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Taubin

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#323544 13-Dec-2025 14:57
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I recently got a new tv (a very cheap TCL that seems to be working well) and hooked up my equally cheap sound bar (gorilla 2.1 from 2 1/2 years ago). Everything worked great, but last night my wife was switching TV channels, and the audio went out. I was already in bed when it happened so I wasn't able to troubleshoot until this morning. It seems there are three audio streams available on channels 1, 2 and 3 at least. 

 


The streams are labeled English 1, English 2 (with an eye and exclamation point), English 3. The channels were all set on English 3 which sounds best to me, but it seems when the channel switched something happened with the codec or similar and the audio stopped. I unplugged the soundbar and reset it which seems to have fixed the issue (for now) but I'm curious what the differences in the audio streams are. I'm guessing it's 5.1 (English 1), Descriptive Audio (English 3), 2.1 (English 3), which would explain English 3 sounding the best with the sound bar, but I cannot find any confirmation in all of my searching. Can anyone tell me if this is correct or where to find the codec information? 

 

 

 





ZL2TOY/ZL1DMP


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fe31nz
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  #3443818 14-Dec-2025 00:50
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I ran mediainfo on a recording of 1 News and it says:

 

Audio #1
ID                                       : 320 (0x140)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AAC LC SBR
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
Commercial name                          : HE-AAC
Format settings                          : NBC
Muxing mode                              : LATM
Codec ID                                 : 17-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 23.438 FPS (2048 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -445 ms
Language                                 : English

 

Audio #2
ID                                       : 325 (0x145)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AAC LC SBR
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
Commercial name                          : HE-AAC
Format settings                          : NBC
Muxing mode                              : LATM
Codec ID                                 : 17-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 23.438 FPS (2048 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -445 ms
Language                                 : English
Language, more info                      : Visual impaired commentary
Editorial classification                 : Visual impaired commentary
Mix type                                 : Independent

 

Audio #3
ID                                       : 421 (0x1A5)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : 129
Duration                                 : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -500 ms
Stream size                              : 181 MiB (5%)
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main

 

The Audio #1 stream is the normal English AAC audio, with Audio #2 the Audio Description also in AAC, both 2 channel stereo.  Audio #3 is AC3 Dolby Digital 5.1 and is usually significantly superior quality to the AAC audio, even if you are only playing the 2 stereo channels from it (as I do).




Taubin

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  #3443822 14-Dec-2025 07:53
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Thank you so much! I didn't even think to run against a stream of it to find out. This is super helpful. Interesting that they are all the same codec, as the audio cuts out on Audio 3 sometimes. I guess the old sound bar is on it's way out. 





ZL2TOY/ZL1DMP


Spyware
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  #3443843 14-Dec-2025 13:28
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They are not all the same codec. AAC and AC3 are different.





Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.




Taubin

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  #3443848 14-Dec-2025 14:11
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Ope my mistake, I read them all as aac. I'll keep an eye on it and switch them if it keeps acting up. 





ZL2TOY/ZL1DMP


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