gabest dts/ac3 source filter stopped working

[Vincent Vega]

it used to work just fine on my system, never had any problems with it. now although its properly registered (i even reregistered it again) it cannot function at all ("unable to create filter..." error message).

my guess is that some other recently installed filter now interferes with it and keeps it from working normally. i'd appreciate any help on this issue. thanks.

[Skelsgard]

post what new filters/software u have installed.

[Vincent Vega]

i just tried uninstalling everything i've installed since i started having the problem. it didn't help. i'm pretty sure i couldn't miss anything cos i use radlight filter mngr for registering/unregistering and it keeps a log of all such operations.

this is really weird. could there be some other way to reempower the filter?

[Skelsgard]

Maybe u should try to remove all references to the filter in the System Registry with RegEdit (thousands of programs leave junk behind even after unistallation and the use of registry cleaning tools).
Afterwards, re-install it and see what happens.

Anyway, it also depends what player are u using, hardware, etc. This are important. I.e. I render my DTS files in BSPlayer with DTSSource.ax --> AC3Filter (using SPDIF) --> SB Audigy 2 ZS (C000) (selected as Audio device in BSPlayer, beacuse i need to use the soundboard directly), and this sequence sends the ac3 to be decoded by my soundboard´s built-in processor. Or I can render DTS in BSPlayer with BSPlayer with DTSSource.ax --> AC3Filter (5.1-ch selected, no SPDIF) --> Directshow:SB Audigy 2 ZS (C000) (because I don´t need to use the soundborad directly, i can let DirectShow to render trhu my soundboard).
The "unable to create filter..." error message, just states that at least one filter in the sequence could not be connected to another one to complete the render.
This is way u should specify wich filters are using (AC3filter, Intervideo´s or Cyberlink´s, ffdshow audio, nero´s, etc...) and player (also hardware), in order to get better help.

[Vincent Vega]

ok here's the results of a lil more thorough investigation (playback of .ac3 and .dts files):

first of all as i understand in directshow one can either use:
file source(async)->ac3 parser->ac3 decoder->... for ac3; and
be unable to play dts
this is default windows configuration.

or register gabest dts/ac3 source filter (which disables ac3 parser) and then use:
gabest dts/ac3 source filter->dts decoder->... for dts; and
gabest dts/ac3 source filter->ac3 decoder->... for ac3

now the test participants:
- sample1 dts file (short fragment of a dts audio track cut from the BEGINNING of a movie file with VDubMod 1.5.10.2)
- sample2 dts file (short fragment of a dts audio track cut from the MIDDLE of a movie file with VDubMod 1.5.10.2)
- sample3 ac3 file (short fragment of an ac3 audio track cut from the BEGINNING of a movie file with VDubMod 1.5.10.2)
- sample4 ac3 file (short fragment of an ac3 audio track cut from the MIDDLE of a movie file with VDubMod 1.5.10.2)

first default config although devoid of dts support handles ac3 samples 3 and 4 without a problem.
second config although adds support for dts is actually able to play only samples cut from the beginning of the respective tracks (samples 1 and 3). opening the "MIDDLE" samples 2 and 4 in graphedit fails with error message "filter failed to load file". this is the kinda file i referred to in my first post.

so now i'm at loss choosing the lesser of two quite equally evil configs...

considering that ac3 parser configuration can easily handle the "middle-cut" kind of a file i have to conclude that it's a flaw in gabest's source filter rather than in vdubmod in the above test.

[tebasuna51]

When cut with VDubMod the ac3/dts stream may not start with a valid header and can be rejected by gabest filter.

Fix the ac3/dts with BeSliced (GUI for BeSplit) and try another time.

[Vincent Vega]

Fix the ac3/dts with BeSliced (GUI for BeSplit) and try another time.

thanks for pointing out this cool little prog. it did work for the problem ac3 but not fo dts.

but even if it would i still wish the source filter could handle these things on the fly on its own without the user having to fix the headers manually. that should be possible i think since it's already implemented in ac3 parser.

[tebasuna51]

BeSliced v0.3 with BeSplit v0.9b6/b7 may work also with dts. But I agree with you, the filter must ignore the first bytes until the next valid header.

[Skelsgard]

but even if it would i still wish the source filter could handle these things on the fly on its own without the user having to fix the headers manually. that should be possible i think since it's already implemented in ac3 parser.
here are the filters I use for dts (in and out of AVI container) -->
DTS DS Filters (http://www06.megaupload.com/files/e90284c1920559ce17b307d7bff6ea62/DTS_filters_DS.rar)

But Haali Matroska Splitter can open too DTS in AVI, I mixed a sample with AviMux GUI and the cut was without problem, it renders OK.

[Vincent Vega]

one more suggested solution:
one last question gabest. thanks for your patience with me.
i have to deal with such problem files almost every day. what would you recommend to do to fix them to make them usable with your filter? someone told me to use besplit/besliced to fix the headers. with besplit 0.9b6 i was able to get both ac3 and dts files to open in your filter. so do you think this method is the best option to repair such files?
Some kind of hex editor to chop off the beginning to the first frame could be useful, ac3 starts from 0b 77, dts from 7f fe 80 01.