Request: option to expand mono to stereo

[el Filou]

Hello.

Would it be possible, when "Set matching speaker configuration" is enabled, to make ReClock expand mono input to 2-channel?

When ReClock receives a mono stream, the output stays at 2 channels (presumably because an output configuration with only one speaker isn't in any audio interface standard and so you can't tell the driver to output 1 channel) and the audio is put on the left channel, the right one staying silent.
I'm using ReClock with MediaPortal and this is annoying with many online videos and TV channels with mono audio (like news channels or local TV station), and especially on DVDs of old movies mastered in mono.

I've checked ffdshow, and it correctly outputs a mono stream to the center channel. I've thought about using its mixer to workaround this, but there is no way to do that because it only has options to expand stereo to 3.0 or surround, but not mono to stereo.

I think this wouldn't be very hard to implement as it would be a simple stream duplication?

Thanks a lot!

 

[James]

Hello.

Would it be possible, when "Set matching speaker configuration" is enabled, to make ReClock expand mono input to 2-channel?

When ReClock receives a mono stream, the output stays at 2 channels (presumably because an output configuration with only one speaker isn't in any audio interface standard and so you can't tell the driver to output 1 channel) and the audio is put on the left channel, the right one staying silent.
I'm using ReClock with MediaPortal and this is annoying with many online videos and TV channels with mono audio (like news channels or local TV station), and especially on DVDs of old movies mastered in mono.

I've checked ffdshow, and it correctly outputs a mono stream to the center channel. I've thought about using its mixer to workaround this, but there is no way to do that because it only has options to expand stereo to 3.0 or surround, but not mono to stereo.

I think this wouldn't be very hard to implement as it would be a simple stream duplication?

Thanks a lot!

How do you playback? HDMI? ATI? Analog? ReClock should in fact set the speaker configuration to 5.1 for mono sources and output the sound through the center channel.

 

[el Filou]

Yes, ATI HDMI (ATI driver 9.11), on XP.

I confirm ReClock (1.8.5.5) sets 2.0 when receiving mono. With any other case, it correctly maps speakers to channels.

Note: also, I tried enabling logging, but the file c:\reclock_log.txt mentionned in the readme isn't created.

 

[James]

Yes, ATI HDMI (ATI driver 9.11), on XP.

I confirm ReClock (1.8.5.5) sets 2.0 when receiving mono. With any other case, it correctly maps speakers to channels.

Note: also, I tried enabling logging, but the file c:\reclock_log.txt mentionned in the readme isn't created.

It has moved.
It is now in your "Documents" directory, because with Vista & up non elevated processes can't write to "C:\"...

 

[James]

I confirm ReClock (1.8.5.5) sets 2.0 when receiving mono. With any other case, it correctly maps speakers to channels.

Weird. I'll take a look.

 

[James]

I confirm ReClock (1.8.5.5) sets 2.0 when receiving mono. With any other case, it correctly maps speakers to channels.

Just checked 1.8.5.6, it correctly sets speaker config to 5.1 when playing mono.

I attach a little tool to verify your speaker setting. Let ReClock change your configuration, then start the tool.

The tool will work only under XP, not Vista & up.

 

[James]

Thinking about it, a "mono to stereo" conversion would probably be a nice feature. If I can find a place where to put the checkbox for this option.

 

[el Filou]

Just checked 1.8.5.6, it correctly sets speaker config to 5.1 when playing mono.

I attach a little tool to verify your speaker setting. Let ReClock change your configuration, then start the tool.

The tool will work only under XP, not Vista & up.

Okay, just tried the tool, having updated to 1.8.5.7 beforehand to be sure.

I'm not sure if you meant I have to run the tool while ReClock is running, or after it has stopped playing?
Anyway, when ReClock is running the tool's display is blank (probably because it can't access the audio interface), but if run after playing has stopped it just displays Windows' default setting anyway, not what ReClock changed it to when playing.

I've attached two log files, one playing a multichannel (for which ReClock is correctly setting the speaker count), and one with mono audio, but myself I cannot find anything useful in them.

However I thought about something: my default setting in Windows audio config control panel is set to stereo and not multichannel, because my music player can't set the speaker count so I have to set it to stereo so it works in 2-channel with music, and ReClock sets it to multichannel when I play multichannel videos.
Could it be that your default setting in Windows is already 5.1 or 7.1 and that's why it works with mono, i.e. ReClock doesn't actually do anything (or tries to but fails for mono), but because it's already configured with a center channel in Windows by default, it's output as it should in the end?
Just an idea...

Yes, expand mono to stereo would be a nice option.

Regards,

 

[James]

Yes, expand mono to stereo would be a nice option.

Consider it done. Next version will have it. Some more information is here:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showpost.php?p=239907&postcount=12