Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC? (Read 34046 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #50
Ugh. There were a couple line-breaks which shouldn't have been there in the text I copied from the pdf that broke stuff...
It seems okay now. (It got louder, and a couple of channels might have been missing too. )

 

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #51
The  free software vb-audio cable allows to use  7.1 with EQ-APO in any case. (e.g. also when your  soundcard only supports  stereo for headphone playback).  I strongly recommend it.
Peace is in my opinion the best gui for EQ-APO and the fastet way to switch between different rooms. I also recommend it.

If you don't like to install additional software then you can still use the usual EQ-APO config file configuration. 

The old pack was done for the convolver VST at a time where EQ-APO couldn't do  convolution. Hence, you can call this pack a superset of the old pack including a few additional rooms and separate headphone filters.

When you follow the links in the end of the pdf you will find information about the rooms and headphone filters. So far, I had no time to do a description. The pdf was written in very short time...


Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #52
The  free software vb-audio cable allows to use  7.1 with EQ-APO in any case. (e.g. also when your  soundcard only supports  stereo for headphone playback).  I strongly recommend it.
Peace is in my opinion the best gui for EQ-APO and the fastet way to switch between different rooms. I also recommend it.

If you don't like to install additional software then you can still use the usual EQ-APO config file configuration. 

The old pack was done for the convolver VST at a time where EQ-APO couldn't do  convolution. Hence, you can call this pack a superset of the old pack including a few additional rooms and separate headphone filters.

When you follow the links in the end of the pdf you will find information about the rooms and headphone filters. So far, I had no time to do a description. The pdf was written in very short time...


Thanks for the info

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #53
Hi!

I'm wondering... Sometimes I have to spend a bunch of time on linux. Is there an analog of Equalizer APO for linux that I might use?

BTW, I'm really liking "SSR_HRIR_CIRC360_NF150_(L_R_C_LFE_LS_RS_LB_RB).wav". So far it's the only thing that might be equal-or-better than Dolby Headphone.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #54
What headphones do you use? Do like it for music or movies?


Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #56
What headphones do you use? Do like it for music or movies?
I use/like it generally for everything. I have an ATH-30X right now, but this is not really a factor in it for me.

Is there an analog of Equalizer APO for linux that I might use?
I haven't used this personally, but this is what I would try:
https://github.com/bmc0/dsp/wiki/System-Wide-DSP-Guide
Thanks for the tip.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #57
@mzso
Don't underestimate the headphone filters! I use a AKG 701 and Sennheiser HD555 and it is a huge difference when I use the headphone filters.  The tonal balance and also the "out of your head" feeling is much better for me with the matching headphone filter!


Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #58
@mzso
Don't underestimate the headphone filters! I use a AKG 701 and Sennheiser HD555 and it is a huge difference when I use the headphone filters.  The tonal balance and also the "out of your head" feeling is much better for me with the matching headphone filter!


Tried a few but they only seemed to deteriorate things to me.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #59
That is not surprising as there is no filter for the ATH-30X. For the Neumann KU-100 there is even no filter that is close to this headphone.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #60
Hi!

So I tried peace. I managed to get it to function (though the guide has some false information to where to put the config files)

I have a significant issue though. When I turn it off and I play a multi channel video I only hear the front left/right channels...

Same thing happens when I clear the EQ APO config file. So there's no way to get back to an unmanipulated multi channel output, only by uninstalling EQ APO? (Or adding who-knows-what into config.txt)
This is bad...

I really miss a way to switch off everything.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #61
I have a significant issue though. When I turn it off and I play a multi channel video I only hear the front left/right channels...

Do you use  a 7.1 speaker set up or stereo? Do you use Peace/EQ-APO with a virtual soundcard? 

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #62
I have a significant issue though. When I turn it off and I play a multi channel video I only hear the front left/right channels...

Do you use  a 7.1 speaker set up or stereo? Do you use Peace/EQ-APO with a virtual soundcard? 
Ouch. Now I realize I was being silly. I was so used to having output set at 7.1, that it didn't occur to me that I have to set it back to stereo when I disable surround virtualization...
Thanks for the reply.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #63
It looks like someone made a pack of all commercial sound virtualization methods for Equalizer APO. (Which includes Dolby headphone.)
I've had an eye on this thread for a while, and just came back to say that this worked and from the looks of it it's the easiest for a non-technical person to install and run. I've installed it on two computers on Win 10 pro and are working flawlessly.

A couple of caveats, if the sound card doesn't expose surround channels, you'll need to use the Voicemeeter method or the Audio Repeater KS methods (it's in the instructions). The other is that I think Realtek cards have some issue with EQ-APO, which is fixed with the experimental EQ-APO setting "Install as SFX/EFX".

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #64
I'm trying to develop a raspberry pi based solution for this...

* Source (PC, games console, others) sends 5.1 bitstream through TOSlink (Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive). No dependency on specific OS etc as long as you can get DDL or DTS-I working.
* TOSlink into the pi. Software on the pi decodes the bitstream, applies one of several different varieties of HRTF, and sends the result to toslink out.
* TOSlink from pi to your DAC.

I also intend to have it detect when 2.0 vs 5.1 content is playing and apply different processing to each (maybe you want an aggressive virtualisation effect for 5.1 but a simple crossfeed, or nothing at all, for 2.0). May as well have some general EQ features too.

Is this something others would be interested in? I'm glad to see interest in virtual surround but I'm not sure how many people would be prepared to set up a pi-based DSP for it!

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #65
@j314
I'd recommend using the pack by musicreo. NF150 is the best sourround virtulaization that I tried in my opinion. (I think that's the reference layout for speakers).
There are also variants down to NF 025 where the virtual speakers are closer.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #66
I'd recommend using the pack by musicreo. NF150 is the best sourround virtulaization that I tried in my opinion. (I think that's the reference layout for speakers).
I'll try it out! I've mainly used HeSuVi's HRIRs so far. But I definitely want to get away from this messy APO solution with virtual sound cards and the like, towards a hardware approach that can also work with consoles.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #67
The JVC SU-DH1 did exactly that. I have one and used to use it for my PS3, but since moving I didn't bother to set it up again. One drawback is that it only works with 2AA batteries, although they last a long time. The Japanese version was supposed to accept a wall source as well. It's kind of a shame that it didn't succeed and I think there were very few others that made similar adapters (but not as complete in features) but meant for gaming.

It's also a shame that Dolby hasn't pushed DH more. Right now Dolby Atmos for Headphone is pretty useless on Windows 10 since you can't virtualize the surround input channels that pretty much all media apps need the soundcard to provide, to output in surround. I have never had it work with anything, not even with the Dolby app with video samples, and if it's working it's extremely inferior to Dolby Headphone.

Dolby also had an opportunity for an amazing set of headphones with DH, but missed it by releasing the extremely expensive Dolby Dimension which work over Bluetooth and don't do anything to provide surround virtualization since it only accepts stereo audio. It has head tracking though, but I wonder how much better it would have been if it offered at least SPDIF input and DH combined with head tracking.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #68
Right now Dolby Atmos for Headphone is pretty useless on Windows 10 since you can't virtualize the surround input channels that pretty much all media apps need the soundcard to provide, to output in surround.
I'm not sure I understand this at all. Why  would the soundcard output surround it is already virtualized into to channels?
How is a media app even relevant to what the soundcard outputs?

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #69
I'm not sure I understand this at all. Why  would the soundcard output surround it is already virtualized into to channels?
How is a media app even relevant to what the soundcard outputs?
Suppose you start watching a video with a 6-channel soundtrack in VLC. When it starts, VLC checks how many channels the selected sound device has. If it has 6, the channels are played back as-is, one-to-one. If it has 2, VLC makes a stereo downmix and ouputs that.

A solution like Spatial Sound Card or HeSuVi+VB Cable will cause Windows (and therefore playback software, games, etc) to see a 6/8-channel device, and therefore will output multichannel audio. Your chosen virtualisation solution therefore has all 6/8 channels to work with.

Dolby Atmos/Windows Sonic/etc do not change the number of channels the device appears to have, so VLC/games will only output stereo. Your virtualisation software will only have 2 channels to work with, and therefore won't actually be able to virtualise at all. I'm actually a bit confused as to when exactly Sonic/Atmos does work- as far as I can see, the media player or game has to specifically support it.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #70
Yup, I don't know either when are those supposed to work. Right now pretty much all of the references I see are for games, which makes it even more confusing, since some games come with Atmos for headphones, so do I still need that on the Windows Sound panel to be enabled, or does the game do the processing and outputting to 2 channels? And if the latter, why the heck did I buy Dolby Atmos on the Windows store?

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #71
I'm not sure I understand this at all. Why  would the soundcard output surround it is already virtualized into to channels?
How is a media app even relevant to what the soundcard outputs?
Suppose you start watching a video with a 6-channel soundtrack in VLC. When it starts, VLC checks how many channels the selected sound device has. If it has 6, the channels are played back as-is, one-to-one. If it has 2, VLC makes a stereo downmix and ouputs that.

A solution like Spatial Sound Card or HeSuVi+VB Cable will cause Windows (and therefore playback software, games, etc) to see a 6/8-channel device, and therefore will output multichannel audio. Your chosen virtualisation solution therefore has all 6/8 channels to work with.

Dolby Atmos/Windows Sonic/etc do not change the number of channels the device appears to have, so VLC/games will only output stereo. Your virtualisation software will only have 2 channels to work with, and therefore won't actually be able to virtualise at all. I'm actually a bit confused as to when exactly Sonic/Atmos does work- as far as I can see, the media player or game has to specifically support it.
I suppose it can't because it isn't integrated into the driver.  Could DH even do this? I know EQ APO surround virtualization has the same issue.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #72
And if the latter, why the heck did I buy Dolby Atmos on the Windows store?
Isn't that free? I remember someone linking something free before.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #73
No, it's not free. It's $14.99, after the 14 day free trial.

Re: Is there a way to get Dolby Headphone system-wide on any PC?

Reply #74
I'm not sure I understand this at all. Why  would the soundcard output surround it is already virtualized into to channels?
How is a media app even relevant to what the soundcard outputs?
Suppose you start watching a video with a 6-channel soundtrack in VLC. When it starts, VLC checks how many channels the selected sound device has. If it has 6, the channels are played back as-is, one-to-one. If it has 2, VLC makes a stereo downmix and ouputs that.

A solution like Spatial Sound Card or HeSuVi+VB Cable will cause Windows (and therefore playback software, games, etc) to see a 6/8-channel device, and therefore will output multichannel audio. Your chosen virtualisation solution therefore has all 6/8 channels to work with.

Dolby Atmos/Windows Sonic/etc do not change the number of channels the device appears to have, so VLC/games will only output stereo. Your virtualisation software will only have 2 channels to work with, and therefore won't actually be able to virtualise at all. I'm actually a bit confused as to when exactly Sonic/Atmos does work- as far as I can see, the media player or game has to specifically support it.
I suppose it can't because it isn't integrated into the driver.  Could DH even do this? I know EQ APO surround virtualization has the same issue.
That's why these solutions don't rely solely on EQ-APO if you don't have a multichannel device, they require you to install a virtual audio device as a middleman. The sound cards that come with integrated DH like some of the Xonar ones have in their control panel an input # of channels (e.g. 7.1 in this case) and an output # of channels. If you select the output channels as headphones, they give you the DH options, if you select stereo speakers, they give you Dolby Virtual Speaker.