AC3 ACM driver

[Valex]

Primarily it was made to make VirtualDub to playback AC3. And now it is possible to process AC3 tracks and convert it to mp3 (for example) inside VD or any other VFW program.

So, is it needed for anybody except me?

http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/download/vac3acm_0_1a.exe

[nuked]

I think yes... I like to have audio in vdub for deciding where to make cuts. I don't think I've been able to do that with ac3 tracks. I'll give it a try.

[fccHandler]

@Valex: Good work, and thanks! Is the source code available?

Recently I was so desperate for an AC-3 ACM codec that I wrote my own (http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net). But if yours is better I'm ready to abandon that project; I never could get it to work with CCE. Going to check out your driver now...

[Valex]

@fccHandler

Recently I was so desperate for an AC-3 ACM codec that I wrote my own.

Miss it :).

But if yours is better I'm ready to abandon that project;

It will provide the same functionality as AC3Filter does, but little later...

Sources are here:
http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/download/vac3acm_0_1a_src.zip
Will be glad if you look at it.

[fccHandler]

Ouch! Sorry to bring bad news, but after testing your driver I had the worst system crash I've seen in a while. BSOD, Update ESCD, scandisk, safe mode, etc. Had to reboot 3 times to get back online. :rolleyes: (But don't worry, there was no real damage.)

To test your driver, I used the same AVIs and AC3-compressed WAVs which I've been using to test my own. Here is my experience:

- I'm on Win98SE, and I had to manually add the line "msacm.vac3acm=vac3.acm" in SYSTEM.INI to get the codec to work.

- It crashed Explorer when I right-clicked on an AC-3 WAV and chose to Preview it.

- It crashed while playing an AVI using AVIEdit by Alexander Milukov.

- It seemed to work in CCE, but then CCE crashed as soon as I closed the program. The resulting MPEG has skips in the audio (same problem I have with my codec).

- Cool Edit will no longer load my 6-channel AC-3 WAV (possibly because your driver only provides a 2-channel downmix?)

I hope my comments will be helpful to you; I mean them in the most constructive way. I go now to look at your source code. Cheers. :)

[Valex]

Strange... Have no such problems on W98SE. Works good at W2k sp4/W98SE on both WAV-AC3 and AVI-AC3.

Try to complie a debug version and send me a logfile.

- I'm on Win98SE, and I had to manually add the line "msacm.vac3acm=vac3.acm" in SYSTEM.INI to get the codec to work.
Yes, forgot it.


- Cool Edit will no longer load my 6-channel AC-3 WAV (possibly because your driver only provides a 2-channel downmix?)
Yes, but it is just first alfa :).

[Valex]

Just tried AVIEdit and it works too.

[fccHandler]

Originally posted by Valex
Strange... Have no such problems on W98SE. Works good at W2k sp4/W98SE on both WAV-AC3 and AVI-AC3.

Try to complie a debug version and send me a logfile.
I will do that tomorrow (it's late here).

If it helps you, these are the files I tested with:

http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/THX.avi

http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/THX.wav

[fccHandler]

Here is the log from the Explorer right-click-Properties-Preview (THX.wav) crash:
http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/vac3acm1.log

Here is the log from the AVIEdit crash (THX.avi):
http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/vac3acm2.log

I'm afraid to crash CCE again, after what happened before. :p


EDIT: I tried to play THX.wav in Media Player 6.4 and also WMP9, but they loop on the first few seconds. Here is the log from the test with WMP 6.4:
http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/vac3acm.zip


EDIT2: BTW, have you tried my codec? It's the fourth version I've released and it seems very stable to me. And you can decompress all 6 channels in Cool Edit. ;)

[LigH]

(Blowing off a heap of dust...)

As far as I could find out, Valex' AC3 ACM decoder did not develop any further since version 0.1? So unfortunately, no chanel and downmix configuration went into it.

In contrast, I was happy to see that fccHandler seems to be successful, several changes up to version 0.8 now (another late birthday gift for me :D). I just did not yet find out how to configure the downmix options, if that is possible at all...