WMA codec problem

[oicoic]

Hello there,

Before you ask, yes, I have read this.

I have a burned CD here, I downloaded it in ISO format, it is a DTS 5.1 album which was ripped from a quadrophonic LP. I don't have a quad LP record player, or the LP, or a DTS system. I do however have a 5.1 soundcard with surround sound speakers (and the corresponding stereo version on CD, for those worrying about copyright issues ). It only seems to play white noise, which through searching I have found out is the standard response when you don't have a DTS decoder.

So I am hoping to rip these files to 6-channel WMAs. When I try with dbpowerAMP, it says that the codec cannot be opened. I know for certain that I have the codec installed, and it works when I rip the album in stereo. But then all I get is white noise!

So is there any way to fool dbpowerAMP into thinking it is a 6-channel CD? Or are there other codecs that can encode surround sound content? I couldn't see any. Even 6 mono wave files would be fine, but again I only get stereo white noise. So any ideas?

Thanks in advance for your help, and for reading through all of this!

[LtData]

Re: WMA codec problem

From what I can see, the problem is that dMC cannot decode the 5.1 CD. I'm not sure there is a way to rip this CD via dMC, especially if you cannot play it on your system at all.

Have you tried ripping it to a 6-channel WAV? It probably won't work this way either but its worth a try.

[oicoic]

Re: WMA codec problem

No I did try, all I get is stereo WAVs with white noise.

Do you (or anyone) have any idea which program COULD convert it? I can make 5.1 channel WMAs with Adobe Audition, but I need 6 mono wavs, so even that would be great. Thanks again.

[xoas]

Re: WMA codec problem

Can you play this CD on a dvd player?

[LtData]

Re: WMA codec problem

There is a channel-splitting utlity codec in the Beta section of this forum that takes multi-channel WAVs and outputs one mono WAV for each channel, but I don't know if it makes a separate one for the sub or not.

[oicoic]

Re: WMA codec problem

That sounds awesome LtData, thanks! I don't mind having an empty sub channel, as I say, the 5.1 mix was derived directly from a 4-channel vinyl, which doesn't have a centre nor a sub, so I will just leave them empty.

Sorry if I do not understand about the beta thing. I looked in the forum, what do I have to install? The multi-processor encoder and multi-encoder utility and the beta dbpowerAMP audio player all don't seem like they would rip 6-channel wavs. Or am I missing something?

Thanks again everyone!

[xoas]

Re: WMA codec problem

I believe LtData is referring to the Channel Splitter utility codec. This is now out of Beta (which took me by surprise too).
You can find it at Codec Central here:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-utility.htm

Hope it helps.
Best wishes,
Bill

[oicoic]

Re: WMA codec problem

Man, I can't believe I missed that. Thanks!

Sorry to be a continual pain, I downloaded it and installed it, I can't really find where to use the channel splitting utility. Where do I go? :(

Bear in mind I am high on heroin, and have been for each of the preceding posts. This might be why I am so ineffectual at making this all work.

Thanks for all your help once again!

Take care!

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA codec problem

It's just like any codec, you start dMC and select that codec from the drop down menu (e.g. instead of picking wav or mp3 or wma... ).

[oicoic]

Re: WMA codec problem

I try that, but I only get Front Left and Front Right files, again with just white noise! :(

Can it maybe only rip say 6 channel WMA files into mono WAV files, and not DTS CDs or DTS WAVs into mono WAV files?

[xoas]

Re: WMA codec problem

I think you are right in supposing it cannot work with DTS files.
I think you need to start with seeing if you have any means of playing this disk-perhaps through a dvd player or through WMP or a dvd player program. If you can do that, this will mean that you have a CD with workable audio data and that you should be able to record it through Auxilary Input (although I am not at all sure you can expect to get all 4 channels except through some extra acrobatics-we can worry about that later).

Perhaps one of our other multi-channel users would have some other insight or recommendation. I will admit that I am not at all sure that your ISO image disk is actually usable-but I am not sure that it is not.

Best wishes,
Bill

[LtData]

Re: WMA codec problem

As xoas said, it looks like your problem is getting a way to decode the DTS WAV files or DTS CDs, which it appears dAP does not.

Have you tried to find another program that will let you play DTS WAV files, mabye?

[oicoic]

Re: WMA codec problem

Good idea, I didn't think of that! I'll most certainly look.

The disc can definitely be played, I took it to a friend's house who has a DTS compatible DVD player, and the album plays perfectly. I also found that if you rip CD to stereo WAVs which are white noise, then use those WAVs to burn a regular audio CD, it plays through the DTS DVD player in 5.1!

So yeah, maybe db isn't the program I should be using. I have found a few programs to CREATE multi-channel files (mp3, wma, ac3) and to decode multichannel audio from a video DVD to another format, but nothing seems to really pick up on a DTS CD.

Maybe I should give up this quest, and the h, and buy myself a better sound system! :P

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

[xoas]

Re: WMA codec problem

I may have spoken prematurely. I recently ran across an earlier thread from Spoon indicating that DTS uses AC3 coding. This raises the possibility that if you run install the DirectShow decoder and the AC3 feature, there may be a chance that dMC might be able to read/play/convert your file. For more information and to download this codec, visit Codec Central here:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-directshow.htm

Best wishes,
Bill