[eljaycanuck]

Hi. I've posted this question on another A/V forum, but I'm posting it here as well in the hope of getting more feedback more quickly.

First a bit of background, then a couple of questions...

In the past week, I've downloaded two HD movies onto my Windows 8-powered Lenovo G505 laptop: "Lucy" (last weekend) and "John Wick" (last night).

Both are supposed to have DD 5.1 audio; both had the AC3 option greyed out, so that I could only choose the stereo option. (Pics) I contacted iTunes Support last weekend and they asked me to delete the copy on my machine and re-download "Lucy", to see if it was just a problem with the initial download. No go: The replacement download was the same.

Also, the iTunes Store says the movies are available in 1080p and 720p, but:
- I can only get a 720p download; and
- when I check the movie info once I've downloaded it, I see that it's actually 1280 x 528.

Audio question: Is it possible that iTunes is detecting something with my laptop's on-board audio and therefore not downloading the AC3 track? If so, what settings should I be changing? (Note: I'm not sure that this is what's happening, since I'm able to play the 5.1 track off a DVD.)

Video question: Why am I not able to get a 1080p download? My AMD Radeon HD8570 video card is set to output 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz. I'm connected to a Denon AVR-X4000 receiver which is connected to a JVC DLA-HD250 (1080p) projector.

a) If it's an HDCP issue, how do I resolve it? I can't seem to find anything on any of the devices to "fix" this.
b) At the above resolution - and also at 1920 x 1080 @ 24Hz and 1280 x 720 @ 60Hz - I get mild, intermittent stuttering throughout the movie. Is this due to the fact that the movie is actually 1280 x 528? Or is it a problem with insufficient system or video card memory? (Note: When I play a DVD, video is perfect - no stuttering at all.)

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[eljaycanuck]

Found two different settings under the "Preferences" where I needed to select 1080p. Done. Also, updated the audio from "Windows Audio Session" to "Direct Sound". Will try another download tonight and see how that works out.

 

[eljaycanuck]

The good news: I was able to download a 1080p copy of "The Equalizer".

The bad news:
1. The stuttering was considerably worse than at 720p.
- I'll chalk this issue up to the (lack of) processing power of the video card (which, IIRC, has 1Gb of on-board RAM) and/or the system (processor, RAM) in general.

2. Once again, the multi-channel track was not available. (Pic)
- This one really beats the hell out of me.
- Anyone have any thoughts as to how/why iTunes might opt to drop the AC3 track from the download? (I'm also going to contact iTunes Support again to see if they have any ideas.)

 

[eljaycanuck]

My wife (I do love that woman! ) found a couple of threads on the discussion.apple.com site which seem to indicate that it's an incompatibility problem with AMD drivers. Using SPDIF - or replacing AMD with nVidia - resolves the issue.

- iTunes rented movie not outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
- No Dolby Digital 5.1 playback in iTunes 11 in Win 7

My Lenovo laptop has AMD, which appears to explain why I can't get DD.51. My wife's Samsung laptop has nVidia, which appears to explain why she's able to get DD 5.1 audio.

I'm really disappointed that iTunes Support either doesn't know about this issue or doesn't bother to advise customers.

 

[olyteddy]

As to the stuttering:

The 15.6" Lenovo G505 laptop matches fast AMD processing and durable design, making it an ideal entry-level laptop PC.

It isn't likely to go away.

 

[eljaycanuck]

Yeah, I'm getting that feeling. So, what kind of processing power + RAM should I be looking at to handle 1080p playback?