Ticket #5 (closed enhancement: fixed)

Opened 2 years ago

Last modified 1 year ago

Reading of .ac3 files

Reported by: bryan Assigned to: gbooker
Priority: normal Milestone: 1.7
Component: a52codec Version: 1.6
Severity: normal Keywords:
Cc:

Description

i second Ticket #4 (assigned) re: toslink and receivers. my DAC picks up the Dolby Digital 5.1 perfectly when in VLC where you'd possibly getting the code. My #1 thing would be to get these VOB's with AC3's into iTunes and I see that iTunes doesn't play multi-channel Apple Lossless songs with Dolby Digital. It doesn't come off as Dolby Digital after conversion, which makes the A52Codec component vital to enjoying surround sound music for me, through existing Core Audio players (including Front Row most of all on our Intel Mac).

http://www.lynnemusic.com/surround.html

I listened to Starfield in AC3 Dolby Digital 5.1 from there (free) and it worked fine under VLC but QuickTime and iTunes won't play it. I installed the A52Codec component to both user and main library (jun 6 2006 version) and restarted. why doesn't it play :)

Thank you, bb123bb AT fastmail.fm

Change History

06/10/06 20:53:47 changed by gbooker

  • status changed from new to assigned.
  • version set to 1.6.
  • severity changed from normal to enhancement.
  • milestone set to 1.7.

The reason it won't play the .ac3 files is because it is slightly outside the scope of the project (currently).

There are few pieces to playing a file in QuickTime Player, iTunes, or Front Row:

  • QuickTime (of course)
  • A file reader component (fourcc is "eat ") to read the file and tell QuickTime what data is used at what time and what format it is in
  • A codec to convert the compressed data into audio samples.

The A52Codec only implements the third piece. So, if you manage to wrangle the AC3 data into a .mov or .avi, then it will play. Although, be careful, because the AVI importers I have seen seems to (incorrectly) report the audio data as only two channel. Raw reading of AC3 files is certainly something I have considered. It may come in 1.7, so marking as thus.

06/10/06 20:53:59 changed by gbooker

  • summary changed from questions to Reading of .ac3 files.

06/10/06 21:16:12 changed by gbooker

Quick update.... I took Starfield from that site, and stuffed it into a .mov file (I am not going to repeat the process here as it is rather complex), and threw it into iTunes. It plays surround on MySystem just fine.

06/11/06 02:19:05 changed by gbooker

  • status changed from assigned to closed.
  • resolution set to fixed.

Closed by [7]

06/13/06 02:03:11 changed by bryan

thank you for explaining the three components from quicktime to the codec. it's my mistake i couldn't locate this ticket. it seemed lost.

01/11/07 09:02:48 changed by Busty

is this ac3 importer that's discussed here (and stated on the major features) done by now? If so, where can I find it and make it work? I got A52Codec 1.7.2 installed, Div with ac3 is working perfectly, but standalone ac3 files produce a program error in quicktime 6.5.2 (on OSX 10.3.9) Thanks.

01/11/07 12:40:19 changed by gbooker

It came in the install.

Since you saw it fit to screw up the ticket status (which I have corrected), I have removed user's ability to modify the status.

01/15/07 19:11:07 changed by gbooker

From #24: 

I followed the instructions of the read me file that came with the installer of A52Codec 1.7.2. However, Quicktime 6.5.2 produces a program error when trying to open an .ac3 file. Div with ac3 is working perfectly (on OS 10.3.9).

Do you have any idea how to rectify that? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I guess it doesn't work with QT 6.5.2. Not surprising since QT < 7 doesn't support multiple channel audio.

Try using QT 7. It runs on 10.3.9