Strange problem with DD5.1 outputting from PC via optical to AVR

Matt_C

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Got a second had card from a user on here yesterday. Fitted card and installed drivers etc, and after messing around for 10mins got it to output DD5.1 and DTS bitstreams from films via VLC media player (WMP plays the same films, but only outputs 2ch stereo which is a little odd)

Anyway, there is one small annoyance - when watching a film, every now and again, randomly, but sometimes every few/10 mins or so, I get a "hiccup" like a little sound drop out - similar to when you get split second sound dropouts when watching Sky or Freeview....

Now the films I have on the PC have previously played fine via the Trust digital optical card in my main PC, so I know the film audiotracks aren't the problem. It's not the AVR or the cable either - the cable and same optical input on the AVR have been used by something else prior to the HTPC and worked fine, but to b sure I tried a new cable and different optical input and still the same....

Which leads me to belive it's either the card, or the codecs/drivers.

Currently I only have FFDSHOW installed to handle the different audio codecs (mp3, dts, ac3, etc etc) so I might try a different AC3 filter see if that helps....

Any other idea's?
 
A bit more detail would have been helpful (like which card it is?) but basically you should be looking at bit-perfect pass-through rather than internal codecs.

Why didn't you get a cheap Trust SC5250 sound card that does a brilliant job of passing bit-perfect digital sound when used with these drivers?

You may find that you new card is also suitable for use with these drivers as many cheap sound cards use the same chipset.
 
Unsure of the card make - the driver thingy for it is a Yamaha thing, and says the card is a Yamaha DX-blah blah blah...

Reason for not getting a Trust (I have a Trust 514DX in my main desktop, so I know it's good) is cos this is a small form factor Pc and I only have one available PCI slot - and the Trust cards have the optical (and coaxial) on a secondary PCI slot - so no good to me....

I uninstalled FFDSHOW to see if that was the problem and whilst it all still works, it is still giving me the dropouts.

It's also not reading DTS - just passes "white noise" or hiss to the amp (which does do DTS decoding by the way) so I need something for that also...
 
Unsure of the card make.
Well, you're off to a really bad start then. The make and model number should be printed on the circuit board somewhere. Pull it out and look.

It's also not reading DTS - just passes "white noise" or hiss to the amp (which does do DTS decoding by the way) so I need something for that also..
This indicates that your card (and/or its drivers) is not bit-perfect.
 
After messing around with codecs last night, I still can't get it to do what I want. I tried two difference versions of the AC3filter, and also the KLite codec pack.

Still the same problem remains - white noise on DTS! When playing films in VLC, and I go to the AUDIO DEVICE it lists mono, stereo, 5.1 etc and a/52 SPDIF, which is "ticked" and passes though the DD...

But when playing the DTS audio tracks (file type blah.dts and blah.wav) that I know work, I just either get white noise or 2ch stereo - and VLC doesn't give the option for the A/52 SPDIF as the audio device.....
 
After messing around with codecs last night, I still can't get it to do what I want.
Your problem has nothing to do with codecs. Your output is not bit-perfect. You either need better drivers for your card or another card.
 
Ok, the card is a Yamaha DS-XG (or something like that, at least thats what the driver programme thing says) and I still can't get it to output DTS....

But whats stranger is that VLC isn't treating the .dts files I have as DTS encrypted files... If I open one in VLC, it *should* just give me white noise, but instead it is playing them as analogue 5.1 or 2ch Stereo. Tho possibly that might have something to do with the AC3filter I installed...

So I am gonna try to uninstall the card and reinstall using the drivers from the page you linked to (no idea which zip file to use, so I'll just use the first one and the last one) and see what happens....
 
I doubt that card will have the right chipset for those drivers. You should check before installing.

Did you actually read the driver webpage? It does explain very clearly which file you need, which cards it works with and how to install it.

If you have AC3 installed then you need to set that to passthrough for DTS also.
 
AC3 filter was set for DTS passthrough - but all it gave me was 2ch stereo from it, not full surround....

I reckon it's a duff card cos I had none of these probs with the Trust one I have in my other machine....
 

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