Hi, apologies if this question is already answered somewhere, i've had a good search but may not be using the right terms.
I have a Yamaha A/V amp which is very fussy about playing 5.1 files via server. It will only play wav 5.1 files, but more curiously, it seems to only be willing to play 5.1 files that are (somehow) saved into two channels. So, for instance, i have a rip of jean michel jarre's oxygene from an sacd which, if opened up in audacity, appears to be fully stored in two channels, but the yamaha amp will automatically unpack these and output in true 5.1.
However, it won't play wavs that are actually saved as multi-channels. I have a lot of 5.1 flacs that i'd like to be able to play directly through the amp without additional hardware, but when i've tried to convert these to wav in foobar, the output file still has 6 channels.
I feel a little out of my depth here as i'm not sure how the amp is unpacking the "stereo" files - i don't really want to downmix as presumably the amp will just put these out as stereo. Any advice would be very welcome.
So, for instance, i have a rip of jean michel jarre's oxygene from an sacd which, if opened up in audacity, appears to be fully stored in two channels
I suspect that this is a rip of a CD layer: that is, only stereo audio. And your receiver somehow converts stereo to surround.
Hi, i don't think so - the channels are discrete and match the 5.1 playback from the original SACD, it certainly doesn't sound like an upmix, and the receiver is in any case set to direct mode, rather than engaging any processing.
Then it's probably encoded to DTS format ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.1_Music_Disc )
How is your source connected to the AVR? HDMI? What playback software are you using?
Krabapple - it's connected via HDMI. The playback software is the amp's own (yamaha proprietary, your guess is as good as mine for the source code),
lvqcl - this makes sense, though the amp won't play anything with a .dts file extension - if the original encoding was dts and it's been converted to wav, would it retain the multichannel encoding (presumably some form of interleaving)? Is it possible to convert flacs to dts in foobar? Many thanks!
Apologies krabapple, misread your post - the source is a seagate nas connected via a router/ethernet connection.
All I can suggest is to read the manual of your receiver: what audio formats are supported via network connection.
I have a Yamaha A/V amp which is very fussy about playing 5.1 files via server.
In general the only standardized & "foolproof" surround formats are the shiny disc formats (DVD & Blu-Ray) but that's generally over HDMI or S/PDIF. There are a handful of valid DVD & Blu-Ray formats, but WAV and FLAC are not part of either standard.
I sometimes play DVDs & Blu-Rays (or DVD files) on the computer with an HDMI connection between the computer & receiver. It works perfectly, just like my DVD/Blu-Ray player, except my computer doesn't have a remote control.
"Via server", it's going to depend on your receiver.
It will only play wav 5.1 files, but more curiously, it seems to only be willing to play 5.1 files that are (somehow) saved into two channels. So, for instance, i have a rip of jean michel jarre's oxygene from an sacd which, if opened up in audacity, appears to be fully stored in two channels
I've never played-around with SACD, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way, unless your disc has the old-original Dolby Pro Logic Surround (like what's on VHS tapes). It's unlikely that your music CD is Pro Logic movie-encoded because it doesn't work well for music. SACD discs usually have a regular audio CD layer in addition to the SACD layer. So, you may be looking at the regular audio CD layer in Audacity.
And, Audacity won't downmix automatically when you open a multi-channel file. It can optionally downmix when you export.
but the yamaha amp will automatically unpack these and output in true 5.1.
In addition to movie mode, there are Pro Logic II soundfield modes that can simulate surround from any regular stereo track.
There is also an oddball DTS-WAV CD format where the player thinks it's playing regular stereo PCM audio, but the receiver (hopefully) recognizes the DTS and decodes it. (It's just noise if you play it through the CD player's analog outputs, or if it otherwise doesn't get decoded.)
Apologies krabapple, misread your post - the source is a seagate nas connected via a router/ethernet connection.
what software are you using to pick what file gets played?