SynthDude2001

I didn't have a digital receiver to use at the time, I was just monitoring the analog outputs to make sure everything still sounded the same. In any case, when I did hook my PC up to a receiver last night, I still got those echoes over the digital connection when using the encoder sometimes - other times it didn't seem to be sending a signal at all (when the encoder was enabled). In any case, I couldn't get it working right with about an hour of messing with settings, so I just settled for stereo at the time.

I did think about the possibility of re-decoding the encoded AC3 causing the delays/echos, but I experimented with the SPDIF passthru and 'SPDIF-In AC3 Decode' mode settings, but that didn't seem to change anything. As best I could tell, it was only playing the front channels and echoing those - I did notice that it seems the front left and front right channels are by default routed to a 'Generic SPDIF Left/Right' in the DSP. When I removed those connections/routings (leaving just the six channels from Surrounder going into asio0-5), I lost all sound (even when the encoder program was running). The receiver didn't say Dolby Digital when I had encoding enabled either, but it did work fine with PCM at various sampling rates (and displayed the format correctly). I'm obviously new to all of this and don't really know what I was doing wrong (if anything), but I hope to get it working some day in the future.

Edit: I did just think of one thing that kind of caught my attention at the time. When I ran the encoder program and it's initializing, under the Information heading there was a line that said 'ASIOOutputReady(); = Not supported'. What does that mean, and could it be a cause for the AC3 encoding seemingly not working on my computer?

Tril

That's unrelated to your problem. It means that ASIOOutputReady() is not used by th kX drivers. It's like that for everyone.

Make some tests to figure out the problem. Load "Wave Generator 3.0" and connect it's sine wave to asio0 to asio5. You can test them one by one or all at once. First try with passthru disabled. The AC3 icon should popup on the bottom right and you will hear the sound (with the default DSP). That will show that redocneXk works without passthru.

Now activate passthru and try again. If it works, your receiver should decode and play the sine wave signal.

Have you ever used passthru (DVDs, etc) before with your receiver and the kX drivers and got it working?

SynthDude2001

Thanks for the reply. I'll definitely do more testing when I have the opportunity to do so, but unfortunately I do not have regular access to a receiver (of my own), it's mostly at special events like LAN parties from time to time. So it may be a little while before I'm able to spend more time figuring this out. I very much appreciate that you took the time to write a program that does this though, it's just what I've been seeking for those times when I need such a thing. (Now I just need to figure out how to set everything up correctly )

Edit: I did not test AC3 passthrough last night. I actually did have that thought to see if it would work, but I did not have any DVD's on me at the time.

Gloaming

I tested the ac3 Encoder, but I'm a total noob concerning advanced settings (ASIO, Router... etc.)

I got it to work but the sound is stuttering. When I use direct sound you don't her anything because the decoder switches continous between "signal" and "no Signal", with wave output it's much better, but it stutters aswell.
What could be the problem? probably it is the cable, but i can't test this.
There is no stuttering on the Digital Output without the ac3 Encoder.
Any ideas?

System: Audigy 1; P4 2,4Ghz; Win2k; 1024MB Ram

Tril

Your computer is good enough. I have a 1.1 GHz with 256 mB of ram and it does not skip.

When you start redocneXk, what does the "Name :" tell you? It should start with kX ASIO.

Try to use redocneXk without activating passthru.

Disable pasthru in the mixer (AC-3 passthru to off and digital only unchecked).
Set the surrounder to 2.0 (or what you use with your analog speaker setup).
Load the plugin "Wave Generator 3.0" connected its first pin to asio0.
Start redocneXk.

The kX drivers will decode the AC3 encoded sound and play it on your analog speakers. You should hear the sound on the front left speaker. If it plays well, you know that the problem is maybe in the connection to the receiver.

If it still skips like you described, there are a few things you can try.

Maybe you are using ASIO settings that don't work well with your computer.

Right-click the kX mixer, go to Settings, click "ASIO Control Panel".
I suggest you try "16 bit / 48 kHz (8+8)" for the format. It usually skips more when using "16 bit / 48 kHz (16+16)".
It will skip if the latency is too low. For best performance, you can choose any latency between 32 samples to 1536 samples, except 1024 samples. Try a latency of 1536 samples.
You can also try different Sync methods but m0 is usually one of the best and some others can crash your computer if your computer does not support them.

This should fix your problem. Report back on your results after trying these steps.

radiocolonel.it

Hi, Austin, first of all i wanna thank u for your encoder, excellent job!
Then i would like to give u some suggestions on how to distribute your program.
You said that the avcodec library is released under LGPL, that's good;
the way you are distributing your software is not totally legal, you are violating LGPL: i explain u why ( i can tell u for sure since i'm getting my bachelor with thesis on open source software).
Since avcodec library is released under LGPL, u should include a copy of this license in your zip file; u should include the sources too of this library, OR AT LEAST put a link in the read me indicating where to get the sources of the library.

get your license copy here:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.txt

I tell u this 'cause i'm sure u didn't think about it, but i don't want u get yourself in trouble!!!
Thanks again

__________________

http://www.rossanodembech.it

Tril

Thank you radiocolonel.it. I thought that I was doing it correctly as long as I was mentionning that it was under the LGPL.

I have taken down the links for the day. I will correct this today and it will be back with corrections tonight.

I'm really sorry about this. I never meant to violate the LGPL.

EDIT : It's corrected. You can redownload the files and verify if I did it correctly.

radiocolonel.it

You are welcome!!!
I'm 110% sure u didn't mean to violate lgpl!!!
You are a good man, a friend and an excellent programmer,
i posted just because i knew you would appreciate my help!!!

__________________

http://www.rossanodembech.it

radiocolonel.it

Perfect!!! Nice job! I meant that!

If u need things to be hosted for download, i can host them on my website, i'm willing to do that.

__________________

http://www.rossanodembech.it

Gloaming

I tried all the things u mentioned but the problem is the same.
I hear the sinus tone on the front left speaker, so your software works
16 bit / 48 kHz (8+8) made it a bit better but it still skips every second.
Changing the m0 to something different resulted mostly in a total system crash, when starting your software.

To test the connection between pc and receiver I tried to play a DVD with AC3 Passtrouh on SPDIF. With "Media Player Classic 6.4.8.6" and "VLC Media Player 0.8.4" the same problem. So i read about problems concerning this in some forums and read that with Power DVD or WinDVD this problem doesn't exist. I installed WinDVD7 an tried the same DVD with SPDIF output and it worked very well without skipping anymore. So the cable seems not to be the problem.

Eventually its a sound filter problem... or sth... I don't know... !?!

Tril

Start redocneXk.
Open the Windows Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc).
right-click redocneXk.exe and move the mouse to Set Priority. The priority should normally be set to Realtime. I made redocneXk work in Realtime priority because I could not get it not to skip at lower priority.

Are you saying that it skips even when it plays on the analog speakers with passthru disabled?

If you answer is yes then maybe you have a problem with ASIO. In that case, try to use ASIO in another ASIO app. I suggest you try KRISTAL. In the menu engine, click Preferences... In Audio Setup, make sure 48 kHz is selected. Under Audio Setup, click your sound card name. At least check kX In asio 0 and kX In 1 and 1 kX Out 00 - 2 kX Out 01. In devices, choose the kX ASIO. click ok.

On the mixer, on the upper left where it's written Waver under Audio Input 1, click Waver and choose KRISTAL LiveIn.
Clcik the first input and choose 1 kX In 00 and for the second choose 2 kX In 01.
On the lower right of the mixer, choose kX Out 00 - kX Out 01 for the output.
In the first column of the mixer, move the balance bar to the left.
In the second column of the mixer, move the balance bar to the right.
Now connect a sine wave to asio0 on the epilog like you did to test redocneXk.
You should hear the sine wave on the left channel. You can connect the sine wave to asio1 and you will then hear the sine wave on the right channel.
If it skips and the cpu is almost idle, there is a problem with the ASIO. On a computer as fast as yours, it should definitely not skip with a big buffer.

Patriarch

Heya

Could someone please post a screenshot or a preset on Eugene's site? I'm a little confused with regards to asio and the DSP

Tril

Patriarch, I have added screenshots at the end of the first post. This should help you.

PITmaster

Tril, did you think about sending stream to one of FXBus instead SPDIFout?
For ex. to downmix 5.1 project to ac3 data stream, working with any ASIO sequencer.

PITmaster

Russ

It is kX (not redocneXk) that routes it to SPDIF, when you activate AC3 pass-thru mode. I think maybe you are mis-understanding what this program does. It takes 6 channels and encodes it to AC3 (using ASIO). When kX receives the AC3 stream, it can either decode it and send it to the analog outputs (decoding it would not make sense here as you would end up with a loop, and it kind of defeats the purpose of encoding it to AC3 in the first place), or route it directly to the digital out (AC3 passthru -- bypassing the DSP) for use by a digital receiver.

PITmaster

I do not mind decode encoded ac3 stream. I just wonder how to catch encoded stream in sequencer. I realize it's only coded data, no audio in fact. But then I could export it as ac3 file.
Am I still wrong?

PITmaster

Russ

Ok, well that is a little different and I think it goes beyond the scope of what this program was designed for, but Tril can speak about that himself. There are lots of programs out there to encode 6 channels of audio to an AC3 file, that would probably be better suited for such a task (as opposed to realtime encoding).

PITmaster

Hmm, I've tried your software at last. And I think I've found serious problem.
I have two cards. Audigy2 and EMUAPS. EMUAPS is ALWAYS indexed as the first one (nr 0) by kX driver. There is no possibility to turn on ac3passthrough mode with this card.
I guess your soft works only with card 0. Am I right?

I've got:
*** Settings ***
Driver = 0 (ASIO DirectX Driver)
Bitrate = 640000
FL = asio0
FR = asio1
SL = asio2
SR = asio3
C = asio4
LFE = asio5
Renderer = 0

*** Information ***
asioVersion: 0
driverVersion: 0
Name: ASIO DirectX Driver
ErrorMessage: No ASIO Driver Error
ASIOGetChannels (inputs: 2, outputs: 2);
ASIOGetBufferSize (min: 512, max: 16384, preferred: 3000, granularity: 512);
ASIOGetSampleRate (sampleRate: 48000.000000);
ASIOOutputReady(); - Supported
ASIOGetLatencies (input: 0, output: 9000);

*** Status ***
ASIO Driver started unsuccessfully.
Closing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There is a line >ASIOGetChannels (inputs: 2, outputs: 2);
Is it ok? I've choosed 16 bit /48 kHz [8+8] for both cards. I'm sure.

I'm kX3538h user. Maybe this is important information.


PITmaster

PITmaster

Sorry Tril. I've found -d switch in your readme file. I have 5 ASIO drivers in fact, 3 installed by Cubase and 2 by kX drivers. So when I choosed driver nr 4 everything started well with Audigy2.

PITmaster

dhwz

Hi,

can someone tell me a working download links for redocneXk, the link on the first page is not working.

or send an email to dhwz@gmx.net

thx

Russ

Try a different browser. It doesn't work with Firefox, but it does work with Internet Explorer (but you have to right click and choose "Save Target As").

-Russ

Maddogg6

RadioColonel:
Is that a host or your own server?
Im thinking the MIME TYPES are not configured properly.
Or... I wonder if its an M$ server and M$ deliberatly screwed up FF d/l's ... I wouldnt put it past 'ol Billy Boy. I only suspect this as it seems like its happening more and more recently.. ?? Now that I LOVE FF and rarely use IE.

Maddogg6

Edit : I screwed up ... never - mind

radiocolonel.it

It's not my computer, it's a free hosting service.
I guess it screws up if many people go there, i don't know i use firefox too, sometimes just works fine, others just srews it up.

__________________

http://www.rossanodembech.it

jagjonas

First of all, great work.

Secondly, I can't get it working. Please help me.

I have followed your instructions as well as I could (not very good at ASIO and stuff like that). I have done exacly as the instructions told exept for the following:

- In the DSP I don't have the "+"-version of Surrounder as default. Tried to change but the "Surrounder+" was empty "in regard of options".

- In the mixer there is no 'Digital Output Only' (only empty space where your button is). The 'Toggle AC-3 Passthru mode' are labeled from SPDIF 1 to 3 instead of 0 to ?.

- Got an older version of ASIO (3537).

Maybe it's my soundcard thats bad (Audigy 2). Have read several other topics on this forum where people had problems with this card and SPDIF-passthru. Hoped your program would help me, but... (SPDIF-passthru worked with the Creative drivers though)

Got the following text after starting the program:

redocneXk version 1.01
The avcodec library is licensed under the LGPL. See the included lgpl.txt file
for a copy of the LGPL license.
ASIO Interface Technology by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

*** Settings ***
Driver = 0 (Adobe Default Windows Sound)
Bitrate = 640000
FL = asio0
FR = asio1
SL = asio2
SR = asio3
C = asio4
LFE = asio5
Renderer = 0
*** Information ***
asioVersion: 0
driverVersion: 0
Name: Adobe Default Windows Sound
ErrorMessage: No ASIO Driver Error
ASIOGetChannels (inputs: 2, outputs: 2);
ASIOGetBufferSize (min: 512, max: 16384, preferred: 2048, granularity: 2048);
ASIOGetSampleRate (sampleRate: 48000.000000);
ASIOOutputReady(); - Supported
ASIOGetLatencies (input: 0, output: 2048);
*** Status ***
ASIO Driver started unsuccessfully.
Closing.

Maddogg6

Your not specifying the right Driver - your using ADOBE's ASIO driver

jagjonas

Oh. Corrected this, but still no result. No sound at all and no AC3-indication on my receiver.


redocneXk version 1.01
The avcodec library is licensed under the LGPL. See the included lgpl.txt fil
for a copy of the LGPL license.
ASIO Interface Technology by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

*** Settings ***
Driver = 1 (kX ASIO)
Bitrate = 640000
FL = asio0
FR = asio1
SL = asio2
SR = asio3
C = asio4
LFE = asio5
Renderer = 0
*** Information ***
asioVersion: 0
driverVersion: 3537
Name: kX ASIO SB0350 10k2 [a400]
ErrorMessage: No ASIO Driver Error
ASIOGetChannels (inputs: 16, outputs: 16);
ASIOGetBufferSize (min: 1024, max: 1024, preferred: 1024, granularity: 0);
ASIOGetSampleRate (sampleRate: 48000.000000);
ASIOOutputReady(); - Not supported
ASIOGetLatencies (input: 1024, output: 1024);
*** Status ***
ASIO Driver started successfully.
Press Q to quit.


Anyone got a clue? Is it my Audigy 2 who is to blame?

Maddogg6

Did you make DSP changes - when you had it set to ADOBE's ASIO?
I do this sort of thing - make the wrong changes - and forget to put it back to 'normal'.

Also,
Did you try 'RENDERER=1' - to use direct sound instead of wave out?

Tril

The version of the Surrounder with or without a + is not important. I said to use the one with a + because it is the one loaded by default in 3538i. Simply use the default Surrounder plugin.

In the mixer, the icon to the right called "Toggle S/PDIF Bypass Mode" must be unchecked. It is used to silences SPDIF digital output.

jagjonas, try redocneXk with passthru off and connect a sine wave from the plugin "Wave Generator" to the asio pins 0 to 5 on the epilog.

The AC3 icon should popup, the kX drivers will decode the signal (instead of sending it out by passthru) and you will hear the sound throught the analog speakers connected to the sound card.

If this works, that means that redocneXk is correctly receiving the audio by asio and that it is correctly outputing the sound using WaveOut (or DirectSound if you use -r 1). If it does not work with waveout, try with directsound.

If it works, the problem probably lies with passthru.

CRFX

I want to thank you so much Tril. I have been looking for something like this for years. >_>
Just to let you know the sse and sse2 versions work fine. It only uses around 5% of my amd64 3000.

One question, is there a way to select what spdif output it uses instead of spdif0. I'm wondering if I could run 2 at once to output to 2 recievers at the same time.

Thanks again,
Chris