Audio Filter Support

[james4001]

Hi guys,
been using mediamonkey for about a year now. Super program. This is my problem:
When using my hifi amp i can use the A+B speaker set button to play in effect what is dual stereo. I was wondering if i could do some processing of the audio stream so that is was outputed in 4.0 or 4.1 using an optical cable. Having looked into it i found that i could use a filter called AC3Filter to convert the mp3 stream into a Dolby Digital Stream which i can then send to a DD reciever using spdif. This filter can map any channel to whatever speaker you like using a matrix. The huge downside is that so far i can only do it using the classic media player. Is there any way to fit the AC3Fiter between the input and output plugin of winamp? Thanks loads, James

[Lowlander]

I think that that's up to the AC3 filter configuration. I use it too and know that it's a complex thing to setup.

What do you require in this case? Do you have problem getting 4.1 (5.1) sound out of MediaMonkey? Or do you want your PC to upgrade the stereo output of MediaMonkey to 4.1 (5.1)? You might want to read on audio forums if it's best to have your stereo do this (If stereo has that capability) or have software do this (Like the AC3 filter or a plugin).

There are several WinAmp plugins available that support 5.1 output. I myself use any plugin and get 5.1 output outmatically, never had to configure anything either (I think that the soundcard software/drivers do this process).

[james4001]

Thanks for the reply. The thing is i am currently using a DD and DTS reciever connected using an optical cable. SPDIF only supports 2 channels uncompressed but more if transmitted in DD for example. this is why i was trying to get the AC3 filter to convert the audio from mediamonkey to 4.1 and output using the SPDIF. the reason for 4.1 is becasue i would like to duplicate the front stereo sound to the rear for times like partys. as i said, i found a way to do this using media player classic so i didnt think that it should be too hard to do it with mediamonkey too. Thanks, James

[Lowlander]

You might want to check the sound card settings, on my machine with s/pdif output the sound card can be configured to send 4.1/5.1 to the stereo.

Most stereos can do this job as well. In other words you send stereo (2 channel) to the stereo via either s/pdif or RCA and the stereo up converts this for you to 4.1/5.1. I myself run my music as 4.1 (center channel sucks) and video in 5.1.

In the MediaMonkey Tools > Options > Output Plugin you should make sure that the used plugin uses the correct sound card. This might be an issue in your case.

Otherwise I think you will either have to configure the soundcard/AC3 filter or the stereo to get 4.1.


I just checked the AC3 1.05 settings and I think you need to play with the settings in the System tab. There is an option to not encode stereo PCM, deselecting that might do the trick. In the Main tab you would have to select 4.1 as output. As I don't actually have configured AC3 before I'm just guessing. I can't even test it right now for you.

[vanjalolz]

I have the same problem, and the only solution i have found is to get MM to use mplayerc instead of winamp - but it doesn't do so well with large play lists.

The problem stems from the fact that ac3filter is a directshow filter, not a winamp plugin, so the only programs that use it are video-playing ones.

It is not possible to have a 4.1/5.1 output by changing the soundcard settings. If you change the settings on your soundcards to 2 speaker, then yes your sound card/receiver will expand the 2 speaker input to 4/5/6 speaker output, but then its not true surround sound because other programs (such as dvd 5.1 playback) will then only have 2 channels upmixed to 5.1 which is NOT what we want.

[Steegy]

It is not possible to have a 4.1/5.1 output by changing the soundcard settings.

Can't you just set your Windows speaker configuration to 5.1 (or similar), and then use the DirectSound output (with hardware acceleration enabled!) plugin in MediaMonkey? This (and more) is explained here in the FAQ.

Cheers
Steegy

[vanjalolz]

This might be my problem - I'm running vista and the option for hardware acceleration is greyed out for my sound card. Gonna check for new drivers now.

Thanks.

[Lowlander]

PS. MediaMonkey 2.x variants have no official support for Vista. MediaMonkey 3.0 will support Vista.