How to Bitstream HD audio from HTPC/Laptop

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spirovious

spirovious

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Hi friends,

I know that this topic is very old,still I saw that many of our new members find it difficult to Bitstream HD audio from PC/Laptop.
So I thought of writing about some Video players which does this job well and you get those Free.

First you have to check if your Hardware supports HD audio over HDMI.ATI HD series(5***)and above.Nvidia GT 4** and above does support it.
popular Video players are Media Player Classic for Home Cinema(MPCHC), Pot Player,XMBC.I will write about first two as XMBC details you can find in forum elsewhere.

Also you have to change few settings in Windows.

Right click on volume symbol(Right side bottom)and select "Play back device"-


Then on top of window,click Configure Speaker.You get this-

Here you can set to "5.1 or 7.1" according to your speaker setup.

Also select"Set as Default Device"as "AMD HDMI out"


using Media player Classic -

Download MPCHC from here-
Downloads – MPC-HC

You need some filters like LAV filters or FFD show-
LAV Filters 0.60.1 - VideoHelp.com Downloads
Free Download LAV Filters 0.60.1 : LAV Filters are a set of DirectShow filters

ffdshow 1.3.4530 - VideoHelp.com Downloads
You need to install either of it.

Also get Haali media splitter-
Haali Media Splitter 23/06/2013 - VideoHelp.com Downloads

Lets start step by step.
Star MPCHC and go to options (View> Optios)

Then Playback> Output. Here select the correct "Audio Renderer" option.In my case its HD5570,so "Direct sound AMD HDMI Output" selected.
If it doesnt works,set it as "system default".


Then go to Internal filters setting and untick DTS,DD,FLAC,MPEG options and select same in Transform Filters.See the image below how it looks.


Now go to External Filters.Here you need to select Haali Media Splitter,LAV Video decoder and Lav audio decoder by clicking "Add Filter".


Double click Lav audio decoder and select Bitstream option in Lav audio decoder setting like below.


Then LAV video decoder and select correct Hardware acceleration.I have selected "DXVA2(copy back)"due to ATI card.You can select "Nvidia CUVID" if you have nvidia card.
Also tick "Codecs for HW decoding"and select "H.264,VC1,MPEG2" MPEG4 if your card supports.


Also make sure that you select "prefer" option before each filter like below-


Haali splitter is used for MKV files and also help to select different audio streams from source video file.

Thats it.Your MPCHC is ready to Bitstream perfectly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Potplayer is just similar to set with some tweaks.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/PotPlayer

Potplayer has edge as it can play 3D perfectly.Also Bluray discs easily.Please follow the images below.
First you have to disable internal processing.
Go to Preferences (F5)> Filter Control and you can see like image below.
Here in Condition,select "Disable with following Conditions"And just below that "MPG1 MPG2 WMV2 WMV3 H264 AVC1 WVC1"in Fourcc.
Also untick use "audio processing Filters"at bottom.Else Potplayer will downmix audio.



Then select filters like MPCHC.Click "Filter Management"at bottom and you can see the window like this-

Click "Add registered Filters" there to select from the list.


Then click "Built-in codecs/DXVA setting" and select necessary options like in image-
Video setting


Like you go to Audio Filter option and again Click
"Built-in codecs(S/PDIF,HDMI)setting".Where you can see audio options.Select like I did-


Also check that main window of each Filter should look like below-



Make sure you select Lav filters in audio video settings here.

Also Audio output option like below-


It should work perfectly now.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Finally few setting regarding VLC media player which can send Dolby digital and Dts sound as "Raw" to AVR.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

Once you did setting in windows like MPCHC, some more tweaks you need.

Go to tools> preference and select "Audio".Here select "Output module"as "DirectX audio output"
Also tick option "S/PDIF when available".Device option can be "Primary or AMD-HDMI out "


Also got to advance setting by clicking show setting to ALL at left side bottom.Make sure you select "5.1"option in Speaker Configration (DirectX option)as below.


Common Video setting can be like below-


Same in advance settings, select Video output modules options as "DirectX(Direct Draw) video output"-


Now Vlc is ready to stream audio correctly.
If you noticed,we have also learnt to set Video Hardware acceleration.So CPU load should be less now.
Hope this helps you in simple way.Thanks for reading such a long post.Also if I have missed some more settings,please do post in this thread.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
spirovious said:
Hi friends, .................Then Playback> Output. Here select the correct "Audio Renderer" option.In my case its HD5570,so "Direct sound AMD HDMI Output" selected.
If it doesnt works,set it as "system default"............Cheers.
Click to expand...

If possible try to avoid "Direct sound", always use "WASAPI" mode for Bitstreaming. Because direct sound has extremely big latency (usually between 50ms and 80ms) whereas WASAPI has latency between 10ms and 30ms. Since direct sound is windows own audio rendered a little bit of conversion happens at the PC level, before Bitstreaming via HDMI. But WASAPI passes unprocessed data 'as is' to the AVR to be played and does not allow other windows sounds to interfere or get added to the mix.
 
reignofchaos said:
Actually DXVA Copy back is now faster than cuvid even for nvidia cards. Use either quicksync if the cpu supports it or DXVA copyback.
Click to expand...

But remember 'DXVA Copy back' does not support Hardware/GPU Deinterlacing. Only Nvdia Cuvid and intel QS have this support. When you play a full hd 1080p blu ray content, then GPU support is essential.
 
Subha15011976 said:
But remember 'DXVA Copy back' does not support Hardware/GPU Deinterlacing. Only Nvdia Cuvid and intel QS have this support. When you play a full hd 1080p blu ray content, then GPU support is essential.
Click to expand...
It works with ATI too I suppose.When I play in MPCHC,I can see DXVA symbol and I can use ATI settings from control panel.
LAV Video Configuration - MediaPortal Wiki
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1394741/anyone-using-dxva-with-lav-filters-and-madvr-on-an-amd-ati-gpu
 
Just update-
I have already posted in another thread that I found Potplayer as the Best to bitstream perfectly in free video players.Compared XMBC, MPCHC and Potplayer.Potplayer was at the first place,MPCHC at second and XMBC was the last.
Its the sound quality in Bitstreaming was the best in Potplayer and XMBC was sounding congested. MPCHC was decent in three.
I compared with 3 different HTPCs and HT system.So can confirm my views.So try and let us know your findings.
 
Thanks for updating us :)
spirovious said:
Just update-
I have already posted in another thread that I found Potplayer as the Best to bitstream perfectly in free video players.Compared XMBC, MPCHC and Potplayer.Potplayer was at the first place,MPCHC at second and XMBC was the last.
Its the sound quality in Bitstreaming was the best in Potplayer and XMBC was sounding congested. MPCHC was decent in three.
I compared with 3 different HTPCs and HT system.So can confirm my views.So try and let us know your findings.
Click to expand...
 
About Bitstreaming into HTiB !!

Hey guys,
I have Samsung HTiB connected to my nVidia's Mini Displayport via HDMI. Now I have the following issues:

1) I have copied the "dtsdecoderdll.dll" into LAV's folder and checked all 'Bitstreaming Audio Formats' which are supported by my HTiB then disabled all internal filters to replace them with LAV Filters x32 as (prefer) and finally when I play any DTS-HD video through MPC-BE x32 (with WASAPI Exclusive!), I get this status info: http://oi62.tinypic.com/726fdf.jpg
Does that mean my HTiB is only able to decode DTS Core in Bitstreaming?!
2) When I play a TrueHD video, the LAV Audio Decoder gets replaced by ffdshow Audio Decoder!! How to get LAV back?
3) Let's say my HTiB can't decode those HD Audio Formats this way, will it uncompress them into PCM afterall? If so, I won't lose any quality in audio, right?
4) I tested those untouched videos with ArcSoft TMT player (not willing to replace it with MPC-BE though!), the DTS-HD/TrueHD Logos appear on the lower-right corner of the window! Am I getting the Full Lossless Audio in that case?!
5) In order to prevent Windows from reducing sound quality by resampling audio file, I need to enable WASAPI Exclusive mode but I'll lose the ability of playing 2nd opened audio/video unless I quit from the first (focused) one! How do I get the best of both worlds besides 'Reclock' if that's the one?
6) Is there any possible way to control audio via Windows Volume Mixer instead of HTiB's remote control while Bitstreaming?
7) How to turn off display of mini displayport while keeping the audio since the screen gets black a few times everytime I turn on/off the HTiB or switch its source inputs!
It's even an extra load to my GPU for broadcasting another useless display signal of my desktop just for the audio to be bitstreamed through it!

Sorry for asking too much but I had to eventually!
Your help is really priceless to me!
Thank you so much guys!
Have a wonderful day!
 
Re: About Bitstreaming into HTiB !!

Thanks a lot guys! Your links were really helpful and sorry for the late reply.
 
I dont know if it is the right place to post this. Have pot player for my htpc and wanted to know why cant audio cd's be played by pot payer. It plays in windows media player however. Just wanted to know the reason. Thanks
 
rayvonnee said:
I dont know if it is the right place to post this. Have pot player for my htpc and wanted to know why cant audio cd's be played by pot payer. It plays in windows media player however. Just wanted to know the reason. Thanks
Click to expand...
It should play with the setting I explained.Still for music,I will suggest Foobar which is better for playing music.
foobar2000
 
Hi,

I tried to follow the guidelines of this 3d (the images are now missing, though) but no luck...
I have a Medion PC with Win 7 x64 which is connected with an optical cable to a Kenwood KRF-V8060D AVR and with an HDMI cable to a Panasonic TV.
I can't bitstream the audio to the AVR: the result is a lot of vibrations coming from the front speaker (which become more and more annoying as I raise the volume) and no dolby digital sound is detected. I connected to the same input of the AVR a Panasonic BD player and as soon as I chose Bitstream audio the audio worked just fine (and Dolby digital was detected). If on the BD player I choose instead PCM I have the same problem I am having with the PC.

I tried VLC, MPC HC, etc.. with no luck... I removed the Realtek HD audio drivers and installed them again , nothing... any idea?
 
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