MKV with DD+ Playback?

[Shroomie]

So I have this video that is encoded with x264 (.MKV format) and it has EAC3/DD+ audio. Media Player Classic chokes on it and throws me an error, VLC just gives me video with no sound, and WinDVD won't open it at all.

I spent a good portion of today googling for an answer to my problem and I've come across a couple solutions, none of which I've been able to get to work. One that kept coming up was to use Sonic Audio Decoder 4.2, but I haven't been able to find anything it on it anywhere. I can't even find it on Sonic's site (maybe I'm looking in the wrong place or something).

The other solution I found had to do with using ffdshow to transcode it on the fly to AC3, but that's a little over my head.

So, can anybody offer me some incite on to what I need to do to get this working? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Awatef]

That's weird, you should be able to decode with a regular AC3 decoder, since DD+ should be backwards compatible to DD :confused:
You should just have ffdshow installed, and make sure AC3 is decoded by it (Check the audio configuration of ffdshow, you should have liba52 in front of AC3).

[jruggle]

So I have this video that is encoded with x264 (.MKV format) and it has EAC3/DD+ audio. Media Player Classic chokes on it and throws me an error, VLC just gives me video with no sound, and WinDVD won't open it at all.

My guess is that WinDVD supports EAC3, but not MKV. VLC doesn't decode it yet, but can parse over it. MPC would probably not work unless you have a dshow decoder for EAC3...and I don't know if there are any yet.


The other solution I found had to do with using ffdshow to transcode it on the fly to AC3, but that's a little over my head.

ffdshow cannot transcode EAC3.


So, can anybody offer me some incite on to what I need to do to get this working? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Wait 4 months :) I wish I could be more helpful right now, but by the end of the summer there should be an open-source EAC3 decoder available through FFmpeg, which means VLC will be able to play it.

That's weird, you should be able to decode with a regular AC3 decoder, since DD+ should be backwards compatible to DD :confused:

EAC3 is not backwards compatible with AC3. It's a completely different bitstream format, though it shares many of the same encoding processes. However, a compliant EAC3 decoder is required to also decode AC3. You can think about it as both formats having a common base, but different outer layers, with EAC3's outer layers being more advanced.

[Awatef]

That's really really confusing.
On Dolby's site (http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/dolby_digital_plus.html), they're telling completely different stories:

Outputs a Dolby Digital bitstream for playback on existing Dolby Digital systems

Compatible with the millions of home entertainment systems equipped with Dolby Digital

:confused:

[nurbs]

IIRC a DD+ hardware decoder has to be able to convert it to regular DD.

[Awatef]

@ nurbs
What you say doesn't make much sense. I don't think someone w/ a DD+ decoder will worry about downgrading it to DD.
It makes much more sense to me that Dolby wants people to be able to hear the sound with their old equipment.

I'm going to search for a sample w/ DD+ sound and come back...

[nurbs]

Wikipedia:
The new compression algorithm is not directly backward compatible with AC-3 — existing AC-3 decoders will not be able to decode E-AC-3 streams — but DD+ capable equipment is required to be able to convert E-AC-3 streams to 0.640 Mbit/s AC-3 for compatibility with existing Dolby Digital A/V processors.

[Awatef]

@ nurbs
So you mean that the player itself has to be able to downgrade the signal to DD, not the receiver right?
If that's the case, then that would make sense I guess.

Anyway, I got a sample w/ DD+ sound, I couldn't play it with the latest ffdshow. It sure wants to pick it up with the AC3 decoder, but nothing comes out.

[nurbs]

ffdshow can't decode DD+ yet.
Apparently there are no specs for DD+ available so I guess it will be a while until there is an open source decoder.

[ACrowley]

You must use Orbitlees DTS/AC3/DD+ Source with SonicCinemasterAudio Decoder 4.2
Works perfect on DD+ .

Latest Haali Splitter Version can play it in mkv.

For SPDIF use AC3Filter in the decoding chain

Its all in the EvoDemultiplexer Thread

[MetallMann]

is there any standalone/free (like ffdshow :D) (de)codec for DD+ now (well I mean in sept. 2008)... ??? ...

I have found no useful info so far...

[Snowknight26]

ffdshow

Bingo.

[MetallMann]

...have tried ffdshow rev. 2137 (20080922) - latest I could get - and it dosen´t work ..... :(

Are there any special options for turning DD+ playback on, cos´ I haven´t found any...
I read about ffdshow supporting DD+ in near future but I guess we´ll have to wait a little longer :D ...

[nautilus7]

You need the latest beta from albain posted in the ffdshow thread. E-AC3 support is not well tested yet, so it's not in the official releases.

[Blue_MiSfit]

eac3to can use libavcodec to decode DD+, IIRC

~MiSfit

[shon3i]

I using Sonic Audio Decoder in chain with ffdshow, because sometimes i use normalize, mixer and other features of ffdshow. I know that Sonic automaticly applyes DRC but i don't saw better solution right now, without transcoding DD+ to other format (AC3, DTS).

Btw why we need anyway decoder for it, because DD+ is dead standard, and is died together with HDDVD, i don't saw any Blu-Ray title use it, so probably standalones aslo will not support it.