5.1 AC3 Surround Output

How can I get my MacPro to output the same -format- (PCM Dolby Surround) signal
that comes out of my stand-alone JVC DVD Player.
On my old G4 I have a M-Audio card that does this.
But I was hoping that the MacPro would just do this out of one of its own ports.

In DVD Player's "Disc Setup" preference, set "Audio output" to "Digital Output".

Similar Messages

How to assign Surround output to stereo track

Question says it. Does anyone know how to do this?

Right, it doesn't change in the Inspector as well.
Here's what I did. I had just installed Logic for the first time yesterday. I have an 828MKIII as my i/o. That was already set under Core Audio output. I created a new project and chose the empty project from templates. I then chose 1 audio track from the next dialog. I tried from there to choose a surround output, but it would only let me choose from a set of stereo outputs, i.e., Output 9-10 which is the 828's Main Out 1-2. So I chose that.
At that point, I tried to change it from both the fader and the inspector, to no avail.
EDITED: Spoke too soon. I recreated the project from scratch and I must have done something different the first time, because this time, from the inspector, I was able to choose surround.
So thanks, guys

Surround Output?

I setup the audio's output to surround, then the surround Master appears. However, Logic still has stereo output 1-2, there's nothing like surround output 1-6 . Is there anything like Surround output 1-6 instead of stero output 1-2,3-4,5-6 for the phsical outputs?
Thanks!

No, I'm afraid not. The only way you get full surround sound out of your Creative soundcard is if the audio file is already encoded as Dolby Digital or, perhaps, DTS. The Creative card decodes this to your 5.1 surround channels. Audition outputs six separate audio streams for which you need a multichannel soundcard which has multichannel drivers. The Creative one doesn't AFAIAA.

Audigy 4 = Still no digital surround output for games? *si

C'mon guys. How long is it gonna take for you to add digital surround encoding, so we can plug a single digital cable from the sound card to a home receiver's Dolby Digital/DTS input? Before you reply and say that the current Audigy's already do this for DVDs and games with AC-3 sound, let me say that I am not talking about that. Nearly all games on the market have 4+ channels of sound (and are not DVD/AC-3 games) and there still isn't a sound card on the market that puts out a digital encoding of this multi-channel sound. The only solution that did this is the now discontinued nVidia Soundstorm on their AMD nForce 2 chipsets.
The only possible reasons I can think of are:
) Licensing fees from Dolby labs to encode content are cost-prohibiti've
2) The CPU overhead to encode everything in AC-3 would be high enough to have an adverse effect on games' framerate
3) No company thinks there is enough of a demand to engineer such an option.
Can we get a comment from Creative Labs, other than "there are no plans to implement this in the foreseeable future" =)
Having said this, I still like the Audigy sound cards, but I think this added feature would appeal to a larger audience than you might realize. At the very least, you could post a poll or do some online research in the enthusiast community to gauge possible demand.
Thanks

Bollwerk,
I will pass your suggestions on to our suggestion group.
Do take into account that currently real time Dolby Digital encoding results in a lower sound quality than what we currently are producing on our Audigy 2 ZS and Audigy 4 Pro cards from our analog outputs. The signal that is produced by the onboard sound cards that do this encoding is encoded at a quality that is below the standard quality found on DVD movies and Games that incorporate Dolby Digital content. This also does result in a higher taxing of the processor which then results in more potential for slower performance in games.
Jeremy

5.1 Surround Output

Hi, I have an Intel Core Duo Macbook pro and want to set it up with my home cinema system. I am using an optical link to my AV receiver and it receives stereo sound fine but does not seem to recognise 5.1 surround sound from DVDs that I play on the macbook.
Any clues? As I understand it, using the optical link I should be able to do this.
Thanks

Open /Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup
Select the Output
Click [Configure Speakers]
Click [Multichannel]
Select 5:1
Close Audio MIDI Setup
(Note this will only be available/visible when
connected)
Hi, thanks for that but I have tried it and find that when I go into the menu, all other options but Stereo are greyed out. I have tried with and without the audio cable attached?
The cable works fine with my separate DVD player and with stereo sound from the MBP so I don't think it's that.
I'm stuck!?

Why does Quad surround output 2 extra channels?

I'm running Logic Pro X, and when I try to bounce my project as an interleaved quadraphonic surround file, instead of 4 channels, the final file has 6. I know that this is due to the fact that Logic considers the "Center" and "LFE" tracks to be separate from the other surround tracks, but for my purposes I absolutely need the file to be only 4 channels. Is there some way to stop quad from outputting the extra two channels?

The way that the scaling works for DAQmx tasks changed somewhere between DAQmx 7.? and DAQmx 8.8.
At least it did for analog inputs anyway.
Check if any scale is applied to your analog output task. Try changing it.
Troy
CLDEach snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. - Stanislaw J. Lec
I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work - Thomas Edison
Beware of the man who won't be bothered with details. - William Feather
The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none. - Thomas Carlyle

Surround Output Monitoring

What would be preventing my system from outputting surround audio from Audition? Creative SBX-fi Extreme Music, Windows7Pro, tested setup in Windows and all speakers reproduce perfectly. Audition's preferences only give me ASIO Front L/R for mapping choices and a hardware choice of MME or ASIO, both only give me two speakers. I'm sure it's a simple thing that my old brain is missing. Thanks, rg

No, I'm afraid not. The only way you get full surround sound out of your Creative soundcard is if the audio file is already encoded as Dolby Digital or, perhaps, DTS. The Creative card decodes this to your 5.1 surround channels. Audition outputs six separate audio streams for which you need a multichannel soundcard which has multichannel drivers. The Creative one doesn't AFAIAA.

OK, I have a .mov and .ac3 file output by Compressor. How do I make a DVD from these?

I'd like to use Toast 8 but I don't know where to drag the files...Toast help is no help at all...

First off, you should have compressor turn your .mov into an mpeg-2 file with an .ac3 file. Once you've done this, you simply select the Video button in Toast (I'm on Toast 10, but I think 8 was the same). Next select your Menu style from Toast and type in your DVD name. Finally drag your mpeg-2 file over into the Toast window. It will then ask you "do you have audio for this file?". Drag the .ac3 file over and have it burn the DVD. If you've done everything correctly it shouldn't re-encode your video, but simply add the menu to your already encoded files.
As an alternative, you could have Toast do the encoding as well. If you choose this route, you simply drag your original .mov video file over to the Video window. At this point there are some choices you need to make about how Toast will do the encoding. This way takes longer as Toast has to encode both your video and the menu you created.

How to configure my 5.1 surround output?

Hi everyone,
I am looking for a way to use the Digidesign '96 I/O' audio interface as the 5.1 output for the OS X DVD player.
Everything works fine in stereo. The core audio driver talks to the interface, everything sounds fine...
But I couldn't figure out how to set up the rear speakers, center and LFE. The AMS shows only 2 outpus (greyed out) for the 'Digidesign HW'.
I am using a Mac Pro, OS 10.4, Pro Tools|HD 7.3 with all the latest updates.
I need this to check other DVDs as reference for my productions and to play DVDs customers bring in.
Your help is highly appreciated!
Thanks!
Jan

Not sure if this helps or not, but go to Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup > highlight the Output Device in the side list and click Configure Speakers...
Select Multichannel, then 5.1 instead of Stereo
If you do not see Multichannel or 5.1 is grayed out in Configure Speakers, then click on the + and add a different Device Output to work with.

Surround Output Issues

Please delete this post.

sounds like u are going from optical on tv to surround. if so try going straight from stb to receiver. switching cables from stb to tv is going to make a difference.

How to Produce AC3 audio with video to play surround sound 5.1 on an AppleTV

I have produced a short video with a SONY video camera that records AVCHD in AC3 surround 5.1.
When I edit it in FCP I can see the six channels both beside the time code and to the right of the time line.
When I go to share the video to my iTunes library, it indicates that the output will be stereo or two channel.
I have also tried this in COMPRESSOR and selected the various Apple settings. These too only produce stereo out put.
Can anyone suggest what might be preventing the AC3 output?
Thanks
Barry

I think that you are out of luck as the table shows on page 62 of your manual at http://www.docs.sony.com/release/BDPS350_US.pdf
Note 1 on this table says "When Audio Output Priority is set to stereo analog, LPCM 2ch signals are output from each jack. I would check this setting. I would also check out notes 2 and 4. According to their own table, the player should output bitstream in 5.1 D or DTS.
Out on http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1046952&page=3 it appears that another person is having the same issue and someone recommended this:
Double check the following settings:
Audio Output Priority: HDMI
Audio HDMI: Auto
BD Audio Setting: Direct
Audio ATT: Off
Dolby Digital: Dolby Digital
DTS: DTS
Audio DRC: Standard
Hope this helps....
I do not work for Best Buy and am not affiliated with them in any way. I like HT and want to help people improve their HT experience. "There is a LOT more than just having a TV to make a home theater"

How to get Surround Sound 7.1 output out of all speakers?

Hi all... I moved my system from Ubuntu recently and am having one small issue that I haven't been able to solve; everything else is working great and I'm about ready to move all of my other systems to Arch also, once I've solved this. :-)
The one nagging issue I'm having is with sound. This is a fiber digital connection that was working on the ubuntu install and a couple other distros I play with, but I haven't been able to find the issue in Arch. Sound comes out of only the front-left and front-right speakers. When I do the sound test, it lists all of the other 7.1 speakers, but no sound out of anything other than the front 2 speakers. I noticed that I don't have an asound.conf, so I was wondering if that might help or if it's not needed with Arch?
sound.conf contains the following:
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
/proc/asound/cards contains:
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xf9cf4000 irq 22
arecord -L shows:
default:CARD=Intel
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC1200 Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
If anyone has any pointers, it would really be appreciated. I'm begging for help. ;-)

Thanks! :LOL: - those were 2 of the url's I've been looking through (in addition to the alsa faq, some stuff on the ubuntu, gentoo and xbmc forums).
I've setup an asound.conf and am about to give that a test.
--edit--
Well, that didn't solve it. I'll have to keep trying. :-(
If anyone has managed to get surround sound working out of more than just the front 2 speakers, I'd love to hear how you did it. ;-)
Mine is connected via digital, so it's beginning to look like I need to set spdif up somehow.
But... Now that I think about it, it 'should' be pretty easy since all I basically need is for it to force all raw audio out the fiber digital connection since the receiver actually handles all of the decoding (dang....it worked great in Ubuntu, now if I can just figure it out in Arch). LOL
Thanks!!
Last edited by jackmetal (2009-12-12 20:43:32)

Surround 7.1 output

I would like to knows if its possible to assign the surround output to a bus and after that to a output.
The reason is my show are in a round theater and the audience are moving.
Sometime the L speaker is the center or the back one.
I have to make something like a matrix with the bus and the output.
Can you help me
Thanks everybody.
Mario B.

Thanks! :LOL: - those were 2 of the url's I've been looking through (in addition to the alsa faq, some stuff on the ubuntu, gentoo and xbmc forums).
I've setup an asound.conf and am about to give that a test.
--edit--
Well, that didn't solve it. I'll have to keep trying. :-(
If anyone has managed to get surround sound working out of more than just the front 2 speakers, I'd love to hear how you did it. ;-)
Mine is connected via digital, so it's beginning to look like I need to set spdif up somehow.
But... Now that I think about it, it 'should' be pretty easy since all I basically need is for it to force all raw audio out the fiber digital connection since the receiver actually handles all of the decoding (dang....it worked great in Ubuntu, now if I can just figure it out in Arch). LOL
Thanks!!
Last edited by jackmetal (2009-12-12 20:43:32)

Free AC3 encoding workflow

Like most of you, I was annoyed to find out I couldn't create AC3 surround sound files with my CS4 software, and also that we got downgraded from Audition to Soundbooth. We all paid a lot for it! I know many people have ranted about that already, so enough said.
Here is a workflow that gets around that problem without ponying up for the SurCode Plug-in, and/or buying Audition!
To convert your mixed 5.1 audio, or stereo audio, to the DVD standard AC3 file that Encore wants, download the latest version of Audacity here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. If you don't know already, it's free!
Now, before I start getting flamed, about Audacity, it works great! The UI is not the most modern, but the quality is top-notch. I've used it for years and most complaints about it are unjustified.
You'll need to download the latest version: "Beta: 1.3x - for advanced users." There will soon, I hope, be an Audacity 2.0 stable release. Until then, use the Beta release for this workflow.
Note: I'll focus on Premiere Pro CS4, because that is where I originally troubleshooted this, but something similar will work for the other Adobe products that use sound.
Workflow:
Create your mixed 5.1 surround sound audio in Premiere, and output the audio only by going to File > Export > Media, and selecting "Windows Waveform" as the output. You should only have "Export Audio" checked. Verify the format in the Summary section. You should see something like: 48000 Hz, 5.1 Surround, 16 bit. Now under Audio codec, make sure "Uncompressed" is selected. Click Okay, and Adobe Media Encoder should launch. Click "Start Queue" and your audio file will be created. You'll get an interleaved 6 channel wave file. Not all applications will open it, but Audacity will.
Note: When you mix your surround sound in the Audio Mixer, you'll place your little "Puck" where you want the sound to come from. Picture yourself in the middle of the "dish," if it's a puck, isn't it in a rink, as in hockey rink...ah, but I digress. Anyway, you'll notice that volume meters in the 5.1 (6 channel) Master section are laid out in the following order: L,R,LS,RS,C,LFE. Also, if you open a 5.1 audio file in the Source panel, you'll see the same order from top to bottom: L,R,LS,RS,C,LFE.   Soundbooth also does it that way. Ahh....Adobe...nice try.
The actual channel order should be L,R,C,LFE,LS,RS. That's the order that you'll probably have to assign in the "Audio Output Mapping" section in the properties menu to get your channels to play correctly with your surround sound hardware. L,R,C,LFE,LS,RS is also the order that interleaved files use. So after you create your 5.1 file, and open it in another audio program that displays them in the "proper" order, like Audacity, you'll see your tracks laid out from top to bottom in that order. I'm not sure why Adobe does it that way, but oh well.
Surround sound primer:
The LFE channel is not, despite popular misconception, a subwoofer channel. Bass from all the channels in a surround sound Amplifier is summed and sent out to the Subwoofer. The LFE channel is supposed to be used only for very low frequencies, to create extra ...oomph. I think that is the technical term. It is not supposed to be used for bass frequencies from the other tracks. It is for explosions, dinosaur footsteps, ...etc.
Audacity will open DVD ".vob" files, and even let you select which stream (usually Language) to open. As an example, open up a movie with some action in it like Ironman (The movie starts at "VTS_03_1.vob") and look at the LFE channel. It's the 4th track from the top in Audacity. You'll see it's silent except at parts where there is thumping AC/DC music at the Intro, or explosions. It's not used as a subwoofer channel!
With that in mind, you may have noticed, unless I'm missing something, that there is no way in the Premiere Mixer to assign an audio track only to the LFE channel. Sure, you can dial up the "Bass Clef" knob to 0.00 db, and send a mono channel's audio to the LFE channel, but there is no place to put the "Puck" that only outputs to LFE. There is one for the center channel, but without someplace to put it, your 40 Hz dinosaur footprint "Thump" is going to also be assigned to some of the other channels. Which channels depends on your "Puck" placement. This is not correct. Again, unless I'm missing something, Adobe needs to correct this oversight. We'll get back to this problem with a solution later, but first let's continue with the AC3 issue.
At this point you should have your wave file. If you want to apply any global changes to all 6 channels, you can open it in Adobe Soundbooth and trim the beginning or end, and apply effects to the entire file. You cannot, however, make changes to individual channels. Audacity will! We'll get to that later.
Encode with Audacity:
Install the software and go to Edit > Preferences > Libraries, and click on "Download" for the "FFmpeg Library." This is the library that Audacity will use to create the .AC3 file. Once installed, the library version should show up next to "FFmpeg Library Version" While the "Audacity Preferences" window is still open, select "Import/Export" and select "Use Custom Mix", this is used to export a 5.1 channel file. Now you're ready to open your .wave file from Premiere. Drag and drop it in the Audacity workspace and you should see 6 mono tracks laid out from top to bottom in the following order: L,R,C,LFE,LS,RS. Audacity will let you edit the individual tracks, unlike Soundbooth, thanks Adobe. But for now, we'll keep it simple. Set your "Project Rate" in audacity in the lower-left corner to what you want the AC3 file to be. For DVD, chose 48000 (Hz). If you leave it at 44100 (Hz) Encore won't import it.
Your almost done. Now let's export the file. Go to Files > Export... > and select "AC3 Files (FFmpeg)" in the "Save as type:" drop-down. Click the "Options..." button and set the "Bit Rate:" for your file. For 5.1 AC3 audio, probably 448. Now enter a file name and click "Save." This will open the "Advanced Mixing Options" window. This allows you to re-map the tracks to a different channel order. It should be correct, and it should show "Output Channels:" set to 6. Press "OK" and you're done.
Presto, you have a 5.1 channel AC3 file. Use that in Encore, or whatever DVD creation program you use, and when you play your DVD you'll have full 5.1 audio coming out your surround sound Amplifier. That is if you have one.
Test your file:
If you want to test your file, you can do a couple of things. Since Soundbooth and Adobe Bridge won't even open AC3 files, and Encore will open but only play the Left and Right channels in the preview, you'll have to either import the file into Premiere, or use another media player.
If you got Premiere to play your surround properly, then you can drag and drop the file into the "Project" panel and preview it from there. You will hear all 6 channels in the correct speakers, but I did notice that the quality is not very good. Maybe Premiere doesn't decode AC3 all that well. I heard some crackle that isn't in the file. How do I know it isn't just a bad encoding job by Audacity? Because I played the file with the VLC media player, and Cyberlink PowerDVD on the same computer, and also on a DVD in my home theater system with no artifacts. Maybe Premiere doesn't decode AC3 files well.
The VLC player, will play almost any file in the known universe, and at least on my computer, it automatically played the AC3 surround file, created by Audacity, with all the channels mapped correctly. That's right, full surround out my speakers with only default settings. It's a great player. Get it for free here: http://www.videolan.org/
Test with Encore:
So far so good. Now open Encore, drop the AC3 file in an empty project, throw it on a Timeline and build the project without Video, It will autoplay without a menu this way. If you set the End-Action to the same AC3 file it will repeat continuously. Either burn this to DVD-RW and test it in your DVD player, or better yet, Build the project to a DVD Image instead, and mount it in a virtual DVD   Drive with a program like "Virtual CloneDrive."
If you don't know what that is, or how to do it, it is very simple. Go to: http://www.slysoft.com/en/ and download "Virtual Clonedrive." It is free. It tricks your operating system into thinking you have another physical DVD drive. In fact, it can create up to 8 virtual drives. Now you don't have to waste time burning, and erasing DVD's every time you make a change to a project. You can build your project as a DVD Image from Encore, save the .iso file to your Desktop and "mount" it (load it) in Virtual Clonedrive. You're computer will now think you loaded a DVD into a physical drive, and launch whatever DVD player you have installed. Mine launches "Cyberlink PowerDVD" which plays the AC3 audio-only DVD in full surround sound on my computer.
Building and testing projects this way will save you endless hours. If you need to make a quick change, just "Unmount" the .iso in Virtual Clonedrive, rebuild your project to the same filename, and "Mount" it again. Instant testing!
Now, as promised, back to that LFE Channel problem with Premiere that I mentioned:
Audacity will let you modify the individual channels in your interleaved 6-Channel file. So don't put anything in that channel in your Premiere mixer. Leave the "Bass Clef" knobs at full CCW position ( -00 db ). The bass from the other channels will go to your subwoofer automatically in your Amplifier.
Now if you have some low frequency effects files, open them in Audacity. You can open multiple instances of Audacity at the same time by going to "File > New." Then, copy and paste them into the LFE Track at the correct point.
Audacity newbie Hint: Audacity doesn't yet have a "Mix-Paste" function, so to avoid altering the track length as you paste in your clips, do the following: Select the LFE track by clicking on it's info area. The info area should say something like "Mono, 48000Hz" Then press "Delete," That will remove everything from the track. Now copy and paste your clips into the track by clicking once with the "Selection Tool" where you want the clip to start, and selecting "Edit > Paste." If you need to fine tune the position of the pasted clip, use the "Time Shift Tool" to move it left or right. If you work from left to right, then you won't push clips over when you paste new ones in.
There is another way to do this by opening up new tracks, using the "Mix and Render" function, and re-ordering the tracks to maintain the L,R,C,LFE,LS,RS channel order. But that's for advanced users.
Where to get thumpy effects?:
Remember, Audacity will open DVD ".vob" files. Just remember to get permission from the copyright owner. HeHe.
PS If you can't get your surround sound to work with Premiere on your computer, see my other tutorial.

After further research, there is a better AC3 encoder out there than the FFMPEG that Audacity uses. It is a more sophisticated implementation of the format. Unlike FFMPEG, it uses floating point numbers instead of integers internally, among other things. It is also updated periodically. Although the pace is glacial.
You can read about it here: http://aften.sourceforge.net/
The easiest way to use it is with a graphical front-end like "wavtoac3encoder" found here: http://code.google.com/p/wavtoac3encoder/
You don't need to change anything from the default settings.
Just follow my tutorial above and instead of using Audacity to create the AC3 file after you are done editing, output the multi-track file in .wav format uncompressed from Audacity. Then drag and drop it into "wavtoac3encoder"and create your file.
If you don't need to edit the multi-track .wav file from Premiere in Audacity, then just drag and drop that file into "wavtoac3encoder" and encode.
The quality, although probably not as good as SurCode, sounds good to me.
Remember, this is strictly for non-commercial use.

Multi-Channel output audio from Quick Time (or iTunes)

Hello all,
I am trying to get multi-channel AC3 audio output from QT and can only get two channel stereo. I have seen lots of related posts but can't quite get it.
I am trying to configure a Mac Mini to output properly via the TOS link port to my audio system. I get surround sound fine playing a DVD but not when playing a .m4v file that does give me surround sound when played on my Apple TV.
Should this be possible?

I appreciate the link Brent! I also had someone point me here http://fplanque.com/dev/mac/ac3-ac-3-5-1-surrond-sound-apple-mac-osx and all is good now.
Thanks!

5.1 AC3 Surround Output

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