ffdshow - AC3 or LCPM?

[AuroEdge]

I just bought a Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook sound card. I was wondering, in ffdshow, if I should using LPCM or AC3 to output surround sound to my audio receiver via optical? As far as I know, the hardware I have will accept both. On a side note, in Windows XP sound control panel you can choose your speaker setup. Should I leave it as stereo desktop speakers or change it to my 5.1 configuration of my sound system?

[redwudz]

I'm just guessing as I'm not familiar with that card, but I would use AC3 and output it as 5.1.

You should have a S/PDIF output specifcally for optical out that may take care of the speaker settings in your control panel, under audio, after you install the cards drivers.

[AuroEdge]

Hmm, I was a little hasty. I'll try Linear PCM first since it would make a difference when it comes to DTS. I didn't realize how crap Dolby Digital was until I started getting into audio. Would anybody know of a video or audio test file to make sure the channels are set up?

[AuroEdge]

Installed the card today. Again it's the Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook one. I'll start by saying the only way I've gotten the surround sound to work is by uninstalling ffdshow, playing a DVD in Media Player Classic with default settings, and switching the AC3 decoder in MPC to SPDIF while the DVD is playing. With ffdshow installed, I use default settings (it defaults to my 5.1 setup auto). If I switch the codec used for AC3 from the default liba52 to S/PDIF, the little ffdshow audio icon does not show in system tray when trying to play a DVD or .ac3 file and the output is only messed up stereo. I've tried changing all kinds of settings in ffdshow dealing with S/PDIF, but to no avail. Help please!

[hulinning]

On my HTPC, I do not change anything to ffdshow but only AC3 as recommended from AC3 website.

Also, you should need the latest driver of your sound card and make sure it can produce AC3 pass through SPDIF.

After I update my sound card driver then I got 5.1 pass through to my receiver.

Basically, all you have to do is install latest version of K Lite Codec Pack, setting AC3 Filter as they recommended, and make sure you install latest driver for your sound card then you should be able to send 5.1 to your recevier when playing your movies with Windows Media Player 11, or InterVideo 8 or others.

[redwudz]

I would recommend against installing any codec pack, and K-lite in particular. It can do a lot of damage to existing codecs and is very difficult to remove without leaving remnants. Do a forum search for K-Lite and you can read a few hundred problems.

If you need a codec, just install that one. ffdshow by itself is a codec pack, but reasonably safe and certainly doesn't need K-lite.

[AuroEdge]

I would recommend against installing any codec pack, and K-lite in particular. It can do a lot of damage to existing codecs and is very difficult to remove without leaving remnants. Do a forum search for K-Lite and you can read a few hundred problems.

If you need a codec, just install that one. ffdshow by itself is a codec pack, but reasonably safe and certainly doesn't need K-lite.

I'm against codec packs myself after having a bad time with the K-Lite pack years ago. I finally got a working setup with AC3Filter. But, I have to right click the icon that pops up when playing a video to turn S/PDIF on. Just leaving it on doesn't work; sound card outputs only garbage. I want a setup that just works and with ffdshow that'd be great but it doesn't work.