DTS .wav SPDIF pass trough

[pankov]

@MaTTeR
Days ago you said that you played your burned DTS CD trough the S/PDIF with PowerDVD. Is this right? What version of the PowerDVD do you use and when it plays it does it show that the stream is sent trough the S/PDIF or it says "Stereo"?

[MaTTeR]

I think I was using PowerDVD XP4 and yes the receiver indicated DTS3/2.

[pankov]

Can you tell me the exact version of PowerDVD?
Mine is 4.0.1015 and when I try to load the CD I get an error which I mentioned in my previous post

[MaTTeR]

I just verified and it's the same version your running.

So your problem is that it's sending PCM data instead of DTS?

[pankov]

Partly yes partly no
The "yes" part: when I open the .wav PowerDVD sends PCM(48kHz)
The "no" part: I can't load the DTS CD at all. When I select this Audio CD PowerDVD shows the following error:
Audio CD Error
Error Code: 8007000B
An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

[MaTTeR]

Well .WAV will definitely only send PCM data, that's expected.

I used Nero 5.5.7.8 to burn my Audio CD but no special options were selected that I can think of.

[pankov]

10x
I'll try Nero.
btw
What's your OS?
A few guys on the HTPC forum at AVS said that only in Win9x DTS CD pass trough is possible and not with Creative Cards. This is very discouraging though
:(

[MaTTeR]

I suspect your SoundCard is the issue. Creative is the root of all evil..ok I won't go off on a tangent;)

I'm running WinXP with a Zoltrix 6ch Sound Card. If the AVS guys stated the above then I'm sure they have already attempted this. You can either keep playing around with different drivers, etc or just go out and get a reliable sound card:)

[MaTTeR]

pankov,

PowerDVD XP 4 will definitely pass DTS but maybe you can try WinDVD 3.1 also. WDVD 3.1 also passes DTS, I just tested it on a few machines here.

[pankov]

Yes PowerDVD and WinDVD pass DTS from DVD. WinDVD passes it also from the DTS CD but the scrambling effect. I still can't understand the reason of this issue. If an upsampling is done isn't then the DTS stream supposed to be corrupt?
:(
May be real solution is to change my sound card but there isn't anything better available here in Bulgaria (atleast not at a reasonable price)
:(

[MaTTeR]

Your sound card should be able to pass the DTS in theory. The struggle is to get the right software settings, drivers, etc. to make this happen.

Do you have a DVD player in your PC? Using a DTS DVD is the best way to test the pass through. I basically have the same amp as you, yours might be slightly newer.

[pankov]

As I said before there is no problem in passing the DTS stream from a DVD trough the S/PDIF with WinDVD or PowerDVD. The problem appears only with the DTS CDs. So the difference in sampling freqency may be ther problem?!??!

btw
do you know which is the simplies way to create a .vob file with multichannel audio?

[MaTTeR]

I have no idea how to create a .vob file, never attempted it.

Have you tried opening the .WAV file up and resampling it? CoolEdit should handle this nicely. Re-burn the CD and try passing the stream.

[pankov]

I think I tried the upsampling of the .wav with CoolEdit but don't remeber for sure. I'll try it tomorrow.

An update on the PowerDVD issue:
I found that if I select PowerDVD to decode the DTS CD there is no problem. The error I mentioned before only shows when I select S/PDIF ouput.

[MaTTeR]

pankov,

The issue is definitely with the upsampling your Sound Blaster is performing. Resampling the .WAV to 48kHz is killing the DTS signal. You need a non AC97 compliant card I believe which won't resample everything to 48kHz. Problem is these are around $200 USD or so here in the states.

The Terratec DMX 6Fire card comes to mind:)

[Tes]

Wow, this thread has really expanded since I was last here.

Looks like we may need new soundcards pankov. :(

Originally posted by MaTTeR
The Terratec DMX 6Fire card comes to mind:)

Very nice card ... to bad one has not found its way into my computer yet ;)

[pankov]

Yes a very nice card but not in the price range I'm looking for
:(

MaTTeR, is the your sound card with CM8738?
What do you think of Mobos with this chip integrated? I suppose this could also be a solution? I think they don't have very good analog output but I need 6ch analog out so I may keep the SBLive 5.1

[MaTTeR]

Pankov,

Yes one of my sound cards is based on the CM8738 chipset. These cards are great if your just passing DD or DTS over SPDIF. For analog connections I wouldn't recommend them even though mine has gold plated ports;) I've heard great things about the Soyo Dragon mobo which has the the CM8738 built-in. I might be wrong but a CM8738 chipset is still AC97 compliant, which means the resample might still take place within the sound board. You should have look browsing the AV Science (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/) board or posting your question there in regards to which sound card you should buy.

EDIT-
Tes had the best solution. Digital Out of the CD/DVD going straight to the amps input. This is why it worked for me also on my HT PC.

[pankov]

So you say that even with your card you never did listen to a DTS CD with stream passed trough the S/PDIF of the SoundCard?
If yes what are the results if you try it?
Can you test it also in Win98 with a VxD driver?

[MaTTeR]

Let me burn the CD once more and try it in some different configs and I'll report back what works and what doesn't.

I initially reported it to work but had forgotton my dig out from the CDROM was directly connected to the amp.

Win98? Sorry, I haven't seen that OS on any of my machines for a few years;) I'm using WinXP on all 3-4 machines here, though I'm considering going back to Win2K if M$ doesn't release a SP for XP soon.

EDIT/
The DTS audio CD burnt to a CD-RW worked perfectly in my Sony stand alone player. The Sony amp detected it as DTS and processed as such.

For some reason PowerDVD 4XP is crashing on me now so I might need to reinstall it and WinDVD.

[pankov]

Is your PowerDVD crashing only when you try to play the DTS CD trought the S/PDIF and not when you try to play in 6/4/2 speakers mode?

[MaTTeR]

Thats correct pankov. I was happy to see my standalone DVD work fine though

[pankov]

So it looks like the guys at AVS are right that NO (absolutely NO) sonundcard can pass DTS CD sream trough with WDM drivers and only a few can with VxD drivers

:(

So then I won't have to change my SB Live 5.1 :) because I don't intend going back to Win98. Probably I'll change my DVD-ROM so I can use it's Digital Output

btw
Is your username at AVS "da MaTTeR"?

[MaTTeR]

Updating my drivers for the CM8738 card has proved to be a disaster today. PowerDVD and WinDVD aren't function very well with SPDIF anymore. I may need to do a clean install *sigh* I should have known better to used hack drivers:rolleyes:

Yes, I'm da_MaTTeR at AVS, forgot my password for MaTTeR so I had to register again.

[pankov]

The new PowerDVD 4.0.1329 doesn't crash with DTS CDs and S/PDIF output selected.
:)
But on the Sony everything sounds just like with WinDVD - scrambled
:(

[pankov]

MaTTeR,
there is a way to have DTS CDs playing trough the S/PDIF of your sound card. The only problem is that you have to have a CD(DVD)-ROM with digital out (which I think you said you have).
Look at this
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32057&perpage=20&highlight=loopback&pagenumber=2
there genixia explains how to do it.

Good luck

The bad thing is this can't help me though. :( But on the other side I don't have any DTS CDs and the only thing I have to do is not buy one. I'll buy DVD-Audio discs instead

[MaTTeR]

I think most all CD/DVD-ROMs have digital out AFAIK.

For me I have the digital out going straight to the amp anyway and it seems to work jitter free. Thanks for the thread though.