[an9el]

I have set up a Mac Mini as a Media Center and overall I am very satisfied. However, EyeTV still gives me some headaches. Most troubling are:


When Mac Mini wakes up to record a show, it also displays it - meaning the TV switches back on and the sound is activated, too. That's a problem, because the TV and amp are only switched into standby and not turned completely off. So the worst case is that the whole home cinema system powers on at 4am. In normal "computer mode", EyeTV can record silently in the background. But as a Media Center, EyeTV and Front Row always run in fullscreen mode. Is there a workaround available? I mean, besides pausing or muting every time I lay my Mini to sleep?


When switching from EyeTV to Front Row, the audio from the former is still present. So I have to pause first as well. ATM I have Remote Buddy configured to switch Front Row on or off. I don't want to quit EyeTV because that would take some time and could cause issues when recording. How do you do it?


Using Remote Buddy, I would like to configure the aluminium Apple remote in a way that I can put the Mini to sleep by pressing Menu and Play/Pause. I haven't found a way to assign macros, though. Has anyone succeeded in something similar?


Thanks for the help!

 

[geeji]



Quote:
Originally Posted by an9el /forum/post/18212952


When Mac Mini wakes up to record a show, it also displays it - meaning the TV switches back on and the sound is activated, too. That's a problem, because the TV and amp are only switched into standby and not turned completely off. So the worst case is that the whole home cinema system powers on at 4am. In normal "computer mode", EyeTV can record silently in the background. But as a Media Center, EyeTV and Front Row always run in fullscreen mode. Is there a workaround available? I mean, besides pausing or muting every time I lay my Mini to sleep?

I am not sure I understand why full screen makes a difference.

Any display in sleep mode will awaken when the Mini awakes, this is normal.

Power off your display if you do not want that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by an9el /forum/post/18212952


When switching from EyeTV to Front Row, the audio from the former is still present. So I have to pause first as well. ATM I have Remote Buddy configured to switch Front Row on or off. I don't want to quit EyeTV because that would take some time and could cause issues when recording. How do you do it?

If you use the Digital Out connection from you Mini to your TV, it is unfortunately a well (?) known limitation : the first program to run and to use it keeps the Digital Out connection for himself, and the only way to have any other program, like Front Row or DVD Player to use it is to Quit the first program.

This is very annoying.

Submit a Bug ticket to Elgato so that they pressure Apple to correct that. I did, no luck yet

.

Quote:
Originally Posted by an9el /forum/post/18212952


Using Remote Buddy, I would like to configure the aluminum Apple remote in a way that I can put the Mini to sleep by pressing Menu and Play/Pause. I haven't found a way to assign macros, though. Has anyone succeeded in something similar?

You can put the mini to sleep with the Apple Remote and do not need Remote Buddy.

Press the Play button for several seconds. That's it.

 

[chefklc]



Quote:
If you use the Digital Out connection from you Mini to your TV, it is unfortunately a well (?) known limitation : the first program to run and to use it keeps the Digital Out connection for himself, and the only way to have any other program, like Front Row or DVD Player to use it is to Quit the first program.

This is very annoying.

Submit a Bug ticket to Elgato so that they pressure Apple to correct that I did, no luck yet).

I didn't think Apple had to correct anything...this was a problem with EyeTV, and just EyeTV, a few years ago; it seemed to me El Gato dragged its heels, eventually cleaned up its code and remedied this bug a good while ago. (The digital audio kernel panic was a separate issue.) Do you still have to "quit" EyeTV, geeji, to let some other app acquire digital out?


I don't have any problem switching back and forth at will between Front Row, Plex and EyeTV--all using optical set to digital audio out--and I leave EyeTV "open" all the time. When I stop playing back a recording, it releases its hold over the optical out, and I can enter Plex or FR and start playing back some other file with digital audio just fine.


an9el--I don't use Remote Buddy, and when I read this:

Quote:
When Mac Mini wakes up to record a show, it also displays it – meaning the TV switches back on and the sound is activated, too. That's a problem, because the TV and amp are only switched into standby and not turned completely off.

I'll admit up front that I don't keep my AVRs and HDTVs in standby mode--they're either on or off.


But, I have a feeling that you may be potentially creating some of the behavior you see by the unique choices you've made in software setup and configuration and by adding third party remote software and various plugins into the equation. It can get pretty complicated trying to trace and debug the behavior of a system: someone who uses PyeTV to get EyeTV "into" Front Row might see a quirk that someone else, like you, who uses Remote Buddy, does not, and you experience something else. Add in Perian and Plex and whatever else (like the Candleair drivers) and that's a lot of preferences and settings to get a handle on hoping everything works well together, especially when using the Apple remote.


In my case, I leave EyeTV open 24/7 and either play my EyeTV recordings back from within Plex or rely on the simple PokeEyeTV remote app. In EyeTV preferences, there's a "Always open Live TV window at startup" box, I keep this unchecked; there's also a "Start EyeTV in full screen" box, I keep that unchecked as well...and with those settings, any EyeTV content that I select opens in fullscreen with digital audio just fine. And I have no trouble switching away to Front Row or something else and have it newly acquire the digital audio out. I'm not sure what you mean by using EyeTV as a "media center," but that isn't its strong suit--in fact, the way I approach El Gato and (IMO its increasingly bloated and buggy software) is this: the less you ask of EyeTV in the HT, i.e. merely record the shows, and then stay out of the way, the better off you'll be.


Oh, this is on 10.5.8 with EyeTV 3.3 (5851)

 

[geeji]



Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18215582


I didn't think Apple had to correct anything...this was a problem with EyeTV, and just EyeTV, a few years ago; it seemed to me El Gato dragged its heels, eventually cleaned up its code and remedied this bug a good while ago. (The digital audio kernel panic was a separate issue.) Do you still have to "quit" EyeTV, geeji, to let some other app acquire digital out?


I don't have any problem switching back and forth at will between Front Row, Plex and EyeTV--all using optical set to digital audio out--and I leave EyeTV "open" all the time. When I stop playing back a recording, it releases its hold over the optical out, and I can enter Plex or FR and start playing back some other file with digital audio just fine.

...

Oh, this is on 10.5.8 with EyeTV 3.3 (5851)

Well, that's interesting because it definitely does NOT work on my Mini (late 2009) using 10.6.2 and the EyeTV 3.3 (5848).

I have done plenty of tests, and it does not even work between DVD Player and QuickTime. I have to quit the first one which captured Digital Out before I can have sound on the second one.

I submitted a defect to Elgato, they said it cannot work because of some OS X limitation, and that if EyeTV did not seem to have the problem before under 10.5.8, it was because of a transparent bug in EyeTV, which was outputting on System Out (stereo PCM) instead of Digital Out (5.1 bitstream), even when you selected that one in EyeTV preferences.


=> Since it seems to work on your system, did you check that you were actually getting a 5.1 bitstream out of your Mac ?


The fact that you get sound with a TosLink connection is no proof of that.

This bug is very annoying for me (cannot record in EyeTV and play a DVD at the same time if both use Digital Out), but I have found zero fix for it.

 

[chefklc]



Quote:
if EyeTV did not seem to have the problem before under 10.5.8, it was because of a transparent bug in EyeTV, which was outputting on System Out (stereo PCM) instead of Digital Out (5.1 bitstream), even when you selected that one in EyeTV preferences.


=> Since it seems to work on your system, did you check that you were actually getting a 5.1 bitstream out of your Mac ?


The fact that you get sound with a TosLink connection is no proof of that.

Oh, I have proof...a very nice HK AVR that I've used for years and know inside and out, with separate indicator lights that automatically switch specifically to PCM when it's PCM and DD 5.1 or DD 2.0 or DTS when it's DD 5.1 or DD 2.0 or DTS...hardware can't lie, it either recognizes that it's being fed an appropriately encoded digital stream and locks onto it or not, and either defaults to PCM or just sits there, blinking, confused. It easily detects when I toggle between system sound and digital out, and if I play the same EyeTV file back with completely different software players DD 5.1 is detected if present.

Quote:
I have done plenty of tests, and it does not even work between DVD Player and QuickTime. I have to quit the first one which captured Digital Out before I can have sound on the second one.

Sorry to hear that. If I understand their explanation, that it's an "OS X limitation," other EyeTV veterans here on SL and similar 2009 hardware should also be experiencing this "lock on digital out, failure to release, have to quit app entirely" behavior with every other app, too, be it Apple dvdplayer, VLC, Plex, FR et al, and I don't think we've had that reported much here. All I can confirm, on 10.5.8 w/ Perian 1.1.4 on a 2008 Macbook is that I don't experience it; back when it did happen to me it was only EyeTV that stuck on the digital out and failed to release and no other app.


"Transparent bug" and "OS X limitation" that's some good deflection from El Gato, I honestly hadn't heard that one before. Seems similar to what they fed us about the digital audio kernel panic for two years before actually admitting it existed. But, that said, your personal experience, with every app even Apple apps, seems to support that point of view.

Quote:
This bug is very annoying for me (cannot record in EyeTV and play a DVD at the same time if both use Digital Out)

Oh agreed, if there's any way that I can help, I will, but I definitely don't have any problem doing that--merely recording EyeTV in the background shouldn't interfere at all while playing something else back with digital audio in the front.


Can you link me to a thread over at their forum where they trotted this explanation out in public? I'd like to read it...

 

[an9el]

The Mac Mini in question is connected via analog cinch to an older Braun amplifier. Hence, I don't have the problem with the digital out discussed here.


I know that using the original setting, it would have been possible to make the Mini go to sleep by hold pressing the Play key. However, I found the original configuration in EyeTV to be unusable so I changed it with Remote Buddy. Basically I have used up all buttons, that's why I wanted to assign sleep to the combination Menu + Play/Pause.

 

[geeji]



Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18220217


Can you link me to a thread over at their forum where they trotted this explanation out in public? I'd like to read it...

The link on my ticket ("YNU-168401: #7138 - EyeTV monopolise la sortie son numerique, meme en arriere plan") does not seem to be publicly available, unless you logon with my ID. It would be in french anyway, but the literal translation of the last Elgato answer is below :

Quote:
It "worked" with EyeTV 3.1 and earlier versions of EyeTV because of a bug. In these versions the digital output was never used, the sound system was always used even if EyeTV indicated use of the digital output. Now that the bug is fixed the problem appears. This is not really a bug but Apple's implementation of the standard digital audio. Unlike analog ones, it is not possible to mix two digital sources, one always excludes the other.

Then they remarked I could always switch to System Out, if I was ready to loose 5.1 on HD channels...

Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18220217


If I understand their explanation, that it's an "OS X limitation," other EyeTV veterans here on SL and similar 2009 hardware should also be experiencing this "lock on digital out, failure to release, have to quit app entirely" behavior with every other app, too, be it Apple dvdplayer, VLC, Plex, FR et al, and I don't think we've had that reported much here.

That is also mysterious to me : there should be plenty of people complaining (anybody who wants to play back 5.1 tracks), but I have only found a few.

I opened a thread on Apple support , but no luck either although obviously some people have the exact same problem.

You are actually the first person I found to prove that it works (worked ?), while Elgato says it is normal it does not.

At that point, I do not know exactly what to do, except to try to reopen the Elgato ticket with you as living proof their previous answer was pure b******t.

 

[chefklc]

geeji one thing that isn't clear to me is what you're connecting your Mac optical to--I wonder of any of this behavior might be related to your AVR and/or particular external device--what you're feeding optical to--have you tested to see what happens with a different AVR? Any chance your AVR or intermediate device isn't recognizing that you've stopped feeding it an encoded digital audio signal--and isn't resetting to potentially begin receiving the new stream? Anyway, it's just a thought, but maybe that's why a new app can't acquire the digital out because CoreAudio isn't receiving the all clear signal from the AVR? Even with my HK AVRs, which I have Macs connected to over optical, there are odd times...maybe once a week...when I have to switch away to a different input, say the cable STB, then back to the Mac input, in order to acquire the Mac digital audio stream.


I think the disconnect I'm having is when you describe this:

Quote:
cannot record in EyeTV and play a DVD at the same time if both use Digital Out

because in this instance we're not really talking about two different programs acquiring or sharing the digital out--simultaneously--the only time a program is supposed to take hold of the digital out is during actual playback of a file--Core Audio begins passing the AC-3 stream through to an AVR--and that's why two different software players can't use the digital out at the same time--one is already busy and won't let anyone else join in. Here's the bottom line: EyeTV merely opening and recording in the background shouldn't EVER take hold of the digital out in any way so as to prevent another app or media player from playing back a file. Recording is distinct from playback and it has never mattered whether EyeTV audio out is set to system or digital when EyeTV is just recording--that setting never comes into play since you're not outputting anything. If EyeTV does monopolize the digital out when merely recording, and indeed, if the app itself just being open but inactive somehow grabs hold onto the digital out, that's just nonsense. That's no OS X limitation, and no transparent bug.


What used to happen a few years ago with EyeTV was this--you'd start watching a program with DD 5.1, audio out set to digital, then when you're done watching that recording, and closed its window or deleted it, EyeTV would not release the digital out. Even when you opened and switched to a different app and tried to play something else back. The only way you could start playing a dvd back with Apple dvdplayer.app was by quitting the EyeTV app completely. That was a real bug and not transparent, it only happened with EyeTV and no other application, it was El Gato's fault and El Gato did fix this a good long while ago. It was so long ago I remember it fondly because I was using my M-Audio Firewire Solo at the time, and that was ages ago.


So, that means in this scenario: you should be able to start playing a dvd, select its AC-3 audio stream in one player, say with Plex or FR or Apple dvd player.app--and a few minutes later have EyeTV wake up to initiate recording of a scheduled program with no problem. We've usually been able to do this just fine--recording even multiple streams happens transparently in the background and EyeTV has never tried to acquire the digital out when just recording. Test this for yourself, keep the AudioMIDI window open, then open EyeTV--the mere act of opening EyeTV or starting to record something shouldn't cause any change in AudioMIDI at all. If you keep MIDI normally set to 44.1kHz/2ch-16bit and you open EyeTV and/or start recording, it'll stay at 44.1kHz/2ch-16bit throughout. Test again, start playing a dvd with AC-3 in a window, MIDI will switch to encoded, keep it playing, then open EyeTV and/or start recording something--MIDI should remain completely unaffected, remaining on encoded from the dvd. What should happen when you invert things is this--start playing back an EyeTV recording with DD 5.1, MIDI should switch to encoded, then when you stop playback and close the EyeTV window--bingo--MIDI switches off encoded and back to whatever your normal settings were, in this case 44.1/2ch-16. Leave EyeTV, the app, open. If you then open a file w/ Apple dvdplayer.app and select its AC-3 track, bingo, it should have no trouble switching MIDI to encoded and CoreAudio passes that stream through. Back and forth, back and forth, no problem as long as you stop playback or close the particular media file involved each time.


But, I wonder if part of the problem is language, how you phrase this:

Quote:
the front most application should take the Digital Out channel, and release it when an other one becomes front most

because I don't think the key is merely moving different applications to the front--the key is stopping (closing, not just pausing) the playback of a file that has digital out in one software player, then switching to a different software player or app, opening a new file, and starting to play that back. The first action releases the digital out, the second action acquires it. Leaving both windows, apps and files open and in mid-stream--and hoping to toggle between the two windows, releasing and reacquiring the digital out each time you switch, well, that's not how it works.


You can't start playing an EyeTV recording back, then merely leave that window, mid-stream, open say VLC, pick a file, and start playing that back and expect EyeTV to realize it should give up the digital out because VLC wants it.


Am I correctly interpreting your experience? I'll wait for your clarification before tacking the El Gato response that you've quoted, because I think we might not be talking about the same thing.

 

[geeji]



Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18222845


geeji one thing that isn't clear to me is what you're connecting your Mac optical to--I wonder of any of this behavior might be related to your AVR and/or particular external device--what you're feeding optical to--have you tested to see what happens with a different AVR?

It is a Yamaha RX-V3800. Never have a disconnect or problem feeding various streams, including DTS-HD from my Blu Ray player.

But I very much doubt it would be the problem since it works perfectly when individual programs run on the Mac, and I just get no sound when the one which "holds" the Digital Out is in the background

Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18222845


EyeTV merely opening and recording in the background shouldn't EVER take hold of the digital out in any way so as to prevent another app or media player from playing back a file.

Using the Midi application, I checked that when you close the EyeTV playback windows with AC3, while recording an AC3 program, Midi displays again the 2 channels / 16 bits.

BUT the Digital Out of DVD Player is still NOT passing through, I have to stop DVD Player (which otherwise remains stuck on System Out, without offering the Digital Out option in Preferences), restart DVD Player, switch back to Digital Out, THEN I get an encoded AC3 sound and Midi confirms it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18222845


So, that means in this scenario: you should be able to start playing a dvd, select its AC-3 audio stream in one player, say with Plex or FR or Apple dvd player.app--and a few minutes later have EyeTV wake up to initiate recording of a scheduled program with no problem. We've usually been able to do this just fine--recording even multiple streams happens transparently in the background and EyeTV has never tried to acquire the digital out when just recording. Test this for yourself, keep the AudioMIDI window open, then open EyeTV--the mere act of opening EyeTV or starting to record something shouldn't cause any change in AudioMIDI at all. If you keep MIDI normally set to 44.1kHz/2ch-16bit and you open EyeTV and/or start recording, it'll stay at 44.1kHz/2ch-16bit throughout. Test again, start playing a dvd with AC-3 in a window, MIDI will switch to encoded, keep it playing, then open EyeTV and/or start recording something--MIDI should remain completely unaffected, remaining on encoded from the dvd. What should happen when you invert things is this--start playing back an EyeTV recording with DD 5.1, MIDI should switch to encoded, then when you stop playback and close the EyeTV window--bingo--MIDI switches off encoded and back to whatever your normal settings were, in this case 44.1/2ch-16. Leave EyeTV, the app, open. If you then open a file w/ Apple dvdplayer.app and select its AC-3 track, bingo, it should have no trouble switching MIDI to encoded and CoreAudio passes that stream through.

It works like you say, assuming you start the other application AFTER you stopped any kind of AC3 playback in EyeTV.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18222845


Back and forth, back and forth, no problem as long as you stop playback or close the particular media file involved each time.


But, I wonder if part of the problem is language, because I don't think the key is merely moving different applications to the front--the key is stopping (closing, not just pausing) the playback of a file that has digital out in one software player, then switching to a different software player or app, opening a new file, and starting to play that back. The first action releases the digital out, the second action acquires it. Leaving both windows, apps and files open and in mid-stream--and hoping to toggle between the two windows, releasing and reacquiring the digital out each time you switch, well, that's not how it works.

I understand, but since the AC3 sound is muted when the EyeTV window is in the background, I do not understand why it could not do the hold/release action implicitly.

Anyway, as explained above, even explicit stop is not enough to reacquire sound from DVD Player, I have to stop/restart it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/18222845


You can't start playing an EyeTV recording back, then merely leave that window, mid-stream, open say VLC, pick a file, and start playing that back and expect EyeTV to realize it should give up the digital out because VLC wants it.

I understand EyeTV would not be aware, but OS X would be, and could/should emulate a release.


I would love to continue this discussion, but I am unfortunately leaving for several weeks and will not have easy Internet access.

If you don't mind, I will re initiate this very interesting discussion when I come back, hopefully getting this time to the bottom of it.

Thanks to you and the experiments you suggested, it is already much clearer

 

[chefklc]

geeji, ok, that clears things up for me a little bit...I suspect what you're calling a bug is not an actual bug at all, that both EyeTV and OS X and Apple dvdplayer.app are working exactly the way they're supposed to and that nothing needs to be fixed by either El Gato or Apple. Here's why:

Quote:
I just get no sound when the one which "holds" the Digital Out is in the background

OK, when you do return, let's define which apps and which behavior, "holds" the digital out for you.


Here's where I have a bit of a problem, though: why is something, anything, holding digital out in the background...the only way for any app to "hold" digital out is because you're actively watching something, so in most viewing situations why would you want something else to acquire digital out?

Quote:
Using the Midi application, I checked that when you close the EyeTV playback windows with AC3, while recording an AC3 program, Midi displays again the 2 channels / 16 bits.

Good...not allowing MIDI to switch back to 2ch-16bit when you closed the EyeTV playback window WAS the legitimate bug El Gato once had to fix. This is what I thought you were experiencing...glad to hear that's not the case.

Quote:
BUT the Digital Out of DVD Player is still NOT passing through, I have to stop DVD Player (which otherwise remains stuck on System Out, without offering the Digital Out option in Preferences), restart DVD Player, switch back to Digital Out, THEN I get an encoded AC3 sound and Midi confirms it

An initial question, why is Apple dvdplayer.app even open at this point? If I understand you correctly, you were watching an EyeTV recording with proper AC-3 passthrough...why do you have to "stop" anything regarding dvd player? What most of us would do is close the EyeTV playback window, it releases digital out, even if the EyeTV app remains open and still recording, then open DVD Player, open a media file, it acquires digital out, start watching something. Done this way, DVD Player will always open and sense that digital out is available for you, right?


There's no good reason that I can think of to keep the dvd player app open on your desktop doing nothing--it's easy to open with remote apps, easy to switch to from Plex since Plex does such a poor job handling VIDEO_TS, etc. But, for investigative purposes and because it's an interesting question, let's say you DO want both apps open all the time.


Here's what I'd do: with both EyeTV and Apple dvdplayer.app preferences set for digital out, and both apps closed, open DVD player first. As part of the opening process, I'm gonna assume two things happen--first, it notes that you've set its audio preference to digital out, and second, it peeks into AudioMIDI to see if "encoded digital out" is already being used by something else. Since it's not, DVD Player says to itself "It's OK to pass through AC-3 and DTS when required," and the app remains ready to alert CoreAudio that encoded digital might be coming its way. Leave the DVD Player window open.


(Momentary diversion--this is what iTunes does as well when it first opens, it checks AudioMIDI to see what audio output settings you've selected, which determines what sample rate conversion will be performed by iTunes, and later what SRC will be applied by CoreAudio itself, if any. If iTunes is already open, and then you change AudioMIDI, iTunes retains what it sensed at opening, it will only detect the new setting after closing and re-opening.)


Then open EyeTV and play an EyeTV recording back with AC-3. Quit that playback window but leave the EyeTV app open.


Now switch back to the DVD Player window, select a file, start playing it back with AC-3 or DTS and I bet it'll have no trouble acquiring the digital out and pass through to your AVR just fine. Why? Because when you opened the app initially, nothing was currently holding onto encoded digital out in AudioMIDI. Now, I'm not 100% positive on this, but this is the behavior I've noticed...I think where you may be getting tripped up is that somewhere along the way, when you return to Apple dvdplayer.app, some odd behavior of yours has caused it to poll AudioMIDI, it discovered that encoded digital was in use by something else, and switched off digital and onto system sound out within its preferences. That's why, at that point, you have to close and re-open DVD Player--it doesn't think it even has the option of encoded digital out anymore.


Test this, with both apps closed, open EyeTV first, start playing back a file with AC-3--then pause playback, mid-stream, leaving the playback window open. Then open DVD Player app and look at its audio preferences...I bet it's locked onto system sound, even if that last time you set the preference to digital.


So, if you do want to keep both DVD Player and EyeTV open on your desktop, just open DVD Player first with nothing else going on, let it sense that encoded digital isn't taken up by anything else, and you should be able to switch over to it later from any other app, including EyeTV, as long as you've finished watching whatever you were watching and closed that playback window.

Quote:
since the AC3 sound is muted when the EyeTV window is in the background, I do not understand why it could not do the hold/release action implicitly...as explained above, even explicit stop is not enough to reacquire sound from DVD Player, I have to stop/restart it

Is it just this one very specific scenario that I've outlined--you've been watching some EyeTV with DD 5.1, Apple dvdplayer.app just happens to already be open at the time, you stop watching an EyeTV recording and close its playback window, then you click on the already open DVD Player, tell it to open a file, try to select its AC-3 track, and find you can't?


Does the same thing happen in reverse for you--with DVD Player and EyeTV open, watching a dvd with AC-3, close that media file but leave the app open, then start playing back an EyeTV recording--will you get AC-3 passthrough? (I suspect you can get AC-3.)


Another hypothetical, if instead of returning to an already open Apple dvdplayer.app after EyeTV, you opened the same VIDEO_TS from within Plex or Front Row, do you get AC-3? (I suspect you will.) Just for the hell of it I tried something right now: I started playing back an EyeTV recording with AC-3--paused it mid-stream, window open--then entered Front Row, selected a VIDEO_TS with AC-3, started playing it back and it passed that AC-3 through to my AVR just fine. Closed it, left FR, resumed playback of that EyeTV, AC-3 resumed just fine.


So, I guess what I'm leading up to is this: is it accurate to say that your only AC-3 frustration is when returning to an already open Apple dvd player.app? Are there other instances you can re-create or remember?


I can't comment about AC-3 sound being muted when the EyeTV window is moved to the back because I've never done that--normally I'd watch an EyeTV recording, then when I'm done that I close that file/window, and either open a different recording in EyeTV, enter Front Row or Plex or open Apple dvdplayer.app, which is normally closed. I honestly never find myself in a situation with 1) a still open EyeTV playback window 2) wanting to open and watch something in a different app.

Quote:
I understand EyeTV would not be aware, but OS X would be, and could/should emulate a release.

If I'm interpreting your comments correctly, this gets to the crux of your issue--you wish OS X, Core Audio and AudioMIDI functioned differently and had different "rules" or behavior, some kind of smart intuition about what a user intends merely by moving windows to the front? If that's the case, I think I'm happier the way things stand, even with that Apple dvdplayer.app behavior, because it's fairly clean and consistent.


There are a few clear problems with Quicktime and AC-3, the Perian developers in particular have done a great job pointing these out, and Apple hasn't been the most consistent or responsive in addressing them, but I think those problems are probably not related to your "bug."