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Author Topic: Headphone surround sound in Media Center?  (Read 6644 times)

Lunatique

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Headphone surround sound in Media Center?
« on: April 08, 2012, 05:59:31 pm »

I've been trying to get headphone surround sound in Media Center for ages, but just can't seem to do it.

I have a hardware Dolby Headphone product (Victor SU-DH1), and that actually sounds like surround sound. I also have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, which has Creative's X-Fi CMSS-3D, and it also does headphone surround quite well. While I'm happy with both, due to my currently setup, I can't use them anymore. I did look into DHWrapper and dolbyhph.dll, but it doesn't seem to work unless you have a Dolby Headphone capable hardware device in your setup. I've also tried TB Isone Surround (a VST plugin), but it's it doesn't actually do surround sound emulation--it just takes the surround channels and down-mix them to stereo.

What I'm looking for, is a solution to get headphone surround sound inside of Media Center--perhaps via a plugin of some sort. Anyone know a solution?
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JimH

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Re: Heaphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2012, 06:11:10 pm »

Have you tried MC's options in DSP Studio?  Try both Headphones and Output Format.  JRiver Surround Sound can be set there.
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Lunatique

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Re: Heaphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2012, 06:19:14 pm »

Have you tried MC's options in DSP Studio?  Try both Headphones and Output Settings.  JRiver Surround Sound can be set there.

It doesn't work. I don't hear the center channel or the surround channels.

TB Isone Surround works though, and I think it's doing what your suggestion is supposed to do.

BUT, your suggestion is only up or down mixing sources. It's not a real surround sound emulator, is it? Not like Dolby Headphone and CMSS-3D, where the surround sound actually sounds realistic on the headphone. 
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JimH

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Re: Heaphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2012, 06:34:00 pm »

In Output Format, try the options for Channels.  2.1 might do it.

Is the source stereo?
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Lunatique

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Re: Heaphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2012, 06:38:23 pm »

In Output Settings, try the options for Channels.  2.1 might do it.

Is the source stereo?

Already tried it. Still doesn't work. The source is surround sound (a movie).
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JimH

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Re: Headphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2012, 06:46:34 pm »

That makes a difference.  "Output Format" is where you should be.  Make sure you have it checked in the list on the left.

I'm not the expert on this.  Others will be able to give you more help.  But I think you've got something like a 5.1 source and you're listening to it in stereo.  I think you'll need to apply effects (JRSS, for example) to get anything but plain stereo.
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Lunatique

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Re: Headphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2012, 07:11:15 pm »

That makes a difference.  "Output Format" is where you should be.  Make sure you have it checked in the list on the left.

I'm not the expert on this.  Others will be able to give you more help.  But I think you've got something like a 5.1 source and you're listening to it in stereo.  I think you'll need to apply effects (JRSS, for example) to get anything but plain stereo.

Already done all that.
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Matt

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Re: Headphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2012, 07:57:23 pm »

For proper down-mixing that emulates a calibrated surround system as closely as possible, use:
DSP Studio > Output Format > Channels > 2 channels + JRSS mixing

For something like Dolby Headphone, you'll have to use a third party VST or convolution-based solution.  I'm a headphone lover, and don't have a very high opinion of these systems.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

Lunatique

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Re: Headphone surround sound in Media Center?
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2012, 08:16:00 pm »

Okay, I rebooted, and now I can hear the audio as a typical stereo sound, but that's not what I want. What I want is to actually hear surround sound on my headphones, similar to Dolby Headphones or CMSS-3D.

And yes, I know they don't sound as good as actual surround speakers, but at least they do sound like surround and I can listen to surround sound late at night on my headphones and not wake up the family or neighbors.
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