DTS-MA / Dolby TrueHD Decoding in PC

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emmarbee

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Just like the thread title says, I'd like to know about the BEST DTS-MA & Dolby TrueHD decoder (for PC) out there.

But before getting into that I've got a doubt. I'm having a logitech z5500 speakers and Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro sound card. Will I be able to hear any difference, if I switch from regular 1536 Kbps audio? [BTW, I'm able to feel the difference between 384 kbps audio and 1536 kbps.]

And is there any codec out there to decode these streams, cause MPC is my favorite player and I want to use that player to decode DTS-MA and DOlby TrueHD.

If possible, I'll ask FreeRadical to attend this thread (i saw his thread at ****** and no possible solution in that thread)
 
Have you tried ffdshow? IINM ffdshow can decode Dolby True HD to PCM. I do not have any blu-rays so cannot comment if it works but worth a try. Not sure about the difference in SQ.
 
Ha! Just now noticed the "TrueHD" format and "libavccodec" option. Till now I was using AC3 filter. Now i changed it to ffdshow.

I'm having a Dual Core D930 3.0 Ghz CPU, 9600 GT (cuda supported) GPU and like said above, a sound card with 96 khz/24 bit 8 Ch D/A (192/24 for stereo) and a z5500. While playing the below file
The Input is being shown as: TrueHD 5.1, 48000 Hz, 3153 kbps (libavccodec) by the FFDShow tray icon and file is not playing the audio properly. (The video itself is playing choppy). The overall CPU usage was around 80-90.

And what about decoding DTS-MA? I have a sample just like the above with DTS-MA. I Tried PDVD10 and it played the video with DTS-MA audio (in the information box, it showed as 2.xxx mbps DTS-MA audio). And I was able to hear the sound clearly, much better than MPC, but still a bit choppy, as it doesn't use my video card (though it advertises as NVIDIA Cuda)
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/TrueHD/TrueHD Sample 1 (Final Fantasy VII Advent Children).mkv
 
emmarbee said:
Just like the thread title says, I'd like to know about the BEST DTS-MA & Dolby TrueHD decoder (for PC) out there.

But before getting into that I've got a doubt. I'm having a logitech z5500 speakers and Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro sound card. Will I be able to hear any difference, if I switch from regular 1536 Kbps audio? [BTW, I'm able to feel the difference between 384 kbps audio and 1536 kbps.]

And is there any codec out there to decode these streams, cause MPC is my favorite player and I want to use that player to decode DTS-MA and DOlby TrueHD.

If possible, I'll ask FreeRadical to attend this thread (i saw his thread at ****** and no possible solution in that thread)
Click to expand...
Well there is no decoder out there at present which can decode DTS-MA.

Dolby True-HD can be decoded via "ffdshow audio Decoder".

But Hardware Decoding is better than Software decoding but one needs a software too to help hardware to decode better if u are interested so u can buy ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3. :)

I hope I have answered all ur questions :).
 
@abhi_jollyguy - thank you very much for your reply. but isn't it easy for anybody to provide a solution with some $$$$ hole in my pocket :( (no offense)
i thought of njoying the HD quality with my present setup.
BTW, since you own the queen of bee and Image B6. Can you solve my other doubt?
whether there will be difference in dts (1536) and dts-ma / dolby truehd (VBR lossless)?
 
^OF course there is a difference. Just remember, if you're using an optical interconnect (with your present setup), you will only hear the core DTS/DD track from the trueHD or HD-MA stream, you NEED HDMI to transfer the full bandwidth of a True-HD or DTS HD MA track.
 
TechHead said:
^OF course there is a difference. Just remember, if you're using an optical interconnect (with your present setup), you will only hear the core DTS/DD track from the trueHD or HD-MA stream, you NEED HDMI to transfer the full bandwidth of a True-HD or DTS HD MA track.
Click to expand...
I think the OP knows that fact. :P

Without a proper AVR and drivers, the hd audio formats are essentially a moot point.
 
emmarbee said:
@abhi_jollyguy - thank you very much for your reply. but isn't it easy for anybody to provide a solution with some $$$$ hole in my pocket :( (no offense)

i thought of njoying the HD quality with my present setup.

BTW, since you own the queen of bee and Image B6. Can you solve my other doubt?

whether there will be difference in dts (1536) and dts-ma / dolby truehd (VBR lossless)?
Click to expand...
Yes there is a difference but the question is - Will u be able to hear that difference with ur present speaker which is Z5500-D?

with proper AVR and speaker package, yes u will notice the difference. :)
 
I don't think there's any codec out there on PC which decodes both DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD. The only way is to bitstream them using HDMI via ffdshow/lav audio decoder and then using a receiver that can decode DTS-HD/Dolby TrueHD.

As far as difference between DTS-HD and DTS core vs DD and Dolby TrueHD - the former is audible but not massive. The latter is simply huge! I have very entry level HT equipment - An Onkyo TX-SR577 and a Paradigm Sub Sat setup.
 
Sorry for not showing up. I was experimenting with different codecs and stuff. And finally it was all very SIMPLE!
The PowerDVD 11 was able to play those sample DTS-MA files and DolbyTrueHD Files. The reason for me to not use powerdvd was CPU usage. Since I had a D930 CPU, I was relying much on my graphic card (CUDA) to decode H264/1080p videos. But the PowerDVD11 (actually it was in 10 too) also has this feature (Pure Vision). So, I tried it out and it worked flawlessly.
BTW, The "INFO" in powerdvd is showing as DTS-MA above 7 mbps (its varying) and DolbyTrueHD (above 2 mbps) as the "AUDIO". So I'm satisfied that it is infact playing that actual lossless audio and not the downmixed one.

@TechHead - of course i do know that optical can't handle these HD audios. and my question was whether "I" will be able to hear the difference in "z5500 and Craetive Fatal1ty"?
@abhi_jollyguy - that was my question (read my first post). With current setup, will I be able to hear the difference?
@Chaos - Right now, I'm having lots of DTS-MA and DolbyTrueHD samples (thx to demo-world.eu). When I play with PowerDVD 11, it is showing the bitrate of Audio and Video and it displays as DTS-MA and DolbyTrueHD. And I've connected my speakers through analog ports.

Now my question is "Are my speakers outputting the actual DTS-MA and DolbyTrueHD (software decoded)" tracks, with no downmix anywhere in the process?
 
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