Windows 11 - Dolby Digital vs Dolby PLII Movie ?

[echdaron]

Hi there,

I've recently switched to a fresh install of W11 and also decided to ditch Kazaa/MPC in favour of VLC (as I was using this on my Rog Ally and was very pleased with it)
I'm no audiophile so bear with me :
- I accidentally opened a file with the default Media Player and noticed on my Logitech receiver that the sound was detected as being Dolby Digital. I have a 5.1 setup and it sounded unexpectedly great...
- Tried to replicate this with VLC but no matter what I do, my receiver detects the sound as Dolby PLII Movie... And this sounds "worse" (/not as good) as the default Media Player

As I want to play my media with VLC, does anyone have any idea(s) what this might be? I've looked around and enabled "Force S/PDIF Support" and also the HDMI/SPDIF Audio Passthrough (set to "Enabled (AC3/DTS only")

thanks so much!

[Lotesdelere]

Please open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2) before you start the playback, and then paste the full resulting log here or on Pastebin.com or on Justpaste.it if it's too long.

[echdaron]

Thanks and sure thing - I've just started the playback and copy/pasted the outcome here : https://justpaste.it/b3wz7
Hope it helps

[Lotesdelere]

Code: Select all

mkv debug: | | | + Track Type=audio mkv debug: | | | + Track CodecId=A_EAC3 mkv debug: | | | + Unknown (N11libmatroska15KaxLanguageIETFE) mkv debug: | | | + Track Audio mkv debug: | | | | + afreq=48000 mkv debug: | | | | + achan=6 ... avcodec debug: codec (eac3) started ... wasapi error: cannot negotiate audio format (error 0x88890008): digital pass-through not supported ... avcodec debug: codec (eac3) started main debug: using audio decoder module "avcodec" main debug: reusing audio output wasapi debug: buffer size : 96000 frames wasapi debug: maximum latency: 000 ns wasapi debug: default period : 10000000 ns wasapi debug: minimum period : 3000000 ns main debug: using aout stream module "wasapi" main debug: output 'f32l' 48000 Hz 3F2M/LFE frame=1 samples/24 bytes main debug: using audio volume module "float_mixer" main debug: input 'f32l' 48000 Hz 3F2M/LFE frame=1 samples/24 bytes main debug: looking for audio filter module matching "scaletempo": 16 candidates scaletempo debug: format: 48000 rate, 6 nch, 4 bps, fl32

I'm not sure about what is going on there, especially if it's working fine with another media player.
Have you selected the correct HDMI/SPDIF audio passthrough option and device in the VLC audio preferences ?
If you change a setting don't forget to click on the Save button then exit and restart VLC for the change to take effect.

[echdaron]

It's also fine with VLC But the output from VLC is different from the default Media Player. And the error above might be the culprit.

And yeah, I did - or at least : I think I did
I've shared a screenshot of my current settings here : https://ibb.co/rGPKRYk and I've also tried all options just now (applying, saving and restarting VLC - going through DirectX Audio output, Windows Multimedia Device output, with or without S/PDIF [when available]) - my receiver keeps on detecting the audio as being PLII ...

[Lotesdelere]

Please post a messages log when using DirectSound (aka DirectX audio).

[echdaron]

Certainly : here it is : https://justpaste.it/fnssy

[Lotesdelere]

Code: Select all

avcodec debug: codec (eac3) started main debug: using audio decoder module "avcodec" main debug: reusing audio output directsound debug: Opening DirectSound Audio Output directsound debug: VLC speaker config: 5.1 directsound debug: couldn't use hardware sound buffer directsound debug: channel reordering needed main debug: output 'f32l' 48000 Hz 3F2R/LFE frame=1 samples/24 bytes

I'm not sure about what is going wrong there, especially the "channel reordering needed" part.

Please upload a short sample of your original problematic file to WeTransfer.com or Disroot.org and then post the link to the file here.
https://wetransfer.com
https://upload.disroot.org

If needed cut it with DGsplit and read here about how to do it:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 35#p193335
200 MB max should be enough but a full complete short file is better.

[echdaron]

Pardon me for the late reply Forgot to keep track of this (as I was abroad for a few days)
But I've just uploaded a sample of the bigger file here : https://upload.disroot.org/r/J4GUPhTa#9 ... m7EC6BlXo=
I should point out that I will only be able to test this sample's behaviour tomorrow (I had the same video on my Rog Ally and my fixed PC is at home)

Let me know if this works out and if needed, I can also split it with AviDemux (and testing it out before sharing it)...

[echdaron]

Arrived back home this morning and I also gave this split file a go (just wanted to be sure it's a representative file for troubleshooting) : it shows the same behaviour :
- Dolby Digital when played with the default Windows Media Player
- Dolby PL II when played with VLC

[Lotesdelere]

Reset the preferences and cache (the manual way) and try again:
https://wiki.videolan.org/VSG:ResetPrefs

[echdaron]

I've reset the preferences and deleted the cache (the manual way) and alas : I had the same issue. Enabled the SPDIF audio passthrough again : still Dolby PL II ...
As I was wondering if it's related to VLC, I installed K-Lite Codec pack (with MPC) - this has the same behaviour...

[Lotesdelere]

You should create a new report ticket on the VLC issues tracker with your above report, the link to your messages log, the link to your sample file and the link to this thread:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues

If possible, because of this:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 27#p538427