Re: Simple 3D mixer confusion
Re: Simple 3D mixer confusion
- Subject: Re: Simple 3D mixer confusion
- From: Jeff Moore <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 16:33:37 -0700
Given a library that implements an AC-3 encoder, one could easily wrap
it up in an AudioCodec. This would make it useable by the
AudioConverter. There aren't any technical impediments to someone
bringing such a beast up. However, my impression is that AC-3 encoding
in software is expensive in terms of CPU cost and there is the issue of
licensing (about which I know little). My point is that applications
can implement this stuff if it is important to them. There are no
technical barriers erected by the system.
The difference I think you perceive (and why you stated the optical
port is going to waste) is that on Windows, the audio device does the
AC-3 encoding in hardware and stuffs it out the optical port. This is
why it is cheap on Windows. So far, I don't know of any audio devices
that support Mac OS X that do this. Again there aren't any technical
barriers to keep hardware developers from implementing AC-3 encoding.
So far, none have for whatever reason. Looks like another market
opportunity to me.
On May 5, 2004, at 4:06 PM, John Stiles wrote:
On May 5, 2004, at 3:37 PM, Jeff Moore wrote:
What a shame that the optical out on the G5 is going to waste.
I don't know if it's being wasted or not being fully utilized by
applications. For instance, what's stopping you from putting an AC-3
encoder in your games to encode the mixed audio prior to handing it
to the HAL?
Last I heard, this involved a per-seat licensing cost and a heavy CPU
burden, but I don't know how current that info is.
If it's cheap (from a licensing standpoint), cheap (from a CPU
standpoint), and there's an AudioUnit that can do the conversion, I'd
be more than happy to drop that in the code and be done with it. Is
this idea actually doable?
--
Jeff Moore
Core Audio
Apple
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