DVD and SPDIF problem

[src666]

I'm sure this has been covered before, but none of my searches have turned up the "magic bullet" yet.

I'm running Sage Client on a Shuttle box (NForce2), with the sound going to the SPDIF output. Everything works great - I get sound everywere. The only problem is that when Sage plays a DVD, I get the 2 channel downmix - it's not passing the AC3 bitstream out the SPDIF.

The DVD player installed on this computer is PowerDVD 5 OEM, which came with my NVidia 5200 card. When I run PowerDVD outside of Sage, it passes the AC3 stream just fine, but in sage, 2 channel only. I have gone to the DVD menu and ensured that the audio is set to the 5.1 mix.

I've run through all the audio output options in Sage's DVD Setup to no avail. I'm sure I'm missing something simple - can anyone tell me what it is? Thanks!

Also, is there a solution for passing the DTS stream from a DVD? I'm pretty sure that it would require a player/codec upgrade - suggestions?

[CyRex]

What audio decoder do you have selected under the DVD section of Detailed Settings? You may have to either select a different decoder, or check the configuration settings for the decoder that you are using to enable AC3 output via SPDIF.

-Dan

[Lucas]

Yes, you have to you use something like ac3filter or radflight filter manager to enable SPDIF passthough so that AC3/DTS streams go though unhindered.

I tried AC3 filter and it worked well for AC3 streams but not for DTS.

Radflight Filter Manager is what I settled with since I get both AC3 and DTS passthrough.

RFM essentially lets you access the "hidden" property pages of the audio(and all other filters including video) decoder filter and enable this support.

[src666]

I'll post details on exactly what my current audio settings are when I get home, but I did run through every single option during my testing.

More details on the ac3filter/radflight filter manager would be nice. I assume this is additional software. Are they additional cost items?

[stanger89]

Short answer, you need to configure your audio decoder for S/PDIF passthrough, some decoders (like PDVD and WinDVD) are very unfriendly with 3rd party apps and make you jump through registry hoops to do this.

ac3filter is a free, opensource audio decoder, you would use it instead of PowerDVD for the audio decoder. ac3filter is more friendly to changing and retaining settings.

Radlight Filter Manager isn't a decoder, it's an app that lists all the directshow filters installed on your system, and access their properties pages and configure them. You would use this to set the PowerDVD audio decoder to passthrough.

[src666]

OK, thanks for the guidance. It took some fiddling before I got it working, but I now have AC3 going out the SPDIF. I think the biggest problem was a misunderstanding on my part - I thought that ac3filter would show up on Sage's options, but instead I had to track down the properties pages for it and make it preferred.

Any similar solution for DTS?

Thanks again!

[Lucas]

As stated above, I had to use RFM to enable the DTS passthrough on my Sonic Decoder.

[src666]

Well, I ran through all the property pages I could find and didn't see any mention of DTS, and also found that most of the settings were disabled anyway. Meanwhile, DD5.1 is a good start. Thanks again for the help.

[CyRex]

What property pages were you looking at? (For which codec?) I have the Sonic Decoders installed and am almost certain that there is a tab for DTS in the properties page. It may just be that the decoders you are currently using do not support DTS. It can be a pain dealing with all the different codecs and the properties.

Right now, I am using ffdshow audio decoder primarily so I can normalize volume levels. Then AC3Filter is used for any xvid or divx with AC3 audio. Then I use Sonic decoders for DVD audio, and I also have settings for my soundcard output. So I basically have four different places that I need to configure pass through for digital output... Such a pain...

-Dan

[src666]

Well, I'm currently using the powerdvd for video and AC3Filter for audio (on the DVD side, everything else is "Default").

I'm having serious issues with the video quality. I get lots of blocking and other scaling artifacts, both from TV and DVD but DVD is the critical issue for me. I can't find a 480p mode with Powerstrip that works right on my TV, and am currently running 540p. The upscaling from 480 is ugly. The weird thing is that my progressive scan DVD player works and looks fabulous, so I can't figure out why finding a 480p mode is giving me such fits.

I know this is causing the topic to veer a bit, but do the nVidia codecs provide a good solution? I'll probably try them out tonight.

I have to say I am incredibly close to moving to Sage as my primary HT environment. Just a few more small hurdles to go.

[stanger89]

For digital out, there's no special setting for DTS, if DD via S/PDIF is enabled, so is DTS.