Hi all, I'm pulling my hair out on this one. I have a new Windows Media Center PC. I've actually scrapped my TV set and my stereo system. Want to have this setup be stand-alone. Most TV, other than HDTV, is broadcast in Dolby ProLogic II. Is there any way to have my computer decode it to my surround sound speakers? I have a Creative SB Live! 5.1 - USB sound card (SB0490). I have followed dozens of leads on the net over the past couple days, and keep hitting walls. I tried: 1) KX Project alternative Soundblaster driver. I understand that it has a "Prologica" filter and a "Surrounder" (I think that's the name) filter that may do it. HOWEVER, when I install the KX driver, the setup finishes "Successfully," but is not installed or working.. Just the uninstall option on the Start Menu. 2) MatrixMixer DirectX filter. It installs, but no matter what I try or how I configure it, the filter is never used -- even when I tried playing a PL II encoded mp3 file in Media Center Alternative and selected that filter explicitly in MC options.... 3) lots of other leads that turned out not to apply. Help! It's really dissapointing to no longer have surround sound for most TV programming!! Thanks! ~ Asa
Tell us more about your set-up. What Tuner card are you using and what is your programming source (cable, satellite, OTA)?
The tuner is a Dell USB mpeg capture device identified by the OS as "Angel" something or other. I have Comcast digital cable. I have a Motorala dct-6200 HDTV set-top box. I'm primarily using an svideo connection to the Angel captureer. I also have installed Timmmoore's Firewire driver, and use it and a firewire connection for tuning and HD recording. I'm using USB hardware because I've got a laptop. Asa
What surround speakers do you have? I think you can connect your cable box's digital coax or optical SPDIF out to the SPDIF input of your surround decoder.
I'm not using an external surround decoder/amp. I'm using Creative Lab's 4.1 ch speaker/amplifier setup. I am trying to scale down and not have so much audio/video equipment. Besides, the amp I have is an older Pioneer that supports Prologic, but not Prologic II or Dolby Digital.. so I would have to give up proper surround sound for Dolby Digital recordings like DVDs... and use a bulky speaker setup. :/
I'm quite sure that that's not the issue. The center channel in prologic II is a simple dfference between the front left and right (sound coming from both left and right goes to center). In a 4.1 setup, the center channel is simply not extracted and it stays on the left and right speakers. 4.1 speakers don't have a seperate LFE input, but use their own low-pass filter for the subwoofer... but that shouldn't be relevant either, since Pro Logic and Pro Logic II don't have a LFE.. it's really a 5.0 channel surround mix. The soundblaster has something called CMSS that does put sound on all the surround speakers when it's enabled, however, it is not a pro logic decoding and the output doesn't reflect the way the sound was intended to be heard. I guess it's not looking good, solving this... poo......
hey, im having the same problem my pc has a line in, and 7.1 out. im trying to get it to take prologic 2 and decode it to my speakers. IT should work, i have all the cables to connect it, but my pc only reads it as 2 channels this so far makes sense, with how prologic 2 works. so i just need a way to software decode my prologic 2 signal, so it can output into 7.1 or 5.1 or 4.1 or whatever as long as its more than 2 speakers... only need some software to take the wav signal in, read the prologic stuff and send that to my speakers. currently the sound cards grabbing those 2 channels it sees and outputting them to all channels equalli, even the sub (very odd having high frequenices coming from ur sub, it ruins all surround sound prospects)
Woohoo.. I found the solution! Strange how diffiicult it was to find! OK.. Well, First of all I lost patience and bought a surround sound amplifier and speakers and am using spdif out to the amp, and letting it do the decoding... This was the expensive route. The SOFTWARE route is right here: http://store.nvidia.com/product.aspx?sku=2699186&culture=en-US http://store.nvidia.com/product.aspx?sku=2699187&culture=en-US Nvidia has a software decoder. It comes in three versions: bronze, gold, and platinum. You need at least the Gold version ($29). The Platinum version adds DTS decoding ($49). Asa
Is the line in a digital coax or optical input? If not, you will not recieve actual dolby encoded surround using this software. For the DVD player on your computer you will have true Dolby Surround, but with simple stereo input (I assume a 3.5MM jack) true Dolby Surround is impossible, and DTS will never happen (not from a tuner source anyways). In understanding how these formats are processed, I can assure you of that.
this isnt talking about dolby 5.1 its talkign about prologic! by definition Prologic II is stereo, with extra sources added. 3.5mm jack or optical, doing PLII with output stereo unless the extra tracks are extracted. There is a directshow filter, called aud-x, that will perform DPLII decoding on your pc. It however was not useful to me, as it had to long of a delay. PLII does not need a optical cable, although i am using one for that connection. the whole idea behind PLII was that TV shows (and also the ps2) could have surround sound, without having to have separate channels. They both still only have left/right.
This might be a better place to start on the Nvidia website if you want more information: http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_decoder.html That is the general information page (rather than the store) and has a link to a 30-day demo version.
