redocneXk released - Realtime 5.1 ac3 Encoder

Tril · Nov 16, 2005, 07:58 PM

This is a realtime AC3 encoder that allows you to use spdif passthru with sound from any source.

It encodes to AC3 what you send it by using ASIO. ASIO is used to transfer audio from the sound card to the cpu. The cpu encodes the sound to AC3 and send it out of the computer by using the sound card digital passthru. You can easily do this to every sound played in windows with this program. It works with Creative cards on the kX drivers and the Creative drivers.

The latest version is 1.10.

Link : here for 1.10
Hosting provided by me

Link : here for 1.08 and previous
Hosting nicely provided by radiocolonel.it

As of 1.05, there are three modes handled by the -m switch that take care of selecting the correct inputs and mixing in software, if necessary, for the card and the audio drivers used. There is an auto-detection and it should work in most cases, so you will only need to use the -m switch if the detection is incorrect.

Link : InfoASIOv1.02.zip
This is a tool I wrote to see information about ASIO and access the ASIO control panel.

Instructions for setting the DSP if using the kX drivers :

In the DSP, connect the first 6 pins of Surrounder+ to the pins asio0 to asio5 on epilog and activate passthru in the mixer (check 'Digital Output Only' and select "SPDIF 0" for 'Toggle AC-3 Passthru mode'). Then double-click redocneXk.exe.

It's that simple. You can change some options by using switches. Look in the readme for explanations.

Below are some pics to help set the Mixer, the DSP, the Surrounder+ and the ASIO Control Panel. This is provided to help the users that never touched ASIO or the DSP. Other settings can be used.
Mixer
DSP
Surrounder+
ASIO Control Panel

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NOTE on the encoder :

The encoding is done by the avcodec library. This library is licensed under the LGPL. A copy of the license is included in the zip file and the location where you can find the source code of ffmpeg is written in the readme. The dll is dynamically loaded at runtime. That means that you can recompile the dll and use it instead of the dll I provided. I haven't changed the code of the library. I used msys and mingw32 to compile the dll. The library avcodec is part of ffmpeg.

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I also made another version of the tool with a GUI. It contains a mixer and a few more options.
Go to the thread here : redocneXk (GUI version) released - Realtime 5.1 ac3 Encoder
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Use this thread for feedback, help and reporting bugs of redocneXk.

Wejgomi · Nov 16, 2005, 08:17 PM

Voila,

first I must say this was the project I'v been looking for years, it was really lame not being able to experience your sound cards features in music and games, as I don't have more than a 2-stereo and a digital input on my home theater.

second, it does the job perfectly, especially when your listening to music, Iv been trying to make a 2-stereo sound to surround using Pro-Logic effects on home theater, but now I see its no match to a real surround done in kX DSP.

it doesn't really have a latency issue, and you won't even notice a thing while playing non-fps games, the ac3 encoded sound is there and it matches the game perfectly, but in fps games, especially the multiplayer ones, you cant even withstand a 50ms delay as you have to react as soon as possible, but yet the latency is satisfying

to conclude, this project takes you out of a cable chaos while you still enjoy a 5.1 true surround experience on your system, great work

Maddogg6 · Nov 16, 2005, 08:42 PM

I would have named it 'trill-code' or 'Trill X kode' (something more selfish).. lol

Or
Ay See 3 4 ME

Or
AC3PO (PO = Prologic output) Ok not selfish, but sorta funny...

or,
TRILLS AC3 ENCODER for KX

I know - where was I when you were looking for names... lol

Under any name - its SWEEET

Kudos Trill.

thomasabarnes · Nov 16, 2005, 09:20 PM

Is it really as simple as the 1st post says. Where does the avcodec.dll go? And do we have to place a check mark in any of the SPDIF Options on the kX Mixer?

Can someone explain how to really get this to work?

Tril · Nov 16, 2005, 09:52 PM

You can leave the dll in the same folder as the exe. I can't comment on the settings of the mixer because my card does not support passthru and I never tested passthru myself.

I'll add an explanation of how to set-up the mixer in the first post once someone replies with the procedure in this thread.
My guess is that you have to choose SPDIF 0, SPDIF 1 or SPDIF 2 instead of Off on the bottom where it's written AC3. I don't know if you have to check "Toggle Digital Output Only Mode" or "Toggle SPDIF Bypass Mode".

thomasabarnes · Nov 17, 2005, 12:09 AM

Thanks for the reply, I'll wait to someone explains it here.

**dj_stick** · Nov 17, 2005, 03:39 AM

mmm i was planning to hook my pc up to my home theatre eventually, this little program will really help with that

Wejgomi · Nov 17, 2005, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomasabarnes

Is it really as simple as the 1st post says. Where does the avcodec.dll go? And do we have to place a check mark in any of the SPDIF Options on the kX Mixer?

Can someone explain how to really get this to work?

You only have to check "SPDIF/Digital Out Only" mode on, and select "SPDIF 0" for bypass mode on kX mixer..

The rest is done with kX DSP, and is written clearly in readme file..
(aLL outputs from Surrounder+ to ASIO1 through ASIO6, you only need to connect a pin, program does the others automatically)

=MO=MaTriX · Nov 17, 2005, 01:33 PM

hi

here this program works perfectly! really nice one!!
I've tested F.E.A.R, a first person shooter and it was great. bullets from all directions

also latency looks quite alright because voices and shots were synchronously, imo

but maybe you can compile the program with sse and sse2 flags, so the latency is getting less?
(dont know if this works because im not a programmer

)

thomasabarnes · Nov 17, 2005, 02:59 PM

Say does one need digital speakers for this to work? Can anybody say how the kX Mixer is suppose to be set up for this to work. I think I'm doing something wrong. When I double click on the redocneXk.exe one of the lines in the window that pops up says:

Error Message: No ASIO Driver error

But then at the bottom it says:

Status
ASIO driver started successfully.

I never tried using any SPDIF setting before. Sorry for my ignorance, but what am I doing wrong?

Maddogg6 · Nov 17, 2005, 03:49 PM

Thomas:

Yes - you need either 5.1 digital speakers OR an external decoder, like a home theater receiver.

If you use only analog outs, this encoder will be of little use to you.

thomasabarnes · Nov 17, 2005, 04:37 PM

LOL OK I C, thx!

Russ · Nov 17, 2005, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomasabarnes

Error Message: No ASIO Driver error

But then at the bottom it says:

Status
ASIO driver started successfully.

I could be wrong but I think that is just a message indicating that there was no error.

i.e.
ErrorMessage: "No ASIO Driver Error"
as opposed to:
ErrorMessage: "No ASIO Driver"

Tril · Nov 17, 2005, 05:04 PM

I've changed the zip file. The first 8 lines about indexes are not supposed to appear. They were only for testings purposes. You can redownload the zip if you want.

Quote:

Error Message: No ASIO Driver error

Notice the "No" word. It means no errors.

If passthru is not activated, you will hear the sound you send to the asio pins0 to asio5 decoded by kX after the AC3 icon pops up.

There's something everyone should know. The plugin works with a buffer of 1536 samples. It needs to full that buffer before encoding.

1536/1=1536
1536/2=768
1536/3=512
1536/4=384
1536/5=307.2 NOT USABLE
1536/6=256
1536/7=219.4 NOT USABLE
1536/8=192
1536/9=170.7 NOT USABLE
1536/10=153.6 NOT USABLE
1536/11=139.6 NOT USABLE
1536/12=128
1536/13=118.2 NOT USABLE
1536/14=109.7 NOT USABLE
1536/15=102.4 NOT USABLE
1536/16=96
1536/24=64
1536/32=48
1536/48=32

From that you see that you get the numbers 32, 48, 64, 96, 128, 192, 256, 384, 512, 768 and 1536. You will get the lowest latency with redocneXk if you use one of those numbers as the number of samples for the ASIO buffer. You will get the same latency if you chose any of those numbers because it takes the same time to fill the buffer of 1536 samples.

What this means is don't choose 1024 or any number higher than 1536 for the ASIO latency in the ASIO Control Panel if you want the lowest latency.

thomasabarnes · Nov 17, 2005, 08:11 PM

OK Tril, roger. Thanks for clearing that up for me/us.