Cavernize user guide

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Troubleshooting common Cavernize issues

With certain settings, Cavernize might generate output files that can't be played with some media players. These are the causes and fixes for these common problems.

Sound is coming from wrong directions

Cavernize exports with standard WAVEFORMATEX channel order, meaning any player that respects this setting, will play the content correctly. By standard, the 7.1 channel order is L, R, C, LFE, RL, RR, SL, SR, and these channels are marked in the exported PCM metadata. However, this channel order is only burned in to the following tracks supported by Cavern:

WAV files (standalone PCM exports)
(Enhanced-)AC-3 files or MXF tracks
ADM Broadcast Wave Format files
Limitless Audio Format files

The following targets do not include channel order metadata and do not guarantee channel-perfect playback on all players:

Opus tracks
FLAC tracks
PCM tracks in MXF files

The tested players affected by this issue are the following:

Dune desktop media players: The PCM channel order on Dune players is L, R, C, SL, RL, RR, SR, LFE.
VLC media player: The PCM channel order of VLC is L, R, SL, SR, RL, RR, C, LFE.

The tested players not affected by this issue and working correctly with all Cavernize-generated files:

MPC-HC

Silent output

When the audio is completely silent, continue with this chapter. If it's only sometimes silent, go to Audio cuts out from time to time. Some players (like MPC-HC) can't play any audio over 8 channels as this is the system limit. For massively multichannel outputs, you will need to either find pro audio environments like studio gear, or use ASIO-capable media players with ASIO-supporting output devices. ASIO4ALL has an aggregate audio device feature where the channels of multiple outputs can be merged together.

Audio cuts out or video freezes from time to time

This issue can have two different root causes. If you get an error message that the content you have converted contains something Cavernize can't decode, that part of the audio will be muted. These parts will likely never be decoded as the most likely cause is a lack of correct documentation for such features. If there was no error message, the media player might be at fault. For unknown reasons, some MXF structures can cause a loss of A/V sync in the following players:

MPC-HC

Players not affected by this issue (but only if no warning popped up in Cavernize):

VLC media player

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Workaround

In MPC-HC, the issue is fixed if the video and audio are separated into different files. To achieve this, install FFmpeg and add it to PATH, then create a new .bat file with the following contents:

ffmpeg -i %1 -map 0:v -map 0:s -c copy "%~n1_fix.mkv"

ffmpeg -i %1 -map 0:a -c copy "%~n1_fix.mka"

Drag and dropping files on this will create a split version next to the original Cavernize output, and when playing the video (.mkv) file, MPC-HC will play the Cavernized audio without cutting out.

Conversion errors

When unexplained conversion errors and crashes happen, there is most likely not enough free space on the target disk, or FFmpeg was closed accidentally when Cavernize opened it for a task it can't perform. If both causes are ruled out, please report the issue on the developer contact form.

Something else

Report the issue on the developer contact form.