No sound in certain movies when selecting digital output for audio

Gentlemen,

I am new and searched for sound related issues but could not find anything. I will be much obliged if some one can direct me to proper resource for this problem. When I upgrade the firmware I get three option for audio output 1. Stereo. 2. Digital and 3. Digital without HDMI. I have Optical cable connected from WD TV Live to my Amplifier. After upgrading the firmware I was not able to hear any sound from MP4 movies. I had to choose stereo to get the sound but stereo does not give me 5.1 surround sound.

Any advice will be greatly appreciate.

Thanks

Mohammed

What audio codec is used in the MP4s?

In my experience, MP4 containers don’t output 5.1 on the Live, Plus or Hub. Never have, certainly not for AAC or AC-3 and I’m guessing not for DTS either.

It used to output something, but it wasn’t 5.1, although something is better than nothing in this case.

Definitely a bug any way you look at it…

I too am having this issue. It’s definatley multi channel AAC related (as far as I can tell).

I have a WDTV Live Plus connected by Cat5e to the network, and HDMI to an AV receiver that itself is connect by HDMI to the TV. The WDTV is set to digital pass through and the receiver plays every format I’ve ever thrown at it.

Since the latest firmware (1.04.10b) files that I have watched less than a month ago with 5.1 surround (decoding done by my AV unit) now play with no sound at all. If I change the main setting to ‘stereo’ then I get 2-channel, but that’s one of the main reasons I moved to this unit from an xbox; 5.1 sound.

The fact that these files worked 100% on the last firmware is what really annoys me, but that’s not helpful here.

What I hope will help is the media info dumps of two files that did work and now don’t; and the confirmation that someone else is having this issue.

Also for what it’s worth the latest instruction book pdf has the MP4 / AAC a/v spec as supported on page 168 so it *should* work.

Here are mediainfo’s of two files that used to work and now don’t;

Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : Base Media
Codec ID                         : isom
File size                        : 2.09 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 24mn
Overall bit rate                 : 2 074 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-09-01 01:03:01
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-09-01 01:03:01

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : Main@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 2h 24mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 1 770 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 7 730 Kbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 544 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.35:1
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.106
Stream size                      : 1.78 GiB (85%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 72 r1240M 35627b6
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=0 / bitrate=1770 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-08-30 08:19:54
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-09-01 01:04:44

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 4
Format profile                   : LC
Format settings, SBR             : No
Codec ID                         : 40
Duration                         : 2h 24mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 300 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 398 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 310 MiB (14%)
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-09-01 01:04:27
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-09-01 01:04:44

Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : Base Media
Codec ID                         : isom
File size                        : 2.15 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 31mn
Overall bit rate                 : 2 035 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-06-23 19:19:59
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-06-23 19:19:59

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : Main@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 3 frames
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 2h 31mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 1 700 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 5 327 Kbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 528 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.105
Stream size                      : 1.80 GiB (84%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 67 r1169M ab85c9b
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=1700 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-06-23 10:04:16
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-06-23 19:21:22

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 4
Format profile                   : LC
Format settings, SBR             : No
Codec ID                         : 40
Duration                         : 2h 31mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 331 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 452 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 359 MiB (16%)
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-06-23 19:21:08
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-06-23 19:21:22

-b