I just downloaded the new King Kong trailer (awesome, by the way) and noticed in the info pane that it has 5.1 channel AAC audio. Great! Now how do i get quicktime to output a 5 channel stream through S/PDIF which I have. I've only gotten 5.1 to work with Dolby in DVD player (I don't know if this would be considered Dolby since it's not AC3, and can PCM be more that 2 channels?), not VLC of anything else for that matter. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
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5.1 Channel in Quicktime?
- Thread starter jimsowden
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i think you need to go into Audio/MIDI setup, select your specified output device, and next to format, there are two selectables, one for sample rate and one for channel/bit options. on my G5, it has 3: 2CH 16-bit, 2CH 24-bit and encoded digital audio. it may be driver dependent if your device can output EDA, and unfortunately i havent been able to test yet if it will pass the surround signal through the optical output. i would say, try and see if you can select that option for your SPDIF output and see what happens. the worst that will happen is it will just not output any audio.
This sounds (pardon the pun) correct. I got 5.1 output on my PM working when I first set it up, using optical out. I'll subscribe to this thread and report back my settings when I get home.kwikdeth said:
Got home and checked. This is a newer machine than my last one and guess what, my digital settings aren't set! I also can't change them! Going to "Encoded Digital Output" won't take, no matter what.
I downloaded the Kong trailer and I can't get it to play in 5.1 either! This really pisses me off!
I did get 5.1 output working from DVD Player, but that's a minor victory.
I downloaded the Kong trailer and I can't get it to play in 5.1 either! This really pisses me off!
I did get 5.1 output working from DVD Player, but that's a minor victory.
Can the output on a PM G5 do 5.1? Cause I have a converter that goes to the red and white (L and R) outputs gong into the back of a MiniShelf system.
Well, my receiever will DTS decode from an optical connection, but yes, the PM should output the signal at least. Darn if I can get it to work, though.
I have the same problem. My movies with encoded 5.1 AAC audio will not play all 6 channels on the receiver via the optical out on the G5.jimsowden said:
I also tried switching the output to Digital Encoding and it kills the sound for me too.
I'd appreciate any other ways to fix this... thanks!
I've been looking for this for a while and the simple answer seems to be get another soundcard, especially the ones from m-audio, like the revolution 5.1 / 7.1's
from looking at various sites and mainly the VLC site, Apple's optical port is a bugger to program for.
from looking at various sites and mainly the VLC site, Apple's optical port is a bugger to program for.
Your Dolby Digital (AC-3)/DTS decoder isn't going to process a 5.1 AAC stream from the SPDIF output of your Mac. If by setting the output to Digital Decoding you are sending out the raw AAC format, your reciever/powered speakers cannot understand this and the sound goes mute.
You would need something in between (software or hardware) to convert the 5.1 AAC to a format your reciever/powered speakers would understand.
The best way would be for Quicktime to convert the 5.1 AAC stream to 5.1 Dolby Digital in realtime before sending it out to the SPDIF jack. Considering they have intentionally blocked** Dolby support in Quicktime (for instance when playing a VOB file with a Dolby soundtrack), I wouldn't hold my breath.
** I say intentionally blocked because MPEG Streamclip which uses the QT engine can read a Dolby Digital signal. The codec is in there, just not available directly via QT 7
You would need something in between (software or hardware) to convert the 5.1 AAC to a format your reciever/powered speakers would understand.
The best way would be for Quicktime to convert the 5.1 AAC stream to 5.1 Dolby Digital in realtime before sending it out to the SPDIF jack. Considering they have intentionally blocked** Dolby support in Quicktime (for instance when playing a VOB file with a Dolby soundtrack), I wouldn't hold my breath.
** I say intentionally blocked because MPEG Streamclip which uses the QT engine can read a Dolby Digital signal. The codec is in there, just not available directly via QT 7
Well I have lots of movies with 5.1 channel AAC audio... does that mean that I'd have to open each one and set them up to play properly throught the M-Audio card, or can you just do it once in the Quicktime preferences and have it remember those settings for each movie?garybUK said:
cwright said:
I think you need to see what Brucewayne has said above, from what he's saying no matter what soundcard you use, Quicktime seems to have this intenitally disabled. You would have to use VLC instead.
One word of warning with the Revolution sound cards... the drivers have been very very buggy, early drivers stopped shutdowns and caused kernal panics on startup.
-- Added --
I hate to say this but I have used Windows Media 10's HD + Surround sound files on a P4 machine and it runs flawlessly... full true surround from an onboard soundcard's co-axial port.
Hmm... I opened the quicktime movies in VLC and couldnt get it to output a 5.1 signal either. So are you saying that the Revolution 5.1 card won't help anything and that I'm pretty much out of luck for now?garybUK said:
This is really frustrating...