Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
- Subject: Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
- From: Simon Thorpe <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 17:48:47 +0100
At 11:29 -0500 5/02/10, Paul Davis wrote:
On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Simon Thorpe
<email@hidden> wrote:
Hi,
This is a question that I've been struggling with for a long time.
I think you need to struggle with it a bit more :)
I thought that would probably be the answer....
The problem here is that the encodings used by your external gear are
all .. well ... encodings.
You listed:
My ONKYO amplifier seems to have the ability to recognize loads of different
formats - Dolby Prologic II, Dolby True HD, DTS HD, DTS NEOS, DTS ES etc
etc....
none of these correspond to a simple stream of N different PCM
samples. if your starting point is, say, a 7 channel AIFF file, you
simply don't have the data in the format that these devices require.
it would not suprise me if there are plugins that can encode to one or
more of these formats.
So, how about this question. Is there any home theatre amplifier out
there that can understand something as dumb as a simple stream of N
different PCM samples?
If there is, I guess I might just buy one.
If there isn't, then the world is mad.... the simplest thing that an
amplifier needs to do is to play straight unencoded audio.
You mention the possibility of a plug in. Great, tell me more! A
little bit of software that converts a Core Audio multichannel format
into something that can be understood by my amplifier would be
perfect. Surely, someone on the core audio list knows how to do that?
If (as I suspect), the only answer is to generate a propriety format that is
not part of the Core-Audio specification, can I ask why? What would be so
terrible if Macs could talk directly to multichannel amplifiers? Is someone
out there deliberately making life difficult??
that's a good question. but i suspect its simpler than that - i
suspect that the need is just not that great. the audio stream on a
DVD is already available in an encoded format and thus it just needs
to be delivered over a suitable link. the number of people who have
their own unencoded multichannel audio streams and want to play them
back via this kind of home theater equipment is relatively small.
--p
On the contrary, if anyone anywhere was providing multichannel
audiofiles that I could load into iTunes and play through my home
theatre system, then I would personally happily pay good money for
it. I am currently paying good money to Spotify and to iTunes Music
store to buy stereo files. Where can I get multichannel recordings?
Right now I have loads of music DVDs with 5.1 sound on them. But the
only way I can listen to the music on them is by getting the DVD out,
sticking it in the Mac, waiting for half a minute or more for the
thing to get going and then mess around for ages trying to select the
track I want by going through the onscreen menus. It's nuts - and I
simply don't do it.
I"ve tried buying Audio DVD ripper software to try and recover the
multichannel audio files, but every one I've tried only recovers
stereo. :-(. Let me know if you know something that does work....
And even if I can manage to get the multichannel files into iTunes, I
still can't play them without using an expensive firewire device,
converting digital to audio and back again.
As long as that is true, is clear that the market really is going to
be relatively small. But the day that you connect any Mac to any
hometheatre system using a $10 optical link and get glorious
multichannel audio, then I believe that everyone will be
interested....
Simon
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