redocneXk released - Realtime 5.1 ac3 Encoder

bobo1on1

Here is a faster link to v1.02: www.xs4all.nl/~loosen/redocnexk_v1.02.zip
You can put it in de start post if you want, I got something like 6 kbs on the original link.

The -o switch works great, now I don't have to switch soundcards in windows every time I start redocnexk.
I did notice a delay in the sound of about 1 second when redocnexk was running for something like 6 hours, this could be a glitch or it could just be that the clock of my onboard sound is slightly slower than the clock of my audigy, in that case a small increasing delay is inevitable, restarting redocnexk solved it.

If you want to know what number to put after the -o parameter, just look up the list of soundcards in the control panel, start counting from the top and begin with zero, in my case I have to use -o 4 to select my onboard soundmax:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~loosen/got/soundcards.png

Maddogg6

I noticed some intermittant stuttering when sending 1 cards ASIO into another cards output. I figure PCI traffic is prolly causing it.

Tril

You can also use -o without any parameter after it. It will display a list of the devices.

redocneXk always process and output as much samples as it gets. Different clock speeds is possibly the cause. If that's the case, there is not much that can be done. An adjustable timer could be added. You could set redocneXk to restart automatically every 1 to 10 hours. I'm not sure if this is a good idea.

I'm not sure but I think that it's possible to tell one soundcard to sync to the clock from the other soundcard. It would be a better solution. I remember seeing a plugin in DirectShow that enabled you to use the video card clock for the sound card to eliminate problems of syncing when watching videos.

schriss

I tried version 1.02, it runs fine, but I get no sound on my receiver. DolbyDigital sign shows up for a second or two and that's it.

I run creative drivers, SPDIF pass-through is enabled, onboard AC3 decoder is disabled.
When I launch PowerDVD a small creative popup shows up in lower-right corner, it says Bit Stream Out and DD shows up on my receiver so I have connected everything fine.

When I launch redocne, the Bit Stream Out also shows up which is a good sign, but I get no sound. As soon as I press Q to close redocne, sound is back, but of course only stereo via digital.
If I set my Audigy to use onboard dolby decoder and then launch redocne, I get Dolby Digital creative popup so soundcard gets AC3 from redocne and decodes it.
I just can't get redocne to use my SPDIF.

My card is Audigy 4.
Any ideas?
I tried changing input pins to 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, because KRYSTAL mixer shows them as FL, FR, RL, RR, C, LFE. First 4 pins are some sort of L and R stereo channels.
Screenshot:
[color=black]http://www.certihost.net/PC/redocneXk.gif[/color]

bobo1on1

Looks like you are using creative drivers, you need to use the kX drivers for this.

schriss

I am using creative drivers and as I wrote redocne works, it is encoding and if I set my card to decode via drivers - it is decoding which means redocne is properly encoding. The only problem is when I disable dolby decoding in creative ctrl panel, the stream doesn't reach my dolby receiver in that case. Like it was sent into on existing spdif or something like that.

I don't feel like installing kx drivers... will EAX 4.0 HD work with those kx drivers? This is what I bought this card for.

Maddogg6

Theres supposed to be a 'DIGITAL OUT' in the CL speaker setup applet

BUT - I suppose its possible creative removed this 'feature' >???

Russ

Does it work without redocneXk? i.e. From a DVD or some other AC3 source?

Make sure the Creative drivers work with your receiver (such that your receiver does the decoding and not the driver), before anything else.

Tril

New version 1.03 released. Link in first post.

version 1.03
- Modified switch -d. You can now Use this switch without any
parameters to see the available drivers.
- Added a small delay when starting. This fixes a problem some people had where
redocneXk produced clicks and pops as soon as it was started.

schriss

No, it's all there, see here:
[color=black]http://athlonxp3200.no-ip.com/audigy4.gif[/color]

I can even select desired KHz, all realtime, as soon as I select 96KHz, it shows up on my A/V Receiver.

schriss

Of course, I watch DivX movies with AC3 track, PowerDVD also sends via spdif. I can even use AC3Filter to mix and encode stereo movie sound track into full 5.1 Dolby Digital in real time while watching DivX movie, my receiver then shows DD sign.

Maddogg6

Well, thats NOT the screen I was thinking of - but cards an A2 and may be different, and maybe different CL driver version??

It almost looks like that screen shot is of windows drivers (Comes with OS) instead of CL drivers.

There was also a setting in the THX settings - which *may* kick in durring AC3 pass thru. A choice of Analog or Digital output. and a speaker configuration too.

All I can do Is point out places with settings *I think* may affect this. But I didnt have them loaded in very long before going to KX.. so...

schriss

It was from Creative drivers, 100%. There is another tab with dolby and THX settings, I have set it to "Off" because my receiver does decoding.

Tril

schriss, try :

redocneXk.exe -i 4 5 6 7 8 9

This will probably work on the Creative drivers. I took a look at what is assigned to each number in their drivers on an Audigy 2.

Report back with your results.

schriss

Just tried that, as soon as I launch redocne with those parameters (my receiver is set to Digital input) I get silence, then after some time DD sight showed up on my receiver for 2 seconds abd then dissappeared. It was silent even when I was seeing that dolby digital sign.
I tried -i 5 6 7 8 9 10 because that's what I thought is correct after I looked at input list in KRISTAL mixer, but had same results.

Tril

My numbers come from KRISTAL too but I thought that 1 in KRISTAL is in fact 0.

Try :
redocneXk.exe -d

With version 1.03. It will tell you what are the available ASIO drivers. Maybe you are not using the correct one.

Try to increase the volume on your external audio system. Maybe it's playing but at a volume too low for you to hear it. When monitoring the levels in KRITAL, it looked like the volume was low from ASIO.

RhysF

I've been following recent posts on this with thread with interest - redocneXk + creative drivers (and EAX) would be great!

After a bit of fiddliing I think I may have got it going.
I'm using the latest creative drivers and redocneXk.

I run redocneXk with this command line:
redocneXk.exe -o 0 -d 0 -i 4 5 6 7 8 9

The key step was to go into the creative ASIO control panel in KRISTAL (I don't know any other way to bring it up) and change the latency. I think the default is 50 (2500 samples). With this I get no sound. Reducing this to 4 (192 samples) did the trick for me.

With this setup I only get fL and fR from the creative speaker test until I load redocnXk, then I get all 5 channels.

Hopefully I'm not mistaken - does this work for you as well?

schriss

Excellent news! I will try this when I get home after work.

schriss

It shows:
Driver #0 - Creative ASIO
Driver #1 - SB Audigy 4 ASIO 24/96 [A000]
Driver #2 - SB Audigy 4 ASIO [A000]
which should I use?
Tried setting latency to 4ms in ASIO panel, but redocne was still showing 2500 samples.

Maddogg6

Try all 3 - worse case scenario is it crashed redeocne... the best one... er, won't.

I would first try Diver #2 first myself.

I think the 2500 samples thing you see is the redocne buffer setting - look at the redocne readme file for more info on the cmd line params...

schriss

With -d 0 it ignored latency I set in ASIO panekl, but with -d 2 it worked

[color=black]http://athlonxp3200.no-ip.com/redocneXk.gif[/color]

The problem is that sound is not right, maybe wrong pins because if I use no swich or -i 4 5 6 7 8 9, I hear no difference and sound is low volume, and I think there is very with little echo, but that might be beacuse of my subwoofer.
I tried other latencies, no change.
Also sample rate is stuck at 48KHz in KRISTAL, I can't select 96KHz, but that's other problem, not so important.

Confirmed with RightMark sound positioning in EAX 4.0 HD mode: -i 4 5 6 7 8 9 is fine for my card, sound comes out from correct speakers

dj_stick

kX Asio is locked at 16/48

__________________

RhysF

What samplerate are you setting in the creative drivers? You've mentioned 96Khz in earlier posts, but recodnexk is using 48Khz.
Does it work if you change the creative SPDIF setting to 48Khz? (I can't try 96Khz to see what happens on mine because my Audigy 1 doesn't support it)

schriss

If I select 96KHz in creative and run redocne - it uses 48KHz. As soon as I close redocne my receiver starts showing 96KHz sign again.
But hey, maybe it's what "Driver #1 - SB Audigy 4 ASIO 24/96 [A000]" is for, look at it's name!! When I use -d 1 it shows samplerate of 96000 but then crashes. Latency shown is 4800, how do I change it with command switches? -b is bitrate, I use 640000 and it makes no difference if I don't use -b at all.

Redocnex works with -d 0 and 2.

So basically it works on my Audigy4 with creative drivers and with -d 2 -i 4 5 6 7 8 9

Problem is I hear small echo or reverb, but maybe that can be corrected with some options, most important is that it works

Tril

The 48000 Hz frequency is hard coded into the program. I did not know that 96000 could be used.

Are 44100, 48000 and 96000 all of the usable SPDIF output frequencies?. I'll add a -f switch for them.

Thank you for reminding me. There are two frequencies going on.

There is the ASIO frequency. That one is always 48000 Hz.
There is the SPDIF output frequency. That one can be 44100, 48000, 96000.

The SPDIF output frequency can be different than the ASIO frequency. The frequency that is displayed by redocneXk is the ASIO frequency. It's the one you set in the ASIO control panel (if you use the kX drivers and I think only 48kHz works).

After that, I'll work on making a GUI and implement minimize to tray.

schriss

Yes, there are: 44100, 48000 and 96000

Maybe Driver #1 - SB Audigy 4 ASIO 24/96 [A000] is ASIO with 96KHz? that 96 in the driver name would suggest that.

__________________
Athlon64 3000+ watercooled
7800GT watercooled with Alphacool NexXxoS NVXP-3 6800/7800
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
4x512MB DDR500 Kingmax Hardcore
SB Audigy4 + Pioneer VSX-915 A/V Receiver + Koda AV988F/S + Goky SW1000

Tril

Maybe, I don't know. But I don't think you can use it with redocneXk because the AC3 encoder can't encode it. In the documentation I've seen on AC3, the highest sampling rate is 48kHz.

The sampling rates I've seen are 32000, 44100 and 48000 Hz.

Tril

New version 1.04 released.

Change
-------
- Added switch -f.


use : -f 96000

And set the frequency of the SPDIF output to 96 kHz in the drivers. It was called "Digital Output (PCM) Sampling Rate Settings" in your drivers.

It will probably work but I need someone to confirm. schriss please try it since your card has the required capability.

schriss

OK, first I tried Driver #1 - SB Audigy 4 ASIO 24/96 [A000], it crashed, but before I closed the window I saw:
Frequency of SPDIF Output = 96000
*** Information ***
asioVersion: 0
driverVersion: 2
Name: SB Audigy 4 ASIO 24/96 [A000]
ErrorMessage: No ASIO Driver Error
ASIOGetChannels (inputs: 2, outputs: 8);
ASIOGetBufferSize (min: 192, max: 32768, preferred: 4800, granularity: 4);
ASIOGetSampleRate (sampleRate: 96000.000000);
ASIOOutputReady(); - Supported
ASIOGetLatencies (input: 4900, output: 4800);
but it does not work, latency is way too high, number of inputs is 2 which is probably also too small.

Next, I tried -d 2 which works with 48KHz, here is the output:
Frequency of SPDIF Output = 96000
*** Information ***
asioVersion: 0
driverVersion: 2
Name: SB Audigy 4 ASIO [A000]
ErrorMessage: No ASIO Driver Error
ASIOGetChannels (inputs: 14, outputs: 20);
ASIOGetBufferSize (min: 96, max: 65536, preferred: 192, granularity: 4);
ASIOGetSampleRate (sampleRate: 48000.000000);
ASIOOutputReady(); - Supported
ASIOGetLatencies (input: 292, output: 192);
*** Status ***
ASIO Driver started successfully.

when I launch it, there is no change, still hear the sound, but encoding does not work, no sign on receiver. Sample rate shown is 48000, isn't it supposed to be 96000?
I removed -f switch to see if it works with 48KHz like before, and it does, while I still have 96KHz selected in PCM menu. My receiver shows 96KHz when redocne is not running, when I launch it, 96KHz sign dissappears and it works in 48KHz, when I close redocne 96KHz sign is back on receiver. Maybe it's the driver that chooses KHz for ASIO, not the option in PCM which might be for regular audio.

__________________
Athlon64 3000+ watercooled
7800GT watercooled with Alphacool NexXxoS NVXP-3 6800/7800
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
4x512MB DDR500 Kingmax Hardcore
SB Audigy4 + Pioneer VSX-915 A/V Receiver + Koda AV988F/S + Goky SW1000

Tril

Ok. The -f switch does not work. It seems I was wrong when I said that the frequency of the SPDIF output could be 96kHz while the AC3 is encoded in 48kHz.

The 96kHz you set in the PCM menu is probably only used when SPDIF is used for two non compressed channels.

I'll remove the -f switch in the next version.

schriss, your first ASIO driver will never work because the AC3 encodes at a sampling rate of 48kHz.