Need help playing DTS encoded WAV and FLAC files

Hi guys,

I'm breaking my head over this one. I have a laptop with a Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA sound card. I'm quite sure that all I did was install AC3Filter and dtswavsource.ax. With those two in place (again, I'm pretty sure) I was able to play all of my DTS encoded WAV and FLAC files with no problem at all. The card was outputting via S/PDIF over a Toslink (optical) connection to my receiver and my receiver was doing the decoding... with no problem at all.

Now I built a true HTPC using a X-Meridian sound card. Just for informational purposes only, I originally had a Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI card in there and was experiencing similar problems. The only difference between the HTPC setup and the laptop setup was that the HTPC setup is going out over coax and analog vs the optical from the laptop.

I can play all stereo content with no problem (sounds fantastic with the X-Meridian!). I can play them in both analog and digital but I ideally want to do everything analog. The DACs of the X-Meridian appear to be substantially superior to those found in my Pioneer Elite VSX-74TXvi. I am also able to play Dolby Digital and DTS DVDs using Power DVD all in full surround sound.

The problem comes when I attempt to play DTS encoded WAV or FLAC files. So far, the best I've gotten was with VLC Player playing the wav files in stereo. Anything else that I do gives me white noise. I've tried both analog and digital setups with the same result. I've tried AC3 Filter, NVIDIA PureVideo decoder, FFDShow, KM Player, Power DVD, etc... all with the same results. Whether I try to pass the audio over S/PDIF or have the XM do the decoding it makes no difference.

If anyone here can shed some light on this I'd be eternally grateful. If any of you are from the Montreal area I would pay you handsomely to come by my place and troubleshoot this for me. If I try to think any harder I'm going to give myself an aneurism!

Please, I'm begging you guys, I really need help on this BAD!

I un-installed everything this morning and then only installed FFDSHOW. By default, DTS was in there and check for DTS in wav was already selected. When I tried to play a file in both Winamp and Windows Media Player 11, it didn't work.

It should work for all cards.... just not mine for some reason

I really appreciate your help on this one Jim,

I have FFDSHOW dated March-04-2007 rev 1004. There is no icon that appears in the systray. Do you have the same version as I do? I also have 16 bit integer ticked. Is there any other information you can offer?

If anyone was interested, I could easily setup a remote desktop session if you wanted to look at it yourself. I'm willing to pay $50 to whomever can figure it out (seriously!).

Just wanted to add that FFDSHOW is configured to have a taskbar icon display. No matter what I play I never see an icon display. Any ideas?

Well, I just formatted the damn thing and am in the process of re-installing Windows Media Center 2005. What I'm going to attempt to do this time is to ONLY install FFDSHOW to act as the codec for everything and see if that works. If anyone has any other input please let me know.

OK, so here's what I did:

1) Formatted the drive and re-installed Windows Media Center 2005.
2) Downloaded all the updates from Windows Update.
3) Installed video drivers for X1600PRO
4) Installed latest Auzentech X-Meridian drivers
5) Installed FFDSHOW

DTS was already configured within FFDSHOW and Check for DTS in wave was also checked.

I then tried to play a DTS encoded wav file and just got white noise. Analog or digital output is giving the same result. Also, from what I've read, FFDSHOW should also be able to decode FLAC files without having to install a FLAC codec (is this true?) However, when I try to play a flac file it won't play. I also tried adding DTS;FLAC;APE;AC3 into winamp's directshow properties and tried to play the flac (non-dts) files through there - still nothing.

Is there a step that I'm missing here?

Thanks Dweekie....

After my last post, I discovered that I needed to install source filters for FFDSHOW to work. After installing a source filter pack, my flac, ape, etc. all played fine. I also installed the dtsac3source.ax file and registered it.

I followed your instructions to the letter. I set my XM to digital output (tried various sampling rates) and connected it to the optical input of my receiver. All the stereo files play fine over optical... but not the DTS! I tried both DTS WAV and DTS FLAC and still nothing. Dolby Digital and DTS movies, however, play like a charm. I hooked up my old laptop with the Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA card over optical and they all play perfectly! I think I'm going to hang myself soon. I'm seriously offering a $50 reward to whoever can figure this out... I'm really going crazy here. I'm an IT guy and my best skill is problem solving.. especially PCs. To not be able to solve a problem like this is eating me alive!

As for outputs, if I could get anything to work I'd be happy at this point. However, the main goal is to have EVERYTHING work over analog as the sound quality is much better then sending it over optical like I did before. This is by using the X-Meridian with the LM4562 OPAMPS.

OK, we're getting somewhere. Even though I've tried your method several times already in the last few days it worked this time since having re-installed everything. I've got DTS wav file playback over analog using Foobar2000 and foo_input_dts.dll. Now, to really get the problem solved, I would need to be able to play these files in either winamp or windows media player as I'm using Media Center and foobar isn't exactly going to be the best player for creating playlists etc. I guess I can always make do if need be... but still, figuring out that last bit would really be the clincher.

Any other ideas?

Also, this only applies to my DTS WAV files. My DTS FLAC files will not play using this method (which I have several).

Jim! Jimmy! Jimbo! You stud! You got it! Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All my DTS wav files play now using Windows Media Player! PM me with your email address.... I want to reward you for this one!

The ONLY thing left is that my DTS encoded FLAC files will not play. So there's still one thing left... but 80% of my surround audio are WAV files so it's not the end of the world (I've got over a terrabyte of music on my HTPC )

Jim, any idea if anything can be done for those flac files?

But what about DTS encoded flac files? Do you have any of those? That's still the only thing I can't play.

Dweekie, your plugin made WinAmp work as well.

Plus, what's great is that I am not stuck having to rename everything to .DTS.

OK, I don't think I'm following....

I disabled FLAC within FFDSHOW (correct?). I then installed the Illiminable Flac/Ogg codec which works in WMP. So now I can play my non-DTS flac files in WMP 11. But, when I trying playing the DTS encoded flac files I still get the noise. Is there something I"m not understanding?

It works!!!!!!!

But why did I have to deselect DTS, run the file, and the reselect DTS?? I don't get that part. But, the hell with it, it WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!

God, if you were a chick......

Oh, crap..... are you saying that Media Center doesn't detect wav files when adding them to the library? I haven't gotten to that point yet.

Well, here's something weird.....

When I used to use my laptop's optical connection, I used to send everything over S/PDIF and let the receiver do the decoding. I've listened to alot of these DTS tracks often so I know them very well. Now that I'm letting FFDSHOW do the decoding and sending it out over analog, some of the DTS tracks sound really strange. I hear the voice at normal volume but it's got an echo like he's singing in the shower and alot of the instruments in the background are at very low volume so you can barely hear anything. Is this because it's being decoded in software vs. hardware?

OK, there is definitely a problem with one of these decoders....

Some of my DTS wav tracks play with almost no music..... just a bit of the percussion is heard and the voice at a regular volume with an echo. All the instruments volume, on some tracks, are reduced by 80% at least.

Any idea what could be causing this?

Hey Dweekie.... I forgot to thank you for all your help earlier. Thank you very much!