HTML5 AAC Audio Playback Tests - Multichannel

HE-AAC Channel ID

This bitstream contains:

1. Spoken Channel Identification in English

2. BLITS (EBU Tech 3304-4.1)
3. EBU Multichannel Ident (EBU Tech 3304-4.2)
4. Narration in the following channels:
1. FL
2. FC
3. FR
4. RS
5. LS

AAC-LC Channel ID

This is the test above encoded in AAC-LC. Note this is 320 kb/s, not 160 as announced.

HE-AAC Channel ID - With H.264 Video

This is the bitstream above multiplexed with an explanatory graphic encoded in H.264 Main Profile at
800x600 resolution.

LFE and SBR Test

This tests for proper bass management and reproduction of the SBR portion of the HE-AAC
bitstream.

This bitstream contains:

1. Bass Management - 63 Hz tone @ -18 dBFS, 2 seconds

1. Left Front
2. Center
3. Right Front
4. Right Suround
5. Left Surround
6. LFE (@ -28dBFS)
2. SBR - 6, 8, 10, 12 kHz tones @ -18 dBFS, 0.5 seconds each
1. Left Front
2. Center
3. Right Front
4. Right Suround
5. Left Surround
3. Spoken Channel Identification in English
4. Narration: Center channel

There is a 1 kHz -18 dBFS tone in the center channel throughout.

If a subwoofer is used with limited-range main speakers, all 60 Hz tones should play at the same
level through the subwoofer. (Hold SLM next to subwoofer) If full-range speakers are used, the 60
Hz tones should play through each speaker individually, though levels may vary due to standing
wave or resonances in the listening rrom. The LFE signal is encoded 10 dB lower to account for the
10 dB gain in the LFE channel in the playback amplifer's bass management circuits.

If the decoder supports SBR, all four tones, 6, 8, 10, and 12 KHz should be heard (or seen on a
sound level meter if you have high-frequency hearing loss). If the decoder is only decoding the
AAC-LC portion of the bitstream, only the first two tones will be heard. This is at the encoded
bitrate of 160 kb/s, at other bitrates the SBR crossover frequency used by the encoder will vary,
resulting in more or less tones being heard. Missing tones in only one channel may indicate a
speaker problem.

LFE and SBR Test - With H.264 Video

This is the bitstream above multiplexed with an explanatory graphic encoded in H.264 Main Profile at
800x600 resolution.

Troubleshooting

The MPEG-4 AAC audio bitstreams above are presented as HTML5 audio objects - which should
play back correctly in:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (Win 7 PC)

Apple Safari 5 (Win 7 PC)
Google Chrome (Win 7 PC or Mac)

when your computer has 5.1 channel speakers connected or connects via HDMI to a 5.1 or better
surround sound AVR or home theater system. The bitstream files, if downloaded locally, should
also play correctly in:

Microsoft Windows Media Player 12 (Win 7 PC)

Apple QuickTime (Win 7 PC or Mac)
AOL WinAmp (Win 7 PC)
VLC Player (Win 7 PC)

HTML5 AAC Audio Playback Tests - PC HTML5 Surround Sound

Troubleshooting

These pages include HTML5 playback of HE-AAC 5.1 channel audio files, or HE-AAC 5.1 audio
combined with H.264 video. They should play back correctly in:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (Win 7 PC)

Apple Safari 5 (Win 7 PC)
Google Chrome 18 (Win 7 PC or Mac)
(Firefox has announced consideration of AVC/AAC, but has not implemented it yet)
when your computer has 5.1 channel speakers connected or connects via HDMI to a 5.1 or better
surround sound AVR or home theater system. Iif downloaded locally, the files should also play
correctly in:

Microsoft Windows Media Player 12 (Win 7 PC)

Apple QuickTime 7.7 (Win 7 PC or Mac)
AOL WinAmp 5.623 (Win 7 PC)
VLC Player 2.0 (Win 7 PC)

If you have only stereo speakers, you will hear a stereo downmix.

Setting up surround may look complex, but it is a simple process, particularly with an Audio/Video
Reciever or Home Theater in a Box system. Basically, you connect the HDMI cable from your
laptop to your AVR or HTiB, make some settings, and you're hearing surround, as explained below.

Windows 7 Setup and Troubleshooting

If your browser supports HTML5 and supports AVC and AAC, you will see a player in the web
page. Otherwise, you will see "Format not supported in this browser?" or a gray or black rectangle
with an "X". Internet Explorer 9, Safari (Windows) and Chrome are the major browsers that should
work. On a PC, Safari needs QuickTime installed as well. (The Safari installer usually installs both
unless you specify otherwise)

Desktop PC with Gaming-style Speakers

On a desktop PC, you may connect surround speakers to the jacks on your computer's rear panel as
shown below. Your PC's sound software dialog or control, or its documentation, will explain the
mapping of channels to each jack.

Once connected, follow the procedure below to configure and test your system.

Living-room Mac or PC Laptop with Audio-Video Receiver and Speakers

In a living room or media PC arrangement, connect your computer to the HDMI input of your
surround-capable audio/video reciever or home theater system, as shown below:
On a PC, you may need to change your default audio device (Start Menu | Control Panel | Sound |
Playback tab, select your HDMI output device, push Set Default) to send the audio to your HDMI
jack:

Windows 7 Sound Settings in Control Panel for HDMI sound output

Setting and Testing 5.1 Speakers in Windows 7

If you still hear nothing, check:

Windows 7 Volume Mixer

Then check:

Windows 7 Playback Device Properties

When using QuickTime or Safari on a PC, you may need to change it's default audio settings for
surround output (Edit | Preferences | QuickTime Preferences) to "Windows Audio Session":
QuickTime Preferences Dialog

After you have correctly configured your computer and connected it to your AVR, your AVR's
display should show PCM decoding of five channels plus the subwoofer:

AVR Display When Decoding 6-Channel PCM Audio from Laptop

Looking for the Windows 7 resampler test? It has been moved below:
HTML5 AAC Audio Playback Tests - Windows 7 Audio Playback Methods
This problem currently exists with Internet Explorer and Chrome in Windows 7.

The primary ways to play audio in Windows 7 are:

Output Method First Introduced Basic Feature

waveOut Windows 3.0 Plays sound

DirectSound Windows 95 Multiple sounds at same time

WASAPI Windows Vista Low Latency, Exclusive Mode

To use DirectSound, DirectX has to be installed on your PC. This is supplied with Win 7, but in XP days, you
had to sometimes install DirectX seperately (usually by an application you installed).

Perhaps for this reason, or the fact it was already working code, IE 9 and Chrome currently appear to use
waveOut to play audio.

The Problem

Windows 7 applications that use the WaveOut API will have poor audio quality on playback if the
sample rate of the content is not the same as the default sample rate of the output device. This is
because the resampler for WaveOut was changed in Win7 to use linear interpolation, according to
Microsoft.

HTML5 media playback is important for enabling multi-channel AAC content delivery to the
consumer. This content may be at either 44.1 or 48 kHz sampling rates, so the problem is likely to
occur for at least some of the content played, no matter whether the default rate is 44.1 or 48 kHz on
the user's computer.

A "request only" Windows hotfix has been issued for this problem, but consumers won't recognize
the problem or be able to find the hotfix. To enable HTML5 media playback in IE 9, this hotfix
should be in the normal Windows Update process. We have reported this problem to Microsoft, but
have not recieved any news of a change in status.

The problem is limited to Windows 7 and Vista, and has apparently been fixed in the Consumer
Preview of Windows 8.

Windows 7 Resampler Tests

These signals test the proper operation of the Windows 7 sound mixer resampler. The signals are 2-
100 Hz linear sweeps. If the mixer does a poor job of resampling, you will hear a tone in the mid or
high frequencies at whichever sample rate is not the native one selected for your output device in
the operating system. If you do not have the hotfix installed for Windows 7, you will hear the tone
when using IE 9 for playback.

OS Resampler Test - HE-AAC - 48 kHz

OS Resampler Test - AAC-LC - 48 kHz

OS Resampler Test - HE-AAC - 44.1 kHz

OS Resampler Test - AAC-LC - 44.1 kHz

Background Details

Hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2653312

Fraunhofer is not the "discoverer" of this issue. It can be found on HydrogenAudio, for example:
(http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=86676)

Note this is not a codec problem, you can hear this on a wav file. The Microsoft KB entry says
Windows 7 uses linear interpolation for the WaveOut resampling.

The problem is detailed in this post: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowspro-

audiodevelopment/thread/725546ce-57bf-40d0-b7aa-47e51de9c3ae/

We have found the problem, which is a bug in waveOut on Vista and Windows 7. Windows XP
does not have this problem.

In Windows XP, the sample rate conversion quality in KMixer is controlled by the Sound control
panel:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff538617%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

In Windows Vista KMixer was removed and the audio engine was moved up into user mode. The
sample rate conversion quality meter was removed from the Sound control panel.

Media Foundation, DirectShow, DirectSound, and waveOut each do sample rate conversion slightly
differently. There is a bug in the waveOut sample rate conversion which results in a lower-quality
sample rate conversion than was done in XP.

Matthew van Eerde

Other Resampling Tests

20 Hz - 20 kHz sweep, 20 seconds, 48 kHz sampling rate, AOT = 5, explicit signalling, backwards
compatible

Download File

20 Hz - 20 kHz sweep, 20 seconds, 48 kHz sampling rate, AOT = 2

Download File

Original Wave File

Download File