New version of ac3fiter, with DD Encode.

[stanger89]

Just thought my fellow Sage users might be interested to know that there's a new ac3filter out. It now supports DTS decoding among other things. But the cool one is Dolby Digital Encoding. You can have 5.1 channel DD output from all your Sage recordings. It appears to use DPL or DPL2 to to the 5.1ch creation from stereo, and it sound pretty good.

Here's the AVSForum discussion:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ight=ac3filter
Here's the Doom9 discussion (linked from the AVS)
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=76480

Be aware that there are some bugs and this is probably more of an alpha/beta software than the RC name would imply.

[kny3twalker]

how buggy is it Stranger89?
you currently using it?
cause it does sound like a nice idea

[stanger89]

For me, it works just fine for my recordings, but I can't get AC3 passthrough to work, it will play for a split-second and hang.

As for standard MPGs it works just fine, I selected Default as my audio decoder (because ac3filter becomes default and I'm not sure if you need dshow to include another automatically or not), and I get great 5.1 DD from my 2ch recordings. I want to say it uses DPL2 because the ac3filter DD sounds better than the standard 2ch processed with standard DPL by my reciever.

Aside from the passthrough issue it seems fine.

[kny3twalker]

should it matter what audio render I am using?
also will I need to use radlight to make it the systems preferred audio decoder?

[Deadbolt]

How are you recording shows in 5.1? None of the Hauppauge PVR cards support 5.1

[gplasky]

You're not recording in 5.1, you're recording in stereo. The ac3 filter will take the stereo sound and encode into DD 5.1.

Gerry

[rrussell]

"What sort of CPU power does it need?" he asks here, rather than going to the link provided.

[stanger89]

It made approximately no difference on my 2.4GHz P4, runs between 75-90% utilization with or without ac3filter.

[kny3twalker]

whats making your system run so hard?

[stanger89]

nVDVD 3 Software decode, ffshow with unsharp mask 60 and Denoise3D .5 .5 1.07, and VMR9

[kny3twalker]

I will have to try that out

[kny3twalker]

what version of ffdshow are you using?
and can you post a link
everytime I try a newer version than the alpha release at sourceforge
I cannot enable ffdshow in the nvDVD application as a postprocessor or second post processor
if you are not doing it like that
is the newer versions ffdshow just insert itself in the video ?

I am just trying to figure out how to get the Denoise3D
cause it is not available in the release I am using

I am getting confused as to how to set this all up

I thought you had to choose default to get ffdshow to insert itself
or use the post processor ability in NVDVD 3
or choose ffdshow as decoder with NVDVD as the systems default decoder
but with the third one can you do VMR 9?

it seems that even when I do enable ffd show as a post processor I do not get ffd show inserted when using VMR 9

how are doing VMR9 with ffdshow?

[stanger89]

I think I'm using 20040405, but here's a newer one:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/vi...rs/ffdshow.cfm

In Sage 2, all you do is select ffdshow as your decoder. You'll then get ffdshow, your renderer of choice, and whatever decoders are default on your system, on mine it's nVDVD, but I may have had to adjust the filter merits to get nVDVD to be default.

[kny3twalker]

I should have figured you where doing that
Are you having any skipping issues with NVDVD and VMR9 like that

[stanger89]

Nope, but I can't get DVDs to work with this setup so I just use Sonic decoders for that.

[edmc]

Thanks for the heads-up, stranger89! I had seen this thread over on AVS but didn't have the nerve to attempt it until I read here of the nominal CPU impact. I'm running a P4 1.6GHz and it's getting pretty hot in my case. I definately need to re-plan/upgrade to go the ffdshow route - but that's my next project. :-)

Anyway, the 5.1 is great!

It did take me a while to get it to go. I finally found that I needed to select 3/2+SW rather than Dolby and also needed to check the "SPDIF (disabled)" checkbox. Kind of non-intuitive - the label on the checkbox suggests that is how you "disable" SPDIF. I shouldn't be surprised, though. My C-Media Config tool requires me to select "2 channel" rather than 5.1 if I want SPDIF... I guess the confusing Audio config settings are a pervasive problem... :-)

[stanger89]

Yeah, that S/PDIF box seems to confuse a lot of people, apparently the caption changes depending on the input.

[lovingHDTV]

Stranger89,
I installed AC3Filter and it does find itself in the default graphs created by graphedit and windows media player. But it does not work with Sage. I added it to the audio filters line and it does show up as a choice in Sage, but it is never used. Ideas?

thanks

[kny3twalker]

you should just use default as audio decoder
but mine shows up in media player

[PeteL]

Hey all... Just wondering if the AC3Filter should work with hardware-only decoding turned on.

I have my PVR-350 driving my video-out, but in order to play ripped DVD's, etc., I wanted to give AC3Filter a try.

I see the video via the 350's output, but no audio.

As an FYI - I have my audio from my 350's output routed to my audio card's input. From the audio card, it's going out to my 2 channel speakers.

All of my audio render's are set to DEFAULT, and I am able to heard the audio from Windows Media Player.

Any thoughts? Thanks!!!

- Pete