Problem with E-AC3 audio tracks

[smhealey]

I have the same issue using VLC 2.2.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 ALSA output HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Audio Output Stereo
Is Codec: A/52 B Audio (aka E-AC3) (eac3) Channels: 3F2M/LFE Sample rate: 48000 Hz Bits per sample: 32 being passed through HDMI as 5.1 PCM because my receiver can handle 5.1 PCM and it received it as 2.0 PCM.

Isn't eac3 DD+ (Dolby Digital Plus) and ac3 (Dolby Digital) my receiver supports both DD+ and DD. Shouldn't VLC pass it through and my receiver show DD+ or 5.1 PCM not 2.0 PCM/Dolby ProLogic II?

Also, I notice if I change VLC audio channel output from stereo to 5.1, I get 5.1 PCM but the channels are all mixed up. (all other codecs pass-through fine DTS, DD, 5.1 PCM when leaving channel output as stereo.)

BTW, I play the same video files in Kodi and it outputs to my receiver properly as DD+

Edit: here is an eac3 video clip from my NAS: http://Mystuff.myqnapcloud.com:8080/sha ... id=08bw4B8

[smhealey]

Please share such file with us.

Here is the file as requested:

http://mystuff.myqnapcloud.com:8080/sha ... id=08bw4B8

[smhealey]

I have this issue with every EAC3 DD+ file I play with VLC. AS I stated in previous post other media players seem to handle it just fine.

my questions are:

1. Is VLC interpreting DD+ (eac3) incorrectly and seeing it as 3F2M/LFE and passing that info to my receiver and my receiver is saying WTF! and playing it as 2.0 PCM?

2. Is it standard for eac3 to be read as 3F2M/LFE vs 3F2R/LFE

4. Is this an encoding issue or is this a bug/handling issue with VLC?

5. Is this none of the above and an issue with some receivers not knowing how to handle 3F2M/LFS

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This file is working fine for us. Please use 3.0.

If you are using SPDIF you CANNOT get 5.1 with EAC3. It is not possible, since the bitrate is too high.

You MUST use HDMI for this.

[InTheWings]

I have this issue with every EAC3 DD+ file I play with VLC. AS I stated in previous post other media players seem to handle it just fine.

my questions are:

1. Is VLC interpreting DD+ (eac3) incorrectly and seeing it as 3F2M/LFE and passing that info to my receiver and my receiver is saying WTF! and playing it as 2.0 PCM?

No, and that's correctly signaled as 2M

2. Is it standard for eac3 to be read as 3F2M/LFE vs 3F2R/LFE

That's your file

4. Is this an encoding issue or is this a bug/handling issue with VLC?

None

5. Is this none of the above and an issue with some receivers not knowing how to handle 3F2M/LFS

No, issue is your SPDIF output.

No EAC3 over SPDIF exists.
If that works somewhere else, that's EAC3 -> AC3 re-encoding on the fly. (You might want to pay Dolby a license deending on where you live)
Using SPDIF for E-AC3 is then pointless, you just get at best AC3.

[lesmikesell]

If you are running VLC on an android TV box, the only way out is going to be SPDIF or the ARC return of the receiver HDMI which has the same bandwidth limitations. Kodi recently added the ability to transcode other multi-channel formats to DD 5.1 to make it possible to keep the surround sound. Could VLC do the same? Plex will do something similar but does the transcoding on the server side.

Also, Sony and Phillips (at least) android TVs currently have a problem with the android API to pass DTS through, so the same transcoding is used to make it work even though theoretically DTS should work over SPDIF or ARC.

[gabor9005]

And yet, every other mediaplayer can do this (I guess by converting to AC3 on the fly.)
Please do the same in VLC, AC3 is totally great, nobody wants to buy a new 5.1 system because of E-AC3.

This file is working fine for us. Please use 3.0.

If you are using SPDIF you CANNOT get 5.1 with EAC3. It is not possible, since the bitrate is too high.

You MUST use HDMI for this.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

And yet, every other mediaplayer can do this (I guess by converting to AC3 on the fly.)

You mean all media players using the same codec...

Please do the same in VLC, AC3 is totally great, nobody wants to buy a new 5.1 system because of E-AC3.

Sorry, that's not planned for us yet. Patches for that are welcome.

[gabor9005]

May I ask why is not planned?
I would like to go back to VLC...

And yet, every other mediaplayer can do this (I guess by converting to AC3 on the fly.)

Sorry, that's not planned for us yet. Patches for that are welcome.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

May I ask why is not planned?

Because this is really not important. Most people moved to HDMI nowadays, because it can handle DTS-HD or TrueHD.

Doing a decoding-of-EAC3-and-reencode-in-AC3 only in playback over SPDIF is also consuming of time, a weird case in VLC architecture, and of limited gain, because EAC3 is not common.

[gabor9005]

I seriously doubt that most people moved on to HDMI, because most people are not that rich and don't like to switch from a perfectly good 5.1 system is there is absolutely no reason to.
Not to mention the hassle with all the wireing stuff that is inside the walls...
Maybe most people in the U.S. moved on or something, but not worldwide thats for sure.

Also, E-AC3 is super-common nowadays, almost every TV show in encoded in EAC3 so I use VLC for about 5% of the time now and use PowerDVD for the other 95%.
(I really hate PowerDVD, VLC is much better, but unfortunately I can't use VLC for 95% of the movies I watch because of this EAC3 gimmick...

Because this is really not important. Most people moved to HDMI nowadays, because it can handle DTS-HD or TrueHD.
Doing a decoding-of-EAC3-and-reencode-in-AC3 only in playback over SPDIF is also consuming of time, a weird case in VLC architecture, and of limited gain, because EAC3 is not common.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

If you care, send patches. But this is not high-priority for me.

[gabor9005]

I am not a programmer unfortunately.
You work on VLC by yourself?
I thought there is a team on this, nobody is available for EAC3->AC3 conversion patch?
Anyone who reads this? Please?

If you care, send patches. But this is not high-priority for me.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

People work on what they want. And they agree with me on this point.

[gabor9005]

I don't even understand how can you use HDMI for sound. My soundcard have no HDMI out, and I searched online for new soundcard for my PC, but NONE of them have HDMI outputs.
So how can I connect my PC with a HDMI 5.1 system???

[Wombat22]

Dear VLC developers:

I too have encountered this issue and joined the forum for this discussion.

My setup, which I believe is pretty common, is an HTPC connected to a projector via HDMI and a receiver via SPDIF. The video card is also connected to an LCD monitor, so I don't have an additional SPDIF out for audio connection to the receiver. As a result, I, like many, therefore rely on SPDIF for transmission of the digital audio signal to the receiver, and thus am only getting a stereo signal with files containing E-AC3 audio.

For many of these files I've started using a program to convert E-AC3 to AC3, but this is time consuming and adds multiple steps for every file I want to watch. Clearly, it would be much simpler if VLC could handle E-AC3 files directly.

I certainly don't know what programming is required for that to work, but I do believe there are many people in this situation, people (like me) who really like VLC media player and want to find a way to properly play these E-AC3 files.

Just my 2 cents.

Wombat22

[alex4vlc]

For me its not working with HDMI either...

My TV is connected to my PC via HDMI, then my TV is connected to my Onkyo Receiver via HDMI as well. Sound of E-AC3 is still stereo...

[jsuln]

Hi there,

I am also facing issues with the eac3 files.

I get 2 channel stereo if i connect my laptop over hdmi to the tv (which is then connected to the sony dn1050 with hdmi arc). This could be an ARC (in)compatibility to handle eac3 (although the tv manual says it can handle dd+) issue so I moved on.

I connected the laptop directly to the receiver with hdmi (receiver supports eac3), i get 3/4.1 linear pcm (the receiver says that) sound with no center channel, although my setup is 5.1. Everything else (dd, dts .. ) plays perfectly fine with both mentioned combinations.

Is there any progress regarding this issue? I have tried playing these files with mplayerx (no idea which alternative to try), and it plays fine, although the center channel becomes the rear left for some reason. Receiver still shows 3/4.1 linear pcm. I guess it should interpret the sound for the 5.1 layout and it doesnt..

Anyway, I am lost and I have no idea where the issue is and how to get proper sound with eac3 files (which is actually pretty common these days).

Any ideas guys?

thanks,
jaka

[Stryker One]

Ok, I'm using ECS 880GM-E43 motherboard, equipped with an HDMI 1.3 port (a requirement for DD+), connected to a Pioneer SC-1522-K A/V receiver that natively supports DD+, using VLC 3.0, and I STILL can't get any of my DD+ encoded MKV files to play in anything other than stereo. What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? Does VLC support DD+ or not?

[jsuln]

I can post an update, I think i have (partially) resolved my situation with DD+, maybe it helps you too:

The issue was in the mac settings for sound, I had to choose 8 channel 192,1kHz audio for the hdmi passthrough. DD+ requires 192.1khz if I am not mistaken. So this makes it work (sometimes the receiver says dolby digital, sometimes linear pcm 3/4.1), but i cannot get normal 2 channel audio over hdmi with this setting - just noise and hiss. But thats fine, i stream stereo audio / music to my receiver with airplay or chromecast or from the TV / CD player.

This works when I have the macbook connected directly to the receiver with hdmi and then output to TV. I still have to investigate the TV's passthrough, im afraid I will not be able to get DD+ if the source of audio/video is from the TV (and then to the receiver) directly. This is 90% of times when I use Kodi or Plex to stream stuff on the TV.

Try to find some settings like i did, hope it helps.

jaka

[InTheWings]

I'm having the same problem as the others. With Windows Media Player, E-AC-3 gets passed to my Yamaha receiver and my 5.1 speaker setup works fine. The front of the receiver reads "STRAIGHT" and all the speakers are active. With VLC, it does not work. The front of the receiver indicates PCM and the all the speakers are not active. VLC doesn't work with the now very popular Dolby Digital Plus. All connections are HDMI.

I'd like to add that my old WD TV Live box also has no trouble sending DD+ through the Yamaha receiver (HDMI).

A whole lot of files are using E-AC-3 now so hopefully this problem will get jumped on.

Thanks

If everything is hdmi, there might be a bug on eac3 detection, assuming the output is properly set for passthrough

[brechtsky1]

Yes I also have this problem BIG TIME.

I have an old receiver that does not understand eac3 ... But it works perfectly with encoded signals like Dolby, AC3, and DTS, and passes thru to my sony receiver and 5-channel setup without an issue every time.

I didnt mind or care about eac3 for a while, but all of the sudden, high resolution files from almost ALL distributors have this as their audio format, be it amazon prime's official releases, or even torrents.

For video and audio aficionados like myself (and anyone who uses VLC probably), I would REALLY LOVE if someone could fix this issue so the eac3 signal was decoded before sending to my receiver. Its really making me sad to listen to all my movies and shows in stereo with really bad sounding downmixes.

Seeing as EAC3 is clearly becoming the standard audio format for many online video distributors, it would make sense to devote some effort to making it work properly for your programs fans and users.

Please please please! Thanks very much!


P.S. This issue persists whether I use optical audio output, or HDMI output... so I presume its the (very old) receiver, and any solution would require the signal decoded before sending to my receiver.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Encoding to AC-3 sounds like something that your OS audio HAL should do. There are virtual audio drivers at least for Windows and Linux (ALSA) to do that. I don't really see why VLC should be doing this.

[brechtsky1]

Encoding to AC-3 sounds like something that your OS audio HAL should do. There are virtual audio drivers at least for Windows and Linux (ALSA) to do that. I don't really see why VLC should be doing this.

The reason is as I stated above... Most (and increasingly MORE) distributors are suddenly using EAC3... If thats not a good enough reason (which it really should be), maybe the PAGES of people complaining here and elsewhere is a good enough reason?

I mean its pretty obvious YOU aren't suffering from this issue, as you repeatedly act like no one cares, and least of all, you...

But people are caring about unsupported surround sound (duh) , and people want this feature... so there is your answer for "why VLC should be doing this"

Thanks much!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

If people wanted the feature badly enough, as you claim, then I would have seen patches on vlc-devel. Or they would do the simpler alternative: the existing solution to make this work, which I already pointed out.

So no, obviously, people do not care as much as you claim.

Besides my argument was not that the feature is useless. My argument is that the feature belongs in the OS HAL or audio drivers underneath it. And that has already been done. If this were implemented in VLC, then no other apps would be able to render 5.1, which would be just plain dumb.