AC3Filter, AC3 encoder and SPDIF output

[akej]

Hi,

I have a problem that I haven't been able to solve and would appreciate if someone could help me. I have searched this forum (and other forums as well) but haven't been able to find the solution yet.

Today I'm using MPC as media player and AC3Filter to send the sound to my ESI Juli@ soundcard using SPDIF passtrough. This works fine and the digital sound is sent (unaffected) to my reciver for decoding.

Now I would like to try to use Reclock and the AC3 encoder feature to reencode the sound (timestretch correction) and then send the audio to my soundcard SPDIF output.

The problem is that I havent been able to configure AC3Filter, MPC and Reclock to get the sound to be reencoded. My plan is to use AC3Filter as an decoder, then feed the decoded datastream to Reclock for reencoding and at last send this datastream to the SPDIF output on the soundcard.

I feel that I have tried every combination of settings in AC3Filter, MPC HC and Reclock without luck. Some hints on how to configure AC3Filter, MPC and Reclock would be appreciated.

As far as I can see, AC3Filter decodes the data (I have deselected "Use SPDIF", and see the five channel audio data in AC3Filter "Input level" graphs). The problem is that I haven't figured out how to "send" this datastream to Reclock and then how to make Reclock send the data to the SPDIF output...

I have no "Interal Filters" or "External filters" enabled in MPC, just selected "Reclock audio renderer" as DirectShow audio in MPC. Could I be missing something here? Note that Reclock works OK for the picture (green icon), the only problem is the sound processing.

In Reclock, I'm using "Use AC3 Encoder..." and have deselected "Accept SPDIF" (have tried to enable "Accept SPDIF" as well, no change).

Any ideas what I have missed here...?

[Jong]

You haven't really said what your problem is. I'll assume that AC3Filter and Reclock both load but you are not getting 5.1 AC3 at your amp.

Does Reclock say it is receiving 6-channel PCM? If so, maybe AC3Filter is not set to output 48Khz/16-bit PCM (Reclock will only AC3 encode audio in this format). If this is the problem set the "Output format" in AC3Filter to 48000/16-bit. If it is not,give us a bit more detail on what is happening and what is not working.

[akej]

Hi, the problem I had was that I did not get 5.1 AC3 to the receiver, only stereo sound (in fact the right and left channels from the 5.1 audio, but not downmixed, i.e. all dialogue from the 5.1 audio was lost).

I did one last try today, and that was installing Reclock (1.8.3.0) and the lastest MPC HC (1.2.908.0). Guess what, now everything works perfect...!

I have no idea what could have caused the problems in the first place, but using the latest MPC HC + latest Reclock solved the problem.

Thanks for your ideas on the problem. I'm now running 24p movies at 25 FPS (stutter free on my Panasonic plasma) with reencoded 5.1 audio.

[sw4y]

hi,
this is my first post and i hope it's right to post it here.

my problem is a little bit different to the above, but maybe someone knows what to. I didn't want to open a new thread for that.

I configured the ac3filter exactly the way jong said and it works perfect for media-files.
reclock shows a 6 channel 16bit audiostream and my amp shows that too (shows me 6 speakers that are in use).

but when i watch tv, especially a movie with 5.1 dd-sound, the amp doesn't show me 6 speakers, so I guess, the ac3filter does not really work in that case.
when I check the "use spdif" box, the amp shows me 6 speakers...
but that's not what i want, cause reclock doesn't work correctly with this box checked.

hope you know what I mean and maybe have a solution for this.

best regards,

sw4y

[akej]

hi,
this is my first post and i hope it's right to post it here.

my problem is a little bit different to the above, but maybe someone knows what to. I didn't want to open a new thread for that.

I configured the ac3filter exactly the way jong said and it works perfect for media-files.
reclock shows a 6 channel 16bit audiostream and my amp shows that too (shows me 6 speakers that are in use).

but when i watch tv, especially a movie with 5.1 dd-sound, the amp doesn't show me 6 speakers, so I guess, the ac3filter does not really work in that case.
when I check the "use spdif" box, the amp shows me 6 speakers...
but that's not what i want, cause reclock doesn't work correctly with this box checked.

hope you know what I mean and maybe have a solution for this.

best regards,

sw4y

If you open AC3Filter config when the movie is running, do you see 6 channel data (green bars)...?

[sw4y]

Hi,

yes thats right. 6 green bars in input level as well as in output level.
It's also coming right out of my speakers ;) so I think it works, but does not show this correctly ?