A way to get fake 5.1

[wbarber69]

I just got all the devices I wanted and totally set up for using sagetv, I just recently got a 5.1 surround receiver and have it set up right, I was wondering since I watch mostly sd broadcasts which are in stereo, is there a way for me to fake 5.1. I am using the onboard realtek audio with all 6 channels output to my reciever which takes in 6 channels and my dvds and winamp output in 5.1, I just want my stereo mpgs to fake it

[parkimar]

My reciever can do a neo 6 channel - as it calls it.

It's not bad, my only problem was the dialog channel sounded a bit quite.


Cheers

[stanger89]

Why not just run S/PDIF to the reciever and let it apply Dolby Pro Logic II(x) to it?

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by wbarber69

I was wondering since I watch mostly sd broadcasts which are in stereo, is there a way for me to fake 5.1. I am using the onboard realtek audio with all 6 channels output to my reciever

Yes you can do it with the PowerDVD 7 Audio Codec it can expand stereo to 5.1 with Dobly Prologic II (or other expand methods).

That's what I use and what's great : it's automatic, if you watch Stereo or AC3, it knows where to expand or not (some AC3 may only be stereo). It will do this for all MPEG playback : so with MPEG2, TS, DIVX and DVD...

Though you have to use regedit to set it up correctly. What I usually do is this :

* Ensure that PowerDVD Audio decoder is the default, by boosting its priority with RadLight Filter Manager
* open a MPEG in Graphedit and change the settings on the PowerDVD Audio Decoder to use Dolby Prologic II
* Go into regedit to copy the settings for graphedt to SageTV, save the HKCU\Software\Cyberlink\Common\CLAud\graphedt to the disk, edit the file to change "graphedt" to "SageTV" and import it in your registry.

Done !

Regards,
Stéphane.

[GKusnick]

AC3Filter has a stereo expansion mode as well.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

AC3Filter has a stereo expansion mode as well.

Indeed, though it just somehow duplicate stereo fields. The PowerDVD audio decoder seems to really do Dobly Prologic II decoding in that it manage to extract the surround channels and center channels (At least it seems to do a good job, nearly as good as my receiver : it just save me the time to select the DSP in my receiver )

There is another audio codec (Aud-X) that does it even better but only if the source is really Dolby Prologic encoded (for all other stereo sound track its kinda horrible).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[wbarber69]

thank you all for your help, I'd use spdif but I have no spdif or optical outputs nor inputs on my reciever sorry for not mentioning it I'll try powerdvd audio settings although I've had some lag useing those decoders in the past

[nox71]

I would like to know which settings in Ac3filter should i set to do that because right now if i select DBII and set my receiver to AFD Auto it only detect 2 channel even if in Ac3filter i can see that there is 5 channel out.

Thanks !

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by parkimar

My reciever can do a neo 6 channel - as it calls it.

It's not bad, my only problem was the dialog channel sounded a bit quite.


Cheers

I dislike neo:6 as well. I think the bass is overblown in it and it drowns out the dialogue, making it difficult to hear, as you say. I suspect it's designed to sound good in show rooms.

Dolby PLII Movie is a far better matrix, IMHO. My HK amp has somwthing called Logic 7, which is a proprietary HK thing. It's really good for watching TV.