to have this same issue on my Shuttle HTPC with XBMC running on Ubuntu 10.

Hope the problem gets ironed out...

[thomash72]

I have the same problem running XBMC Live, Dharma on Asrock ION 330...

[Jaxx]

I have the same problem with mp4 files... Dialog (centre channel?) missing, while the rest of the audio track is OK.

Apologies for bumping an old thread, but I just had a same problem with MP4 and AC3.
This was resolved when I changed the Audio Device from HDMI to Optical / Coax, though I am using an HDMI connection... weird.

Is this perhaps a know issue?

[Dudikowski]

We just got our new Panasonic TX-P50GW20 and I also struggle with the following setup:
Macbook Pro -> HDMI (via adaptor from miniDisplayPort) -> TV -> optical cable -> Panasonic AV SA-HE7 (yes it's old )
With this, I can only get the other channels to work, can't hear voices.

I am trying to set up my Panasonic TV with a surrounds sound system and my Macbook Pro. Google found this thread and I could see that you have the same TV model as me.

I have this problem where the MIDI/Audio settings in OS X only show 2 channels for the Panasonic HDMI TV. The 5.1 settings are greyed out. I'm using OS X 10.7.4.



Have you found out something more since posting here?