Live DTS encoder

2014-04-04 12:32:17

Hello,

i recently buyed an AVR, and connected my pc with an optical toslink cable. (HDMI is no option due the problems with 2nd monitor options)
but toslink is only capable of 2ch pcm or max 6ch dts/dd . no 5.1 flac ore ape or other uncompressed pcm sound with more than 2 channels. some soundcards support live dts or dd encoding, so the digital passthroug is possible, but not my (kinda) cheap soundcard. is there a plugin / option to activate live-dts encoding with windows or foobar itself? would be absolutely great. the only other option is buying a new soundcard, but all the problems with windows 8 and bad soundcard drivers .... i dont know .
thanks for your help! (and sorry for my english)

Live DTS encoder

Reply #1 – 2014-04-04 23:15:23

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a DTS or DD encoder for foobar2000.

But you can use AC3Filter to encode a DD stream with any DirectShow compatible player. I'm using it with MPC-HC.

Live DTS encoder

Reply #2 – 2014-04-05 11:19:05

Okay, so, new hardware. But thanks!
Regarding the AC3 Filter. You mean decoding, right? If right, thats not what i´m searching for, it would be perfect to encode any multichannel uncompressed file (flac 5.1) into a dd (like ac3) stream.
But it seems, only soundcards with this feature build in, can do that.

What about the creative soundblaster Z ? Seems like a money worth investment?

Live DTS encoder

Reply #3 – 2014-04-05 14:25:00

No I'm not talking about decoding.
I'm talking about realtime encoding a 6 channel FLAC into a DD/AC3 5.1 stream with max. 640kbit/s and pushing it out via SPDIF to your AVR.

I'm doing exactly the same your're looking for. I have a old AVR without HDMI and I'm using AC3Filter to encode in realtime 6 channel FLACs to AC3 and listen to the music.
There is no need for new hardware, only DD/AC3 passthrough has to be supported.

Install MPC-HC, install AC3Filter, configure MPC-HC to use AC3Filter, configure AC3Filter.


Configure MPC-HC

Goto Options and configure:

* Set up MPC-HC to use your SPDIF Device


* Disable internal filters for FLAC processing - it will use AC3Filter instead



Configure AC3Filter

* Configure AC3Filter to encode to 5.1 and output to SPDIF


* Some more AC3Filer SPDIF settings



Have fun playing 5.1 FLACs

Live DTS encoder

Reply #4 – 2014-04-05 14:44:15

Wow, great. Thanks a lot! (works for me, LOTR Soundtrack in 5.1 sounds amazing!)
If there is no option to do the same with foobar2k, then i will (in case of flac 5.1) switch to mpc-hc
But...is there a way doing the same in foobar?