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Generate true 5.1 channel surround sound output
Authored by: kaih on Feb 18, '09 02:26:57PM

Thanks for the feedback - I was being deliberately half-wrong, and controversial in the opening paragraph in order to get people's attention - I then back down from that opening statement to more accurately (I hope) state the facts as I know them.

In short, to reply to some posters above, you're right. If you have audio in AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) in the media file you're playing, you can get surround sound through the optical port. This is AC3 Passthrough. Your Mac or Apple TV isn't generating the AC3 information in realtime, it's passing through a raw digital stream that's already encoded in AC3.

One thing that a lot of people don't realise is that the system only "sees" the optical port as a stereo output device, Mac OS X does not see the optical output port as a multichannel output device. Mac OS X on it's own can not dynamically generate and output surround sound through the SPDIF port as it only knows it as a two-channel output device. Other equipment, for instance the PS3, can do realtime Dolby Digital encoding so games and other software can generate AC3 multichannel output in realtime - it doesn't need to be pre-recorded and pre-encoded as AC3.

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k:.



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Generate true 5.1 channel surround sound output
Authored by: Alrescha on Feb 18, '09 10:20:43PM

"Thanks for the feedback - I was being deliberately half-wrong, and controversial in the opening paragraph in order to get people's attention - I then back down from that opening statement to more accurately (I hope) state the facts as I know them."

Well gee thanks. What do you do for an encore?

Here's some feedback: I'd appreciate it if you didn't post anymore. The Internet is already full of misinformation without people spreading it on purpose.

A.



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Generate true 5.1 channel surround sound output
Authored by: rdas7 on Feb 19, '09 04:39:04AM

Um, yeah thanks for the misinformation then! WTF?!



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Generate true 5.1 channel surround sound output
Authored by: gil on Feb 21, '09 08:42:39AM

For what it is worth, I appreciate this hint. I have been looking for a solution to enable true 6-channel output through the SPDIF port. Not for video playback (since it's already AC3/DTS), but for gaming. Using the hint (with slight modifications), I can finally output surround sound in games like World of Warcraft.

Thanks :-)



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Generate true 5.1 channel surround sound output
Authored by: mortem on Apr 07, '09 11:22:10AM

Yes, I agree! I did found this solution with AC3jack before but I did miss some documentation how to set this up. Now I found it here,...
As I could see, I did it right, but I can't test it because the lack of an A/V receiver. I will buying a receiver as soon I have a confirmation about the feasibility.
I do need a realtime encoder to monitoring out of LogicPro, when I mixing surround. But I'm still afraid, that this solution is not what I'm really looking for because of the cpu-load and eventually latency.

I would be much more amused, if I could find a 'Dolby Digital Live' (DDL) or 'DTS connect' USB or Firewire card for the mac. It makes me angry, that cards like that exists since 2005 for the PC but still nothing for the mac!



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