ActiveX - No Sound from Centre Speaker

[InsureMan]

Have the “S/PDIF when available” option set, along with the “Win32 wave out extension output” which works fine as a standard player and I have sound out of front centre speaker. Am unable to get sound from centre speaker in ActiveX mode even if I cycle through the 3 different Track options.

What do I need to do to have my centre speaker output sound.

Thanks

[VLC_help]

You should be able to select the options when you initialize ActiveX by passing them as parameters.
--spdif and --aout=<string> Audio output module

[InsureMan]

Don't under stand what you mean by "initialize ActiveX ", what I have here is VLC ActiveX embedded in an Access 2003 form. Have then set a reference to "C:\Program Files\VideoLan\VLC\axvlc.dll". Then using the "Object Browser" I have been able to workout to do such things as control and play DVD's.

Typically I use the following code:

Private mobjPlayer As VLCPlugin2

Set mobjPlayer = Me!VLCPlayer.Object
mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, strMovieName)
With mobjPlayer
.playlist.playItem (mvarPLNo)
End With

Would you be able to assist in advising where in the process one puts the
--spdif and --aout=<string> parameters you have referred to.

Thanks

[VLC_help]

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=54220#p179092
something like that, so --spdif would become :spdif

[InsureMan]

Have developed my code as below, Is this what you would expect the initialize code to look like?
Example:
\\Mediacentre\drive G\VideoFolder\DVDName\video_ts@1:6-1:24@1:6-1:24:spdif:aout=Win32 waveOut extension output

Was not sure if you add the - <Win32 waveOut extension output> as the string contents.

I have found that as a stand alone player there is a requirement to set both options in the Preferences.

Thanks

[VLC_help]

Use "" around strings.

[InsureMan]

Still have had no success with getting the audio to work correctly under ActiveX conditions. Will just recap were I am with this project.

Firstly can someone confirm that as an ActiveX player all the features of the stand alone player are available to use, just that they have to be done with code.

Typically to load an item into the PlayList the string would be similar to this:

strFullFileName = “\\Mediacentre\drive G\VideoFolder\DVDName\video_ts@1:1-1:24
mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, strMovieName)
With mobjPlayer
.playlist.playItem (mvarPLNo)
End With

The code shown above works fine and will play a DVD

Have tried the following play DVD and set the audio.
strFullFileName = \\Mediacentre\drive G\VideoFolder\DVDName\video_ts@1:1-1:24:spdif:aout=”Win32 waveOut extension output”

Under this configuration DVD will not play at all.

If I now change to have the Audio string and include it as an Option in the PlayList.PlayItem Function, the DVD will still load and play but I still don’t get any centre speaker sound.

strFullFileName = “\\Mediacentre\drive G\VideoFolder\DVDName\video_ts@1:1-1:24
strOptions = “:spdif:aout=”Win32 waveOut extension output””
mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, strMovieName, strOptions)
With mobjPlayer
.playlist.playItem (mvarPLNo)
End With

Should the audio options be added to the end of the function string that includes the folder name of the DVD that is being played or should things like this be in the option section of the .playlist.add(Video Stream Name, Display Name, Options)

I hope you can help me crack it this time, Thanks

[InsureMan]

Have changed the code slightly and made the PlayList.Add Options as an Array

Dim Options1() As Variant
ReDim Options1(0)
Options1(0) = ":spdif:aout=""Win32 waveOut extension output"""

And to reflect the change also altered
mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, strMovieName, Options1())

This still made no change to the playing of audio out of the centre speaker

[VLC_help]

Leave space between options and input items. So \\Mediacentre\drive G\VideoFolder\DVDName\video_ts@1:1-1:24 :spdif :aout=”Win32 waveOut extension output”

[InsureMan]

Have tried your suggestion and still no success,

When I tried:
\\Mediacentre\drive G\VideoFolder\DVDName\video_ts@1:1-1:24 :spdif :aout=”Win32 waveOut extension output”

With this being part of strFullFileName the DVD failed to play, without the array option.
mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, strMovieName)

Tried again this time adding spaces to the array both as,

Dim Options1() As Variant
ReDim Options1(0)
Options1(0) = " :spdif :aout=""Win32 waveOut extension output"""

Or as

Dim Options1() As Variant
ReDim Options1(0)
Options1(0) = ":spdif :aout=""Win32 waveOut extension output"""

mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, strMovieName, Options1())

The DVD loaded and played but there was still no sound from centre speaker

Could you comment as to should I be adding the audio string to the end of the string that loads the DVD or as an Option1().

I am sure we will get there.

Thanks

[InsureMan]

Have tested the
mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, strMovieName, Options)

with full screen and aspect ratio as options and the player will start in full screen and with the desired aspect ratio on opening, so I would assume from this that this is the place to put all the initial options.

Have also tried to add :spdif to the string and --waveout-float32, found this in the commandline manual, but it made no difference to the way the audio was played.

Then tried with just using :spdif, again no different. Tried the Player in stand alone mode with spdif selected and default audio, the sound was very broken up.

From this experiment I am considering that it is not possible to have audio out of the centre speaker because if :spdif only in the string I would expect that the audio would also be very broken up when be used in ActiveX.

Does any one have any comments?

Thanks

[VLC_help]

On some soundcards DirectSound output doesn't work with SPDIF. One option to go around this (if the audio output module override doesn't work) is to remove libaout_directx_plugin.dll from your VLC plugins.

[InsureMan]

Tried the suggestion to remove,
remove libaout_directx_plugin.dll from your VLC plugins

But this made no difference, if I set set the spdif feature in stand alone mode I get “choppy” sound with no wave out set.
Presumably if I do the same thing in code and only have,

ReDim Options(2)
Options(0) = ":aspect-ratio=16:9"
Options(1) = ":fullscreen"
Options(2) = ":spdif"

In the Options the sound should also be “choppy”, could I have a comment on this fact


This is the code that I am currently experimenting with .....

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private mobjPlayer As VLCPlugin2
Private mvarPLNo As Variant

'Win32 waveOut extension output --waveout-float32, --no-waveout-float32
'Use float32 output (default enabled)
'The option allows you to enable or disable the high-quality float32
'audio output mode (which is not well supported by some soundcards).

'VLC help - http://www.videolan.org/doc/play-howto/ ... l#id310965

Private Sub Command1_Click()
On Error GoTo Err_Command1_Click

Dim strFullFileName As String
Dim strMovieName As String
Dim Options() As String

ReDim Options(3)
Options(0) = ":aspect-ratio=16:9"
Options(1) = ":fullscreen"
Options(2) = ":spdif"
Options(3) = ":waveout-float32"

strFullFileName = "C:\Video One\DVDName\VIDEO_TS@1:4-1:21"
mvarPLNo = mobjPlayer.playlist.Add(strFullFileName, , Options())

With mobjPlayer
.playlist.playItem (mvarPLNo)
End With



We keep trying Thanks

[VLC_help]

If you can print VLC message log, you can verify that your VLC really uses Waveout audio output module.

[InsureMan]

In stand alone mode if I go to: Tools, Messages, - I see the following message line;
dts info:DTS Channels:6 SampleRate:48000 BitRate 768000

Then if I look at the Modules Tree I see the following:
decoder "dts"
audio output "waveout"
audio output "dtstospdif"

from the "S/PDIF" connections I have a coxial cable to the Amplifier and in stand alone mode if I cycles through the audio tracks the various modes change on the amplifier, 2 Channel, 5.1 & then DTS. There is also a graphic indicator on the amplifier showing what audio is being used.

As an ActiveX I can still cycle through the 3 audio tracks, there is a change in volume, with the channel that should be DTS louder and clearer than the other 2, but no centre channel audio or graphic indication.

Did have a try at getting a message off in the ActiveX mode but no success.

Private Sub Command3_Click()
Dim strMessage As String
Dim varMessageCount As Variant

Set mobjPlayer = Me!VLCPlayer.Object
With mobjPlayer.Log
varMessageCount = .messages.Count
End With

End Sub

The varMessageCount always shows 0

Hope this helps in getting the issue resolved.

[VLC_help]

audio output "waveout" at least the output is correct one. For some reason the ActiveX doesn't use spdif output. I don't know why.

[InsureMan]

Thanks for confirming that, Is it likley to be altered so that ActiveX will use SPDIF in the near future?

[VLC_help]

I can't make any promises. Number of Windows devs is near zero so it might take long time before anything happens.

[InsureMan]

Just wandering if there has been any work done to make SPDIF available with ActiveX

[VLC_help]

I haven't seen anything on mailing-list.