[Commanderloochy]

The title says it all, I have my macbook pro hooked up to my receiver with an optical cable and I've been able to play .avi files and ac3 files in 5.1 surround sound but when I go to play a flac file that I know is encoded for 5.1 it plays lousy stereo. VLC is having trouble playing these flac files in surround sound, are there any other programs for mac that will be able to play flac files in 5.1?

 

[Hybrys]

Try going into VLC's options and forcing Dolby Surround detection, and S/PDIF Output.

 

[Commanderloochy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif Try going into VLC's options and forcing Dolby Surround detection, and S/PDIF Output.

Still no luck, i have a test file that im using and when it says "surround right" it just plays out of the right speaker.

 

[Hybrys]

When it says surround right, it should be playing out of the right. That's why it says surround right. <_<

Anyway, you can try XBMC, that might do the trick for yah.

 

[Commanderloochy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif When it says surround right, it should be playing out of the right. That's why it says surround right. <_< Anyway, you can try XBMC, that might do the trick for yah.

Just to clarify: First it just says "right speaker" and then when it says "surround right" it should be playing from the back right speaker but it plays from the front right speaker again. So I'm pretty sure it's not working.

I'm downloading XBMC right now, I'll let you know if I have any luck.

 

[Commanderloochy]

XBMC didn't work for me, when it got to the part where it should be playing the back two speakers it was silent. Pretty nifty program though.

 

[Hybrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Commanderloochy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just to clarify: First it just says "right speaker" and then when it says "surround right" it should be playing from the back right speaker but it plays from the front right speaker again. So I'm pretty sure it's not working. I'm downloading XBMC right now, I'll let you know if I have any luck.

Ahhh! Rear right as 'surround right'. Makes sense.

You said you went SPDIF to a receiver right? And movies work? I'm gonna look into it a little more via VLC.

 

[Hybrys]

Can you change the audio from FLAC to AC3 or PCM via something like SUPER?

(Don't have a Mac, so helping is starting to get hard. Some say the issue is fixed in the upcoming VLC 1.1, and I've been trying to compile a MacOSX version for you to try, but, can't seem to do it.)

 

[Commanderloochy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ahhh! Rear right as 'surround right'. Makes sense. You said you went SPDIF to a receiver right? And movies work? I'm gonna look into it a little more via VLC.

I used an optical cable, and SPDIF is basically another way of saying optical correct? Still a little new to this whole surround thing, and yes movies work just fine along with ac3 audio files.

Quote:

Can you change the audio from FLAC to AC3 or PCM via something like SUPER? (Don't have a Mac, so helping is starting to get hard. Some say the issue is fixed in the upcoming VLC 1.1, and I've been trying to compile a MacOSX version for you to try, but, can't seem to do it.)

Yea if worst comes to worst I'll try converting it, I haven't looked into it yet but I'm sure I can.

Good to know that the issue might be resolved with the new version of vlc, thanks so much for your help. I might look into downloading an older version of vlc, that might resolve the problem or I'll just have to wait for 1.1. It's weird you'd think there would be more information on this but I've barely found anything on it.

 

[gurubhai]

spdif spec does not support uncompressed 5.1 data.

 

[Commanderloochy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurubhai /img/forum/go_quote.gif spdif spec does not support uncompressed 5.1 data.

So I have no choice than to convert it? It seems odd that I'm able to play movies in surround sound and ac3 files but I can't play flac in surround sound.

 

[skriefal]

The standards for S/PDIF were set long before the existence of FLAC or of > 2 channel uncompressed PCM. Thus it cannot transport newer formats -- FLAC, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD, etc -- nor can it transport uncompressed PCM with more than 2 channels. It just wasn't designed for it. If you want to listen to those formats you have 3 options -- get a sound card that supports > 2 channel analog output and send that to the multi-channel input on your home theater receiver, or get an HDMI sound card, or use software to convert on-the-fly to one of the older lossy compressed formats that is supported by S/PDIF (AC-3/Dolby Digital, or standard DTS).

Your movies and AC-3 files are already in those older, lossy compressed formats. So no further conversion is needed to send those audio streams over a S/PDIF transport. Nothing odd about it!

 

[Commanderloochy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skriefal /img/forum/go_quote.gif The standards for S/PDIF were set long before the existence of FLAC or of > 2 channel uncompressed PCM. Thus it cannot transport newer formats -- FLAC, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD, etc -- nor can it transport uncompressed PCM with more than 2 channels. It just wasn't designed for it. If you want to listen to those formats you have 3 options -- get a sound card that supports > 2 channel analog output and send that to the multi-channel input on your home theater receiver, or get an HDMI sound card, or use software to convert on-the-fly to one of the older lossy compressed formats that is supported by S/PDIF (AC-3/Dolby Digital, or standard DTS). Your movies and AC-3 files are already in those older, lossy compressed formats. So no further conversion is needed to send those audio streams over a S/PDIF transport. Nothing odd about it!

Thank you thank you! Makes perfect sense now, thanks for clearing up the mystery.

 

[JohnSantana]

What codec pack that you use to successfully play DTS FLAC files on your PC or laptop ?