Sound problem on Blu-ray.

[BrianBailey]

Can anybody help please? I have put together a PC principally as a music server but fitted a Blu-ray drive to enable Blu-ray film playback. The build includes a Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT video card which is connected to a Pioneer plasma screen using HDMI, and an M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card driving a good quality hi-fi using line level output. The Blu-ray player is the Pioneer BDC-S02BK (which CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Advisor thinks is a BDC-202) which came with a version of PowerDVD 7.3. Everything works well including music from MediaMonkey and CD playback thru PowerDVD , and DVDs play well with good sound thru PowerDVD. However when I try to play Blu-ray disks I get a good picture but no sound. PowerDVD has stereo sound selected.
There is obviously quite a lot about sound processing from Blu-ray that I don’t understand and CyberLink have been no help at all.
Thanks.....
From CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Advisor V2.0.1421.0 -
CPU: Intel(R)Core(TM)2Duo CPU E7400 @ 2.80GHz
CPU (Hardware acceleration): NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT
System Memory: 2048MB (actually 4096 fitted)
Operating System: Windows Vista SP1
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT
Graphics Card Driver: 7.15.11.7813
Blu-ray Disc Drive: [E] PIONEER BD-ROM BDC-202
Software Player: PowerDVD 7.3.5105.0
Video Correction Type: Digital (with HDCP)
Playback Capability for Bonus View: Yes
Playback Capability for BD Live: Yes
Hardware Dual-Video Decoding Capability for H.264: 1080p+1080p
Hardware Dual-Video Decoding Capability for MPEG-2: 1080p+1080p
Hardware Dual-Video Decoding Capability for VC-1: 1080p+1080p
Network Capability: Yes

[rob.sparrow]

I need to know a bit more about your sound. Trial and error, I managed to build my own machine. I got an asus Xonar 1.3 hdmi sound card. My NVidia 8600gt card goes into the soundcard and then hdmi from souncard carries both pic and audio to my amp.

I also trialled all of the bluray software and found that by far the best and most comprehensive so far is arcsoft tmt 3. Its expensive but has an hdmi and an hdmi passthough dependin whether your amp or your computer is processing the audio.

It is possible that you need an hdmi audiocard/different software player in order to get full sound. If you are not looking for the full sound output(ie not truehd or dts master ) or are using analog output or optical, try the settings in your blu software. Sometimes if the blu soft is set to analog and the audiocard is set to optical etc may need to tweak. Vista sets the speaker output when you set up your audiocard and it may be that you need to set the output to the right setting.

Sorry if some of these sound like teaching you to suck eggs but I didnt know about this site when i set up my machine, so I have been through every combination, 4 souncards, all blu ray software and a million cable combinations. Hope i can help.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by BrianBailey

Can anybody help please? I have put together a PC principally as a music server but fitted a Blu-ray drive to enable Blu-ray film playback. The build includes a Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT video card which is connected to a Pioneer plasma screen using HDMI, and an M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card driving a good quality hi-fi using line level output. The Blu-ray player is the Pioneer BDC-S02BK (which CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Advisor thinks is a BDC-202) which came with a version of PowerDVD 7.3. Everything works well including music from MediaMonkey and CD playback thru PowerDVD , and DVDs play well with good sound thru PowerDVD. However when I try to play Blu-ray disks I get a good picture but no sound. PowerDVD has stereo sound selected.
There is obviously quite a lot about sound processing from Blu-ray that I don’t understand and CyberLink have been no help at all.
Thanks.....
From CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Advisor V2.0.1421.0 -
CPU: Intel(R)Core(TM)2Duo CPU E7400 @ 2.80GHz
CPU (Hardware acceleration): NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT
System Memory: 2048MB (actually 4096 fitted)
Operating System: Windows Vista SP1
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT
Graphics Card Driver: 7.15.11.7813
Blu-ray Disc Drive: [E] PIONEER BD-ROM BDC-202
Software Player: PowerDVD 7.3.5105.0
Video Correction Type: Digital (with HDCP)
Playback Capability for Bonus View: Yes
Playback Capability for BD Live: Yes
Hardware Dual-Video Decoding Capability for H.264: 1080p+1080p
Hardware Dual-Video Decoding Capability for MPEG-2: 1080p+1080p
Hardware Dual-Video Decoding Capability for VC-1: 1080p+1080p
Network Capability: Yes

That card is a "high-end audiophile 2 channel" card. First of all, you will only be able to get 2 channel sound out of that card - an M-Audio 1010 or 410 would have been a better choice (but BD playback was only secondary, so I can see why you went that route). Question - are you using the breakout cable - if you are, maybe you should use the SPDIF output of the card and tell Powerdvd thats what you are using. If you must use the breakout cable - check your mixer and audiocard patch bay settings. Oh and one other thing - alot of BD's default to TrueHD or DTS-HD-MA, try going with the lossy versions and see if they will play through PowerDVD (I'm not sure if PDVD will downmix the lossless versions down to 2 channel stereo).

[BrianBailey]

The stereo sound output from the Audio card has been so good from other software sources using the breakout cable that I have not felt the need for an external DAC, so using the SPDIF out-put would need me to get one of those as well. PowerDVD has sound controls that allow selection of stereo which is what I had done so I thought I had that covered. I have no need for more sound channels as I am quite resolutely stereo only. I have now tried the Dolby Surround Compatible Downmix and still have no sound from Blu-ray.
On the sound card my impression is that the addressing software forces the right bit rate for the on-board DAC and as I said every other piece of software routes thru to the patch output without any problem. I have a very limited number of Blu-ray discs to try so cant tell if the problem might be related to the sound track encoding. If the packaging has both Dolby Digital and TrueHD symbols does that mean it has both HD sound and the earlier lossless soundtrack (e.g. The Dark Knight)? If you have any specific guidance about patch bay settings or forcing PowerDVD to change the way it manages sound I would appreciate hearing them.
Below is more info from PDVD which confusingly shows Multispeaker Audio Device: Line 1/2 (M-Audio Delta AP 192) (not in use). Is this relevant? I appreciate that here may be a solution in changing from PDVD or going to an external DAC but I need to exhaust the possibilities with what I have first. If I have some other problem underlying I would obviously like to know before parting with more money.
Player Information:
Player Region Code: Not Specified
Current Drive: E:
Display Information:
Video Mode: Progressive
Display Mode: DirectShow
FourCC Code: NV24
Surface Type: Hardware Video Accelerator (DxVA)
Audio Attributes:
Audio Coding mode: Dolby Digital
Sampling Rate: 48kHz
Number of Audio channels: 5.1
Bitrate: 640 Kbps
Hardware Information:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7400 @ running at 2800 MHz
3DNow! Technology: Not Detected
Enhanced 3DNow! Technology: Not Detected
3DNow! Professional Technology: Not Detected
IA MMX Technology: In Use
IA Streaming SIMD Extensions: In Use
IA SSE 2: In Use
Video Accelerator: DirectX VA (in use)
Multispeaker Audio Device: Line 1/2 (M-Audio Delta AP 192) (not in use)
SPDIF Output Device: Line 1/2 (M-Audio Delta AP 192) (not in use)

[prerich]

Originally Posted by BrianBailey

The stereo sound output from the Audio card has been so good from other software sources using the breakout cable that I have not felt the need for an external DAC, so using the SPDIF out-put would need me to get one of those as well. PowerDVD has sound controls that allow selection of stereo which is what I had done so I thought I had that covered. I have no need for more sound channels as I am quite resolutely stereo only. I have now tried the Dolby Surround Compatible Downmix and still have no sound from Blu-ray.
On the sound card my impression is that the addressing software forces the right bit rate for the on-board DAC and as I said every other piece of software routes thru to the patch output without any problem. I have a very limited number of Blu-ray discs to try so cant tell if the problem might be related to the sound track encoding. If the packaging has both Dolby Digital and TrueHD symbols does that mean it has both HD sound and the earlier lossless soundtrack (e.g. The Dark Knight)? If you have any specific guidance about patch bay settings or forcing PowerDVD to change the way it manages sound I would appreciate hearing them.
Below is more info from PDVD which confusingly shows Multispeaker Audio Device: Line 1/2 (M-Audio Delta AP 192) (not in use). Is this relevant? I appreciate that here may be a solution in changing from PDVD or going to an external DAC but I need to exhaust the possibilities with what I have first. If I have some other problem underlying I would obviously like to know before parting with more money.
Player Information:
Player Region Code: Not Specified
Current Drive: E:
Display Information:
Video Mode: Progressive
Display Mode: DirectShow
FourCC Code: NV24
Surface Type: Hardware Video Accelerator (DxVA)
Audio Attributes:
Audio Coding mode: Dolby Digital
Sampling Rate: 48kHz
Number of Audio channels: 5.1
Bitrate: 640 Kbps
Hardware Information:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7400 @ running at 2800 MHz
3DNow! Technology: Not Detected
Enhanced 3DNow! Technology: Not Detected
3DNow! Professional Technology: Not Detected
IA MMX Technology: In Use
IA Streaming SIMD Extensions: In Use
IA SSE 2: In Use
Video Accelerator: DirectX VA (in use)
Multispeaker Audio Device: Line 1/2 (M-Audio Delta AP 192) (not in use)
SPDIF Output Device: Line 1/2 (M-Audio Delta AP 192) (not in use)

Is that your line out that's not in use on the Delta? If that's what PDVD is reporting then there's the problem. It's strange that you can play dvd's and music through your Delta but not BD's. What are your audio settings in Powerdvd?

[BrianBailey]

The sound settings in PDVD seem to be restricted. At the moment I am only offered-
Speaker Environment - blank or Use SPDIF.
Output Mode - Stereo, Dolby Surroundsound Compatble Downmix, or Cyberlink virtual Speaker.
From those I have selected Speaker Enviroonment - blank and Output Mode - Stereo although I have tried the Dolby Downmix but nothing changed.
I seems strange that I did have more choices but it seems posible they should not have been present in the version I was supplied and my failed attempts to use the Activation process have removed them. I also think that the line about Mulispeaker Audio Device not in use reflects that I have the basic two channel version not that there is no audio output.
I have been using MediaMonkey without any problem but there is a reference in their forum to early versions having problems with AISO interfaces on sound cards for which there is a patch but I cannot find out any more details. I wonder if this could be the cause of some sort of incompatibility with PDVD (grasping at straws now).
I have been thinking I might have to risk the $54 on an upgrade to PDVD just to see if it sorts out this problem.