SPDIF troubles

T

Term-X

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I am trying to get SPDIF/optical to work correctly. It does not want to transmit DTS/DD when an actual media file is playing but it will work when I run the Playback Devices DTS/DD tests, through all channels. But when I play the media files themselves, they just play in stereo mode. I have tried it with both SPDIF ports on my Aureon Universe 7.1 and it's 5.25 breakout box, though it's flakey and sometime doesn't work at all. I tried with my onboard soundcard (P5B - SoundMax something or other). Still the same problem. Tests work fine but actual media files do not. Works via analog cables though (on my older RCA receiver).

I have AC3 Filter set up and everything related to SPDIF checked but still no go. Am I missing something here? Maybe Windows Media Player 11 doesn't support it? I'm confused.
 
Set Spdif as your default sound device before opening the application.

Also in AC3filter , go to the SPDIF tab. Then in the SPDIF options the only things that should be ticked are "detect SPDIF stream in PCM" and "restrict SPDIF sample rate" to 48Khz and 44.1 Khz.

That works for me.
 
I checked the settings you specified and no go. I have used the SPDIF optical connection on 2 different receivers and have the same problem. Playback Devices tests run fine and show the DTS/DD symbols on both receivers but when playing 5.1 media, it stays in stereo mode. The only other thing I can think of is that perhaps one of my other existing codecs/filters may be conflicting. I have CCCP/ffdshow installed, along with PureVideo/CoreAVC. I have no idea if anything in these packages can interfere with one another but I am sure it's a possibility.

Anyway, I have a link to pictures of the 3 tabs in AC3 Filter, maybe you might see something I am missing.

Main Tab


SPDIF Tab


System Tab
 
To add to the confusion, my analog connection no longer does 5.1 either. Yet it similarly, works while using the Windows Playback Devices test options. Any ideas? :confused:
 
I would try Media Player Classic. Anything Microsoft provides is just a mess. MPC is an open source media player that uses the same UI as the original Windows 95 mplayer. AC3filter is very straightforward to use with MPC.
 
astrallite said:
I would try Media Player Classic. Anything Microsoft provides is just a mess. MPC is an open source media player that uses the same UI as the original Windows 95 mplayer. AC3filter is very straightforward to use with MPC.
Click to expand...

Well that worked... sort of. I was able to get all channels working except that my receiver fails to recognize that DTS or DD is playing. Still shows as Dolby ProLogic II. So I am not sure if this is some 'simulated/altered' surround sound or the real thing.
 
Do you have a pure/direct mode on your receiver? Dolby Prologic is a term for post-processing, it doesn't matter if the source is 5 channel stereo or matrixed sound, in order to pass it through SPDIF, it has to be compressed into either in Dolby Digital or DTS formats due to the 2-channel PCM bandwidth limit, you can't actually "receive" a Dolby Prologic signal, since its not a wrapper format; its post processing applied by the receiver.

Either 1) Your receiver is set to a Dolby Prologic II post-processing mode or 2) Your receiver is just displaying a borked message.

If 1) You need to set your receiver to a Pure or Direct mode to make sure that no DSP (digital signal processing) is being applied to the signal coming in.

If 2) No problems...

The best way to verify is to play an action movie. In dramas oftentimes the soundtrack is just stereo with music playing in the rears...but in an action movie, the difference between true discrete and post processing is extremely obvious...
 
Term-X said:
I checked the settings you specified and no go. I have used the SPDIF optical connection on 2 different receivers and have the same problem. Playback Devices tests run fine and show the DTS/DD symbols on both receivers but when playing 5.1 media, it stays in stereo mode. The only other thing I can think of is that perhaps one of my other existing codecs/filters may be conflicting. I have CCCP/ffdshow installed, along with PureVideo/CoreAVC. I have no idea if anything in these packages can interfere with one another but I am sure it's a possibility.

Anyway, I have a link to pictures of the 3 tabs in AC3 Filter, maybe you might see something I am missing.

Main Tab


SPDIF Tab


System Tab
Click to expand...

You haven't it setup exactly the way I said. You have to untick "Use AC3 encoder" and "check output format support"

Also in your settings for your speakers you have to make sure that they are setup for 5.1 and that digital input/output is enabled in the speakers properties. I know you are using the SPDIF as default, but, in my system if I have the speaker setup as stereo I only get stereo in my SPDIF out.

Maybe if you tell us the make of your receiver We could help more.
 
My main receiver is the RCA RT2500 (manual/specs available on Radioshack website here: http://support.radioshack.com/support_audio/59891.htm). The other receiver is a newer all-in-one kind of thing, the LG HE903PAW.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by pure/direct mode but the current receiver and the other one are both set to Optical mode. My RCA, for example, auto-detects DD/DTS when the Windows DTS/DD tests are run, clearly displaying on the receiver the symbols during that period. It also used to detect it when my old standalone DVD player was working. But for the life of me I can't seem to get it to work with media on my computer.

reaper12 - The reason I checked those again is because when I uncheck those, WMP fails to play the files. It just sits there endlessly. It does play under Media Player Classic but only in stereo now, not even 'simulated'.

I've been looking google through and through and some people suggest it might be a Vista x64 issue but then a friend of mine is running x64 and he was somehow able to get his to work. He can't figure out what is wrong with my settings either.
 
well, I have vista 64 bit as well. And it took me ages to get it working. The settings that I gave you were the only ones that worked, and, since then, they have worked for other members of the boards here and for some of my friends.

Maybe it's your sound card? I have a creative x-fi. Before the latest drivers came out SPDIF didn't work properely at all. So I used the SPDIF out on my onboard sound card and it worked great. For games I used the X-fi.

What type of files are you trying to play?
 
Yea that's why I am really confused. I have tried all kinds of reported solutions - my friend runs his with the options you told me to uncheck, checked and it works for him. So I really don't know what to do. I guess I could try formatting but who knows. I have both my Terratec Aureon 7.1 Universe active and my onboard AC97 (SoundMAX) installed. My Terratec is definitely a piece of crap because half the time the tests work and then they don't. On the other hand, the onboard works with the tests all the time but fails just the same with actual media. The media types I've been using for testing range from actual DVDs, to wmv and mkv.

Anyway, I toyed around with it and I think I am getting that potentially simulated 5.1 audio coming through (with Media Player Classic only, WMP fails) so I guess I'll stick with that for now until I can find out what is wrong. Still shows Pro Logic/2 channels active despite all 5 working; contrary to windows tests. I'll go dig through my boxes for my Matrix DVD, I always found that one lobby scene to be good for testing surround.

Thanks a bunch for your help guys, I wouldn't know where to start by myself when it comes to audio.
 
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