Realtime Dolby Digital (AC3) encoding

conando · Nov 1, 2003, 07:11 AM

Hi!
Hm can't believe it wasn't discussed here already in all length etc. - at least I couldn't find anything substantial using the search function!
I just wanted to start a discussion (perhaps again!? ;o) on the topic of realtime Dolby Digital / AC3 encoding.
I think it should/would be possible. But of course though there are open source encoders available already there are license issues I guess when using ac3 encoding this prominently.
Of course it's available in hardware with nVidias nForce chipset. But not everyone has this and I personally don't want to get a specific motherboard only because of this feature. ;-)
Another question would be, how time/ressource consuming AC3 encoding is - perhaps there are different quality levels available that could be a trade off between CPU usage/quality.
This would be a great thing to have 5.1 sound transferred over a single (coax or optical) SPDIF connection to your receiver for surround sound production etc.

Cheers,
-Sören

PS: For me personally it would of course be very interesting, if anybody knows of a receiver (that doesn't cost a fortune ;o) and supports surround input through 3 (5-6 channels) discrete SPDIF inputs! (often called something like external decoder connection) Until now I've only seens analog inputs for this kind of use...

iguanas · Nov 1, 2003, 07:33 AM

buy an nforce

isnt done in software yet

conando · Nov 1, 2003, 07:38 AM

Well thanks I just wanted to have a look at the possibilities to do it in software. Of course if it's much too CPU "hungry" even for current CPUs then it won't be an option. But looking at the availability of some AC3 encoders with their source code and this "open" driver... would be very cool indeed to combine these.