No foreground noises on 1.4 gig AVI files and games on Creative X-fi Titanium

[maxhavoc]

Problem: Voices and other foreground noises are extremely faint in 1.4 gig AVI files and all games. Background noises come in fine. 700mb AVI files also play fine. If I take the same DVD and rip to both 700mb and 1.4 gigs using the exact same settings, the 700mb file will play fine and the 1.4 gig file will have the issue.

Environment: Connected to Logitech Z-5500 using analog cables. Running driver version 2.17.0007. Connected via 6-channel Direct. Have tried both Game and Entertainment mode. Have tried toggling all features in Creative Audio Panel. I know it's the sound card because my motherboard's on board sound card does not have this problem.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue or knows how to fix this? Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Inspector.Gadget]

The file size is unlikely to be an issue. What are you doing differently to the DVD audio, and what program are you using to encode?

[maxhavoc]

I'm telling you, I'm using the exact same settings. I use HD DVD Decrypter to extract from the DVD and AutoGK to encode. On AutoGK I change nothing except the target file size.

[Inspector.Gadget]

...which may downmix the audio. Post MediaInfo text reports on the 700MB encode and 1400MB encode of the same movie.

[maxhavoc]

Sorry, a bit of a n00b here. What do you mean downmix the audio? You mean on the smaller file size it encodes the audio at a lower bitrate or something? If so, why would that affect the foreground noise of the larger (and thus ostensibly higher quality audio file)?

Also, where do I get these MediaInfo text reports? All I typically get are the AutoGK log files it writes to the output directory of the AVI file.

[Inspector.Gadget]

Download MediaInfo, feed each file to it, post the output of the "Text" view in this thread. It's obvious that the audio is being processed. Now we're just figuring out how.

[maxhavoc]

Ok, I won't be able to do this for a day or two, but once I have the log files I'll post them.

[Inspector.Gadget]

Well, at this point it looks like your 1.4 gig rips are retaining 5.1 AC3 audio and your 700MB rips are instead employing stereo mp3. On playback of the 5.1 AC3 files, some channels are probably not being fed correctly to your receiver.

[maxhavoc]

That sounds plausible. How can I examine an AVI file to see what audio it's using? (5.1 AC3 or stereo MP3). Also, do you know of any way to correct it?

[Inspector.Gadget]

MediaInfo, like I said above. "Correcting", for the sake of consistency, may mean adjusting what your PC is feeding to your receiver OR always re-encoding OR never re-encoding. I would exhaust the various receiver and sound output options (including setting up bitstreaming or pass-through to the 5500 hardware decoders) before deciding to give up the original 5.1 surround, given that you have a 5.1 setup.

[maxhavoc]

Ok, thanks for the help.

[maxhavoc]

Ok, I used MediaInfo and I found the problem, but I'm no closer to a solution. It seems that the problem only occurs when the audio track is AC-3 6-channel. Both MP3 and AC3 2-channel work just fine.

It seems odd that top-end sound card and PC speaker set can't handle 6-channel audio sources, I thought that was the whole point of them after all. Maybe there's something wrong with my setup or playback situation?

I have my speaker setup set to 5.1 both in the Windows control panel and the Creative Audio Panel. I have the AC-3 codec from the K-Lite Audio Pack. I use Media Player Classic 5.4.9.0 for playback. I have my speakers set to 6-channel direct. I go direct analog out from the sound card to the speakers.

Is there anything I'm missing? Does anyone have a similar setup (Creative X-Fi Titanium + Logitech Z-5500) and either has the same problem or does not and can help me pinpoint where the problem lies? Thanks.

[CWR03]

Try AC3Filter instead of the one from K-Lite. You will see meters for each individual channel and be able to adjust and configure everything.

[maxhavoc]

I installed AC3 filter and when I mess with some of the channel settings it definitely does something, but it didn't magically fix the audio and I have no idea how to configure it properly. I don't understand this. Surely I can't be the only one with this problem?