AC3 Playback problem

[echooff]

:( First a little background. I have a surround sound card in my xp p4 2.4 sys and also have ac3 filter latest version installed. My problem is that no matter how I encode the ac3; Besweet, Soft encode, ect. the output file only gives a squeal, (Have also tried Surcode DTS for both cd and dvd) both on the pc and if burned to a cd or dvd. I have followed a half dozen different guides from this forum and various other lesser sites to the letter. Do you know of any drivers, programs, codecs ect. which might cause this. Something must be clashing somewhere. I have even tied uninstalling the ac3 filter to no avail. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[echooff]

Anyone?? No ideas??

[KpeX]

Any info on the source audio? So you get the same effect when burning and playing back off of different devices? Does this occur with AC3 that you did not encode (i.e. from a DVD)?

[echooff]

The source audio is a wav ripped from any cd in my collection. This only happens on ac3 encoded on my pc. All others encoded elsewhere, cd, dvd etc. play perfectly. I can rip ac3 out of dvds' all day and they sound great. I thought it might only be playback on my machine at first but after making a couple of plastic coasters ( 2 from each media - dvd, cd), I dicovered this was not the case. They produce the same squeeling noise on any machine they are played on. The funny thing is they play fine on the preview function in surcode and soft encode. It is only after I get the finnished product (ha, ha) do I get the garbage. I only discovered the problem after trying out the ambisonics method post in the forum. I have since found out any type of ac3 encode is bad. I use Besweet for almost all of my audio needs with no problems. All other audio I have encoded mp2, mp3, wav works perfectly. Besides ac3 those are the only audio formats I use.

Any Ideas? I know I'm sounding pushey, but man is this frustrating. I'm embaressed to admit I'm a pc tech.

[KpeX]

Are the encoded AC3 files still at the CD-sampling rate of 44.1 KHz by any chance? My sound card for example will only playback AC3 over spdif if it's at 48000 KHz. I suppose that could be true for standalone hardware devices too.

[echooff]

I thought of that also. The sound is the same regardless of sampling rate. The follows true for dvd players and steros. Even my sons walkman. Do you think a codec could be interfering with the encoding?

[KpeX]

Now it's getting tough. I wouldn't think a codec would interfere with every app like that. Feel like posting a besweet logfile just for reference? Something could be interfering with the playback however. Are you using AC3Filter? I'm pretty stumped, to tell you the truth, that's a weird combination of problems. Try to narrow down any other differences between AC3 encoded by yourself as opposed to the ones that playback fine.

[echooff]

I would have posted a log file but it is normal. BeSweet tells me it encodes and shows no errors. The only difference between a ac3 and mp2 log file is it encoded in ac3 instead of mp2 and of course bitrate differences. Whatever it is, it only interferes with a ac3 encode regardless of the encoding program used. I could post a list of the software installed on my system if that would help. I am almost to the point of a format-clean start install. I hate to do that when my pc is performing very well in all other aspects. I appreciate your suggestions. I hope you or someone else suggest something I haven't tried or thought of. I have been playing with this for over 2 months. I hate letting something like this defeat me.

[melvinvc]

Please excuse my english.
Do you have codec packs like Nimo installed? I found that uninstalling this and installing only the codecs I need, the prob solves.

[echooff]

No I learned my lesson with the codec packs a long time ago. Thanks for the Idea. I downloaded a ac3 sample from the web (25 sec) and it squealed also. Really strange. The first audio file I did not encode that did it.

[Eye of Horus]

Originally posted by echooff
No I learned my lesson with the codec packs a long time ago. Thanks for the Idea. I downloaded a ac3 sample from the web (25 sec) and it squealed also. Really strange. The first audio file I did not encode that did it.

Does this happen with different encoders ? Or only with the ac3enc.dll ?

EoH