Settings for optimal AC3 avi files playback?

[WeSik]

Hi all.
I search whole internet from time to time for a answer to my problem and unfortunatly can't find it. Hope someone could finally help me. If you have same/similar software/hardware as me and found a way to hear ac3 divx/xvid .avi files the way they are supossed to be heard then please help me and tell me exactly how you did it.

First what i have:
- SB Audigy with drivers for Audigy2 (works great, better sound etc. tutorial on this can be found here: http://www.tech-pc.co.uk/audigy-1.php)
- Creative DesktopTheater 5.1 DTT2200 speakers (without hardware DD decoder)
- Windows XP Professional SP1
- I have installed only XviD codec, DivX audio codec, OGG DirectShow filters, ffdshow and ac3filter0_70b. For watching movies i use only Windows Media Player 6.4.

All seems fine (every film is working, i hear surround sound etc.) but it doesn't sound same as i heard on my friends 5.1 speakers with DD decoder (i dont know what card/settings he was using) My surround (rear) speakers are very quiet etc. I don't know how to express it but it sounds different from what i heard at friends house. At ac3filter i use these settings : 3/2+SW 5.1 channels, sample format PCM 24bit. If i set SPDIF and let the card decode ac3 it sounds same i think and video sometimes slows down.

What to do to make it sound perfectly? Should i use directshow/waveout? install/deinstall some filters (eg. morgan..) change some settings/apply fixes i dont know about? Use some other players?
Any help is welcomed :)

Please don't write that i should use other sound card or speakers but try to figure out what to do to make it work on this hardware :)

PS. Could you give me a link to some test ac3 .avi files (and if there's a way of playing vob files thru WMP without installing WinDVD or such then a link to test ac3 .vob files too)

Thanks for reading and any comments :)

[KpeX]

1. Read all of this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18318) and number 8 especially of this (http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm).

2. Every surround sound system sounds different. We'll need more specific information about your playback problem to diagnose. In general waveout works better for s/pdif output on most systems. As far as creating your AC3 Avi's, if you insist on using a format that doesn't truly support AC3, use Avi-Mux GUI for muxing. Matroska or OGM would do a better job IMO. As far as your friends system sounding differently, i'd make sure you try the same sample on both systems and do some more diagnosis.

[brute]

may be i'm wrong, but i know that the card cannot decode s/p-dif like you're trying it. If you set S/P-DIF output in AC3Filter, the digital signal is sent directly out of the S/P-Dif output of your soundcard. To hear the sound you need then a receiver that has a dd decoder. The only thing your card is doing is, that it decodes AC3 and sends it through 3 cables for FLeft/FRight, Center/LFE and RLeft/RRight. And there can be the problem you're describing, it can sound different, because it's decoded in software by the Audigy and then the audio is sent in analog-form to your speaker system, that hasn't a AC3 decoder. Your friend has a speaker system that decodes AC3 and that can be the difference.

But i suppose that your problem is the Audigy2 Driver, may be it's trying to decode the signal on a wrong way, cause the audigy2's boardlayout is different to the first one.