e-ac3 decoding

[Mounir]

I'm looking for a more pro solution for decoding e-ac3 (aka dolby digital plus) audio channels which is the norm now in france for HD channels.
I currently use ffdshow but i don't find it to be efficient.
I'm browsing the net since 2 days and i can't find many decoders.
The decoder has to be available in my audio decoder list in DvbViewer if you know this software. I say that because i recently tried a similar software of power dvd but its decoders weren't available in DvbViewer.

Any idea guys ?

[Blue_MiSfit]

What exactly is lacking in the ffdshow decoder?

~MiSfit

[Mounir]

I got freezes of certain chanels and, while i'm not 100% sure i would bet a dime or two it's the audio part that's messing up the whole decoding process.I'm very often obliged to stop DvbViewer and restart. I haven't problems with SD channels even with standard dolby digital audio streams.

I use CoreAvc + ffdshow for the audio so maybe this particular mix is not ok, Power DVd 9 decoder work but haven't any sound when i use the Power DVD 9 audio decoder.So, i need something else, plain & simple.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Nero had an E-AC3 decoder that was usable outside Nero apps with a bit of hackery. I believe this capability is restricted to Nero 7.5 software. Everything newer doesn't allow usage outside nero software. The eac3to development thread would be a good place to read up on. madshi did a lot of work to figure out how to wrangle DirectShow into providing highly accurate E-AC3 decoding, and successfully does it using libavcodec, the same library that ffdshow uses.

You might have luck with Arcsoft's directshow filters, but I'm not sure. Also, try Media Player Classic HC. It's built-in AC3 decoder fully supports E-AC3 supposedly. I've had good luck with it, including streams with SBR (or whatever Dolby calls it) for low bitrate. MPC-HC would also let you mess with using Reclock, in case DirectSound is causing the "freezes of certain channels" as you call them.

ffdshow, and nero are the only standalone decoders I know of. MPC-HC and VLC should work out of the box.

If you haven't already, I would ask on the DVBViewer forums. I'm not personally familiar with this software :)

~MiSfit

[Guest]

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