Hardware encoding is expensive.

I have an Onkyo 595 + JBL, so I want to exploit its professional Digital Input.

I´ve read about nForce2, but its dolby encoder is @ 48 Khz, and don´t like repampling.
I´ve read about Nuendo Dolby Digital encoder, but I don´t know well.



Anybody has experience?

If I understand the Dolby FAQ correctly, only 48 kHz is supported.

btw, resampling will do much less harm to your music than a lossy encoding, which DD is.

Edit: Dolby Digital also supports 32 and 44.1 kHz, so shame on me
Dolby AC-2 only supports 48 kHz

I want Dolby Digital because it´s totally free of distortion (the "lossy" is fixed by my Onkyo amplifier. With Onkyo 595 Dolby sounds better than DTS even, cause Dolby Digital signals are processed with "Re-Eq" (by Lucas Arts).

It sound like a Theater.

Music at Dolby 44 Khz is like a DVD 48 Khz.

You might like the sound of the processing that your amplifier uses on DD streams, but lossy is still lossy, and it still adds distortion. Your amplifier does not reverse the loss. Whether it's audible or not is a different matter.


Can't you make your amp do the "theatre" processing on other inputs, or even an analogue input? Tell us more about this processing...


btw, you're right: real-time dolby AC-3 encoding = expensive.

Cheers,
David.

2Bdecided:

It´s true that "lossy" is "lossy", but "distortion" is "distortion".

I can play CD´s through SPDIF but these systems are designed specially for Dolby.



I´ve read about sound cards like M-Audio, 2496, revo, etc. But in the country I live, I can´t get that sound card, and take it back easily.
So I can´t compare analog multichannel sound (with sound effects or not) of sound cards with Dolby.

The SPDIF in sure can handle CD Digital out

No offense, but regardless or re-equalization schemes, DD is still very lossy in the source compared to DTS. Altering the output with specific Equalization techniques does not in any way negate this. It simply makes the output sound a little more 'ambient'. While this may sound 'better' to you, it does not put bits back in via some sort of electrical psychic phenomenon

I am familliar with Cinema Re-Eq and have spent substantial periods of time watching a variety of films amped through an Onkyo THX reciever and transduced with excellent speakers (one of my best friends set-ups).
Re-Eq did not appear to reduce 'distortion' at all from what I've heard, but it did seem to dampen overbright soundtracks pretty well. Sometimes it made the soundtrack sound slightly worse.

In comparison with a high quality DTS soundtrack, DD through Re-Eq does not sound better to my ear. It is not uncommon, however, that the DTS soundtrack on a DVD is badly-implemented somehow (probably the transfer...possibly lossy source ). In such cases, it is possible that the DD soundtrack sounds nearly as good as the DTS to begin with.

Audible!:

It´s true, DD is lossy compared to no lossy 1440 DTS (in my country DTS DVD´s in movies are encoded with 720 kbs)

Re-Eq "reequalize" the AC3 (or pcm digital with Pro Logic mode) signal. When AC3 soudtrack or Ac3 music is a good quality signal Re-Eq is bad, I know.

Some movies (such New Line Cinema movies) are encoded with Re-Eq, and is not recomended to apply Re-Eq at home.

I don´t know what speakers and Onkyo model you have, but pcm digital(from mp2 satellite movies or normal/bad mp3 converted with fb2k and L2-Ultra dither) sounds better for me with Pro Logic & Re-Eq than all channel stereo; but DD is better than Pro Logic (subwoofer Low pass, phase shift, ...)

Anyway: 5.1,6.1 or 7.1 speaker systems are optimized for Dolby Digital or DTS(with Dolby effects such subwoofer lowpass, phase shift, ...). In order, music listening options are:

1.- Dolby effects simulation through analog soundcard output (with distortion, but without lossy)

2.- DTS 1440 through SPDIF (with Dolby effects because DTS only provide rear channels attenuation) (without distortion, without lossy)

3.- Dolby Digital through SPDIF (without distortion, with lossy)

The Topic tittle should be AC3 or DTS real-time encoder.


I think there is an AC3 implementation (ffdshow) I don´t know well.

But, I think it´s very dificult to find an DTS real-time encoder.

even impossible

Well, lossy compression always translates into added noise and distortion at the decoded signal.

Said that, I think that the output from a good soundcard (such as the Revo) will have less distortion that the result from a lossy decoded signal, even when comparing both types of distortion is like comparing apples and oranges. Anyway, I think that DD compression artifacts will be much more audible than noise & distortion at the output of a good card.

However, if you like the sound of the procedure you use, nobody can argue against that.

The purpose of this topic was born on the bad experience with Audigy (v1)

About this card, I can say that SPDIF and multichannel analog output quality compared to CD SPDIF output from a CD, is at light years distance.

But, run fb2k and click is easier than "open CD drive, insert CD, close CD drive".(CD previously converted with fb2k, dithered with L2, and burned with Nero, what take some minutes)

I don´t know why this problem isn´t solved, may be "analog to digital" transition?

I have the same problem with video. I don´t know what graphic card can pass DVI output before procesing it with RAMDAC.