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[bspachman]

It's been a couple of months, so I'm wondering if there has been any progress made on having MC play AC3 files (particularly of the multi-channel variety).

WinAmp can do it. Foobar 2k can do it. There's a DirectSound filter for AC3 files available on SourceForge....

Anyone have any clever ways to to leverage any of these clever playback mechanisms for use in MC?

Brad

[darichman]

I'd also like to see this implemented.

[Alex B]

What do you mean by AC3 files? Are they just the audio part separated from video DVDs or something else? What is the file extension and container type and how the files are made?

I have been able to play AC3 and DTS videos with MC a long time. I have used AC3Filter for audio decoding or direct digital pass-through to a separate DD/DTS decoder. If the AC3 files are audio only the solution could be to put them in AVI containers.

[bspachman]

What do you mean by AC3 files? Are they just the audio part separated from video DVDs or something else? What is the file extension and container type and how the files are made?

You're right, they are the audio portion of DVD-Videos. The file extension is actually "ac3". They are pretty simple to make using any of the standard DVD rippers to demux the streams.

This results in a single 5.1 "ac3" file that plays back in my old WinAmp 2.8 install with the AC3 plug-in. If I send the bitstream directly to my SPDIF output, my receiver correctly interprets the file as "Dolby Digital 5.1".

I have been able to play AC3 and DTS videos with MC a long time. I have used AC3Filter for audio decoding or direct digital pass-through to a separate DD/DTS decoder. If the AC3 files are audio only the solution could be to put them in AVI containers.

I've never successfully used MC to playback video material, be they AVIs or DVDs (either ripped or on the disc). Of course, I've been satisfied with my other tools to deal with video, so I haven't put much effort into making MC work for me.

However, you propose an interesting work-around. How would I go about transforming my audio-only AC3 file into an AVI?

Best,
brad

[Alex B]

I have some audio-only AVI files. The files have MP3 content, but AC3 should work as well. MC uses DirectX for playing them. I didn't make them myself and I don't actually know how the AVI wrapping should be done. I have never tried to make AVI files without video content. Perhaps some usual video tools can be used for that.

[Alex B]

I am now listening to a multichannel AC3 file in Matroska container with MC11.

I didn't find any tools for making audio only AVI files, but I wrapped an AC3 file in a Matroska container with the AVI-Mux GUI and installed the Matroska Pack Full v1.0.3 codec package.

Media Center didn't accept the file at first, but I changed the MKA (Matroska Audio) extension to MKV (Matroska Video) and I was able to import and play the file.


Listening to: 'Naqoyqatsi multichannel soundtrack' by 'Philip Glass' from 'Naqoyqatsi movie' on Media Center 11.0.193   

[bspachman]

And I'm listening to a multi-channel AC3 file in MC10!

Thanks for the pointers. I downloaded & installed AVI-Mux GUI as well as the Matroska Lite codec package.

I ran my AC3 files through the AVI-Mux program with the default settings which generated some .mkv files.

MC10 didn't know what to do with the Matroska files, so on a wild guess, I changed the extensions to .avi and they worked fine!

I don't know about tagging (yet), but as long as the tracks have the appropriate info in my Library, I think I'm all set.

Great!
Brad