Hi all,
A little while ago I wrote a utility to help me play AC3/DTS files through the SqueezeBox2. I've finally found the time to write some documentation on it, so I now present it as part of a guide to playing multi-channel audio sourced from DVD.
I'll be happy to answer any questions about this and generally help to get it going, but bear in mind that I'll be slow at responding for the next two or three weeks.
Introduction
Multichannel audio on a DVD-Video uses the formats Dolby Digital (henceforth called AC3) and DTS, with a frequency of 48000Hz (compared to CDs which use 44100Hz). The SB2 is capable of playing these formats by passing a slightly modified form of the digital data through to a suitable receiver. I'll explain here how to get that working.
You can of course use this information to play back extracts from a film's audio track, but it's more likely that you'll want to play back an album which has been remixed to 6 channels. Many DVD-Audio discs are released with a DVD-Video layer which is recognised by normal DVD players, with the audio encoded as AC3 or DTS. The fidelity is not as high as the DVD-Audio layer, but certainly suffices for most of us. This guide DOES NOT cover ripping of the DVD-Audio layer; I have no idea how to go about that, or if it's even possible.
Requirements
You'll need a SqueezeBox2 or SqueezeBox3 (I'll refer to them both as SB2), with a digital connection to a receiver which can decode Dolby Digital. (We don't do any decoding ourselves; we simply pass the encoded data through to the receiver for decoding.) SB1 is not supported, although it could be with a small amount of work (more later). SLIMP3 is not supported.
Continued in next post...
A little while ago I wrote a utility to help me play AC3/DTS files through the SqueezeBox2. I've finally found the time to write some documentation on it, so I now present it as part of a guide to playing multi-channel audio sourced from DVD.
I'll be happy to answer any questions about this and generally help to get it going, but bear in mind that I'll be slow at responding for the next two or three weeks.
- Introduction
- Requirements
- Dolby Digital (AC3)
- Ripping
- Converting
- Configuring SlimServer
- Playback
- DTS
- To Do
Introduction
Multichannel audio on a DVD-Video uses the formats Dolby Digital (henceforth called AC3) and DTS, with a frequency of 48000Hz (compared to CDs which use 44100Hz). The SB2 is capable of playing these formats by passing a slightly modified form of the digital data through to a suitable receiver. I'll explain here how to get that working.
You can of course use this information to play back extracts from a film's audio track, but it's more likely that you'll want to play back an album which has been remixed to 6 channels. Many DVD-Audio discs are released with a DVD-Video layer which is recognised by normal DVD players, with the audio encoded as AC3 or DTS. The fidelity is not as high as the DVD-Audio layer, but certainly suffices for most of us. This guide DOES NOT cover ripping of the DVD-Audio layer; I have no idea how to go about that, or if it's even possible.
Requirements
You'll need a SqueezeBox2 or SqueezeBox3 (I'll refer to them both as SB2), with a digital connection to a receiver which can decode Dolby Digital. (We don't do any decoding ourselves; we simply pass the encoded data through to the receiver for decoding.) SB1 is not supported, although it could be with a small amount of work (more later). SLIMP3 is not supported.
Continued in next post...
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