Media Player CLassic & AC3 sound

[DD51]

Hi,

Hope someone can help me...
I'm having a problem with AC3 output when using Media Player Classic v.6.4.8.7
I have an SB Audigy 2 ZS soundcard.

In MPC settings under:
Options-Filters-Audio Decoders, and choose IEEE Float, the sound is soo much louder and powerful but my center speaker has NO SOUND!
What am I doing wrong?

If I choose in the same section either PCM 16bit - PCM 24bit or PCM 32bit then my center speaker works fine but the sound is soo much lower in volume and there's no punch whatsoever.

Can anyone help find the problem?
Is there any way to fix this?

Many thanks in advance

[bond]

moved

[DD51]

Please anyone,

Nobody has any idea why I can't get my center channel to work while in IEEE Float mode?
The other modes work fine but the sound volume is extremely low and unacceptable.

Thanks

[Taurus]

Maybe you try the http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Filters/ac3filter_0_70b.exe plugin!
Or read about it on the authors website first..http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/

Cheers

Taurus

[Skelsgard]

post your ac3filter settings, u might be using SPDIF passthough or have DRC active, with reduced gain. Also, u might have the Dynamic Range Compression enabled in your audio HQ panel wich makes the louder sounds be normalized to a base level for the entire track so that your ears won´t be destroyed with boosted sounds. I personally hate it.. if a thunder is roaring around me then I want it to sound as it is really roaring, instead of sounding like some guy making the noise with his armpit (not refering to the quality of the sound, but to its dB level). I usually re-encode the AC3 so that I can remove the DRC flag and boost the sound 2 to 3 dB.
FYI: AC3Filter sounds about 4-5 dB below the soundcard level (when compared with SPDIF passthrough) so to achieve the same level as Intervideo´s Audio Decoder or Cyberlink´s Audio Decoder u need to set Gain to +4 or +5 dB approx.

[DD51]

Thanks all for trying to help.

I have installed ac3filter_0_70b.exe:
Although it works great as a DD5.1 output, I am NOT impressed by the sound volume. It is EXTREMELY low compared to IEEE Float. I am baffled as to why when selecting IEEE Float my sound is WAY louder :confused:
I have reformatted my PC and started all over with the minimum installation...nothing!

I cannot watch a movie on my PC with the volume soo low.
I just wish I knew how to get my Center channel to work with IEEE Float activated.

I played with eveything I can think including trying different players, pressed every button on off, tried ffdshow, I clicked everything I can think of for for the past days and nothing seems to make the Center channel play while in IEEE Float mode. "SO" I give up!

Thanks again for trying to help me out.

PS. Here's my system specs:
P4C800-E Deluxe V 2.00 - Bios Version 1024 beta1
P4 3.2E GHz OC'd to 3.841GHZ 960 FSB
Thermalright XP-90 CPU Heatsink with 92mm fan
GEIL UltraX550 PC4400 @ 480MHZ Dual CH Memory kit
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Soundcard
Klipsch THX-Certified ProMedia 5.1 Speaker system
2 SATA Raptors 36GB 10K RPM RAID0 (Stripe)
Video Card: MSI 6800GT 256MB
Operating System : Win XP Pro SP2

[Skelsgard]

But why are u so interested in using IEEE Float as Output, when Dolby Digital is 16 bits? I put on the net some pics of what u should be using to get good volume levels for your ac3 file with AC3Filter.

http://img303.imageshack.us/img303/4294/ac3filter019gq.jpg

http://img429.imageshack.us/img429/5906/ac3filter020re.jpg

http://img429.imageshack.us/img429/3189/ac3filter030qk.jpg

If u want to use your Audigy 2 ZS Dolby built-in decoding then this is what it should look like:

the rendering device for audio mut be set to SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [C000], not Directshow:SB Audigy or System Default or Directshow Default.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8976/mpc014jh.jpg

For AC3Filter, the SPDIF passthrough muts be selected with 24 bits (because the soundboard renders at 96kHz 24 bits when in passthrough). This passtrough is to the soundboard´s processor, not to its SPDIF output:
http://img348.imageshack.us/img348/2306/ac3filter047zo.jpg

This should do it for u.
But know that when using SPDIF from ac3filter, the filter´s options (except for PCM bit depth) will be ignored, including Gain.
If when using ac3filter without spdif, the sound level is still low for u, just increase the Gain to what u feel is acceptable.