AC-3 Audio problems.

SPG · **26th October 2005, 10:55 AM**

Hi All,

Last night I upgraded my Twinhan driver from 1.2.1.2 to 1.2.2.7 and upgraded MCE with RU2 (and its updade).
After using the MCE Reset Tool went through the setups, setup the guide and re-scanned for services.
Everything seams to be working ok except sometimes get intermittent audio out of my AV receiver.
I can be watching a channel ok, then change channel and the audio will be intermittent, cutting in and out a few times a second by the sound of it.
It doesn’t happen every time I change the channel, probably about every second or third time I change the channel, across all channels.
The strange thing is if I pause the program for a second or two the audio comes good. It’s as if it need a bit of a buffer or something.

Note:
Using S/PDIF from MB to AV receiver
Before upgrading AV receiver display would only say “DIGITAL”.(as in digital audio in)
Now it displays “DIGITAL” and “Dolby Pro Logic” when the audio is OK.
And when the audio is BAD, just displays “DIGITAL” but it flickers on and off.

Any Ideas?

Thanks Vincent.

philzgr8 · **26th October 2005, 10:59 AM**

It might be a coincidence but I have exactly the same issue with a very similar set-up. I hadn't worried too much about it because I'm in a bit of a testing phase with some additional software at the moment and it's so easy to fix but it is a bit annoying. I'd be interested if anyone knows of a solution too.

Matt · **26th October 2005, 09:41 PM**

Looks like everyone has started to come out of the closet...

But I'm glad I'm not the only one that had this problem.. Been driving me nuts.

Only really affected me on Ch9 & 10.. but it was dahm annoying.

Anyway good news is I was able to fix it using AC3Filter and then applying the attached registry hack. (sets preferred audio codec to AC3filter) I do get some occasional lip sync issues, however this is fixed by a quick pause and then resume.

Try it out and let me know if it helps.

Cheers

Matt.

SPG · **26th October 2005, 10:23 PM**

Thanks Matt,

Give it a go later.

cheers,
Vincent.

philzgr8 · **27th October 2005, 08:29 AM**

Good work Matt. It'll probably wind up somewhere on my to do list

Damned thing is getting longer by the day

SPG · **27th October 2005, 12:52 PM**

No change unfortunately.
Applied hack, restarted computer, no change.

arkay · **27th October 2005, 07:17 PM**

Just a pointer for those of you using RU2 on top of your original installs. I too had numberous problems of this nature after my RU2 update.

Not long after I bit the bullet and re-installed from scratch. Haven't had a single problem since. I loathe doing it. Must have done it hundreds of times since MCE2005 was released and during the Emerald Beta.. But this time it was well worth it. I now have an exceptionally clean and well functioning machine.

Cheers,
Arkay.

SPG · **27th October 2005, 08:46 PM**

Looks like I'll be doing a clean install this weekend!

Any recomendations on the order in which I install things?
I've think i've seen a few post regarding this but can't remember where.

SilentButcher · **28th October 2005, 04:45 AM**

yup, I got the same problem. I press stop and then play on the MCE remote to fix situation.

very wierd...I wonder if its a conflicting codec ?

nac · **28th October 2005, 08:54 AM**

I think it may be a purevideo issue.
I changed back to Purevideo from Cyberlink and have now noticed that some SD channels with AC3 loose sync. The HD channels and channels without AC3 seems to be OK.

In fact why does an SD channel default to AC3?
Is there some way to force an SD channel to not have AC3 sound?