question involving Reclock info screen/decoding process

[THX-UltraII]

Hi,

I post 2 screenshots here. The first screenshot is while playing a .mkv file. I fully understand this. My (ffdshow) dts decoder decodes the signal and 'give' this signal to ReClock. Reclock nicely passes through the signal.

However, I have some questions with the second screenshot. In this screen I played a .wmv file. I did see in my MPC-HC filters that WMaudio Decoder is active. This I understand (I think :)) because the .wmv file has a windows audio signal which cannot be send over SPDIF and let the decoding beeing done by my receiver (correct?). But why is it that ReClock reports AC3 encoder @renderer info? Is this because the signal needs to be ENcoded before my receiver can 'read' it? If so, why is it that my receiver shows Dolby Digital and not 5.1 PCM? You would think that a double decoding is beeing done because the WMaudio decoder already did a decoding process?

screenshot 1: (.mkv file)

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6433/65530822.jpg (http://img34.imageshack.us/i/65530822.jpg/)

screenshot 2: (.wmv file)
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9553/12447169.jpg (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/12447169.jpg/)

[Jong]

You have answered the question yourself.

For multi-channel audio to go over s/pdif (which is old and has limited bandwidth), it must be compressed uisng either AC3 (i.e Dolby Digital) or DTS. Your wmv file contains wma audio, which your amp cannot decode, so the WMA filter decodes it to 6-channel PCM, passes this to Reclock, which then encodes it to AC3 i.e. Dolby Digital. If it didn't do this you would only get 2 channel PCM passed to your amp.

[THX-UltraII]

You have answered the question yourself.

For multi-channel audio to go over s/pdif (which is old and has limited bandwidth), it must be compressed uisng either AC3 (i.e Dolby Digital) or DTS. Your wmv file contains wma audio, which your amp cannot decode, so the WMA filter decodes it to 6-channel PCM, passes this to Reclock, which then encodes it to AC3 i.e. Dolby Digital. If it didn't do this you would only get 2 channel PCM passed to your amp.

I connected my HTPC with a ATI HD4350 card and audio is send over HDMI. Why is it that when I DISable the AC3 encoder function in Reclock that I get no sound and reclock gives me no sound?

edit: Mark AW just helped me out!: I had to put the setting audio output to use with PCM sound NOT on same as input. I tried 16,24,32 and float and only 16 seems to work. But it works.

[Jong]

I see from you rother thread on the Reclock forum that you are using HDMI, so do not need to s/pdif the output. I suggest you try the suggestion to use 32-bit output.

[THX-UltraII]

I see from you rother thread on the Reclock forum that you are using HDMI, so do not need to s/pdif the output. I suggest you try the suggestion to use 32-bit output.

I tried, However, I had to set it on 16 bit to get sound. I assume that my card only supports 16 bit output then?

Are there cards where you can leave the setting on same as input, o a card that supports all 4? (and if so, will the audio quality be better then?)

[Jong]

James has answered elsewhere. Of course if your audio is 24-bit and you have to send as 16-bit quality is affected. Whether audible or not, that is another matter.

[THX-UltraII]

James has answered elsewhere. Of course if your audio is 24-bit and you have to send as 16-bit quality is affected. Whether audible or not, that is another matter.

and are there cards that support 16,24,32 and 32float?

[THX-UltraII]

more testing brought up another question Jong:

I ve (again :)) decided to go back to 'pc-decoding' for all my content (benefit is also that I can use PAL-speeddown the right way).
So I ve enabled the internal DTS (for most of my .mkv content), AC3 and AAC (for most of my .mov trailers) decoder in MPC-HC. I set it up to decode to speakers 3 Front + 2 Rear and checked the LFE box. I did not checked the box downmix aac to stereo because I noticed that some of my .mov trailers (which contain aac sound) are in 5.1.

I hope everything so far is correct.

Next there is the output sample format option in the internal MPC-HC decoder where I can choose PCM 16,24,32 bit or IEEE Float.
I used to use FFdshow and checked all the 4 boxes there in the output options (with this 4 I mean 16,24,32 bit and Float). In this configuration you could see in Reclocks media infos (reclock info when content is running) that for all different types of content something else was offered to ReClock. So sometimes 16 was presented to ReClock and sometimes Float. When I checked 16bit PCM as audio output in Reclock, reclock 'altered' the sound so that it would be compatible with my ATI sounds over HDMI. But in the output sample format option in the MPC-HC internal decoder you cannot select them all but only one of the 4. I ve noticed that I get sound from the same content in all 4 options. You can also see that in the media infos screen of Reclock. Here are 4 screenshots of the same .mov file with everytime checked another one in the output option of the internal filter of MPC-HC.

I want to know if it isnt better to look for a filter where I can check all 4 of them so the right one is always picked or if this doent matter at all and I can use the MPC-HC filter and just pick one of the 4 outputs.

Probably your going to tell me that it doesnt matter which to pick because Reclock alters it anyway but I want to know for sure if its ok to use this internal filter of MPC-HC :)

Here are the screens everytime with another option picked:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5492/67405016.jpg (http://img155.imageshack.us/i/67405016.jpg/)

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/8293/30544441.jpg (http://img170.imageshack.us/i/30544441.jpg/)

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/5282/77172414.jpg (http://img183.imageshack.us/i/77172414.jpg/)

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4618/54859437.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/54859437.jpg/)

[Jong]

I use ffdshow to decode most audio, because I am not sure MPC-HC is up to date with TrueHD/DTS. I would guess the best is to send "Float" to Reclock. This should preserve most precision and I believe Reclcok uses "Float" internally, so no need for conversion.

[THX-UltraII]

I use ffdshow to decode most audio, because I am not sure MPC-HC is up to date with TrueHD/DTS. I would guess the best is to send "Float" to Reclock. This should preserve most precision and I believe Reclcok uses "Float" internally, so no need for conversion.


ok, thanks! By the way I sent you a PM cause I want to ask something which isn t allowed on the forum