Best 3rd Party (USB, PCIe) hardware for Dolby Surround (via PCM).

Best 3rd Party (USB, PCIe) hardware for Dolby Surround, SPDIF Pass-Through.

I am looking for an audio solution for my 10.9.4 hackintosh to playback 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS.

Connecting my Yamaha Receiver (RXV 2700) to my MacBook Pro Retina 15" via HDMI outputs Dolby Digital (5.0 Digital) just fine using VLC.app.

Instead of tinkering with the system (injection, DSDT, kexts) more I am looking for external (USB) or internal (PCIe) audio hardware that runs in the (old) Mac Pros natively and does pass through SPDIF/Dolby Digital 100%. So far I have tried:

• USB Behringer U-CONTROL UCA202: does only output 2.0 PCM no 5.1 Dolby Digital.
• PCIe ESI MAYA44e: does only output 2.0 PCM no 5.1 Dolby Digital.
• USB LogiLink 7.1 Dolby USB Sound Box: does not output any digital signal

My USB bluetooth controller already fixed bluetooth, as did a GFX 760 fix ultra wide screen and ghost display issues I had with my ATI 5850.

Any suggestions on audio hardware - USB is fine but though would be PCIe?

im82 said:

IAny suggestions on audio hardware - USB is fine but though would be PCIe?

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No idea what is best. See Mavericks: Surround Sound [Guide], Installation, 4. USB audio.

toleda said:

No idea what is best. See Mavericks: Surround Sound [Guide], Installation, 4. USB audio.

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My optical out on my X58A motherboard also works but also only transmits 2.0 PCM, no Dolby Digital / DTS / Encoded audio* - That's the same if I am using my MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013 with a mini-TOSLink... I will only get 2.0 Stereo out of it... seems that OS X is broken here a bit.


Son the link you left (thank you!) it looks very much like the USB Audio you are using is a Soundblaster:



I have tried 2 different (other, see above) ones and no one allowed Encoded Audio / SPDIF Pass-Through.
E.g. even my ESI MAYA44e did not allow that, it allows to connect 4 surround speakers (4.0) via analog.

Sounds like others have luck with Soundblaster USB stuff too (Surround, Omni etc)
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...fi-external-usb-surround-51-sb1090/?p=1610895


* On a side note, encoded Dolby Digital / DTS is consumer ****... I talked to some of the ESI support and they explained that 5.1 (even 7.1 or 11.2 or whatever) is passed through as an encoded bitstream over 2.0 PCM (so it is 48Khz, 16bit I think) ... in essence the sound quality you will get from consumer Dolby Digital / DTS are ****ty. You won't have noise issues if you use optical (or good coax) but you won't get great sound either (that will only work if you have a receiver/amp that gets discrete audio information per channel. E.g. your machine is the dolby decoder and sends out decoded audio information)

im82 said:

My optical out on my X58A motherboard also works but also only transmits 2.0 PCM, no Dolby Digital / DTS / Encoded audio* - That's the same if I am using my MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013 with a mini-TOSLink... I will only get 2.0 Stereo out of it... seems that OS X is broken here a bit.

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OS X is not broken; obviously did not read Post #1 of the linked thread. Optical 2.0 is not an OS X problem. OS X supports encoded digital audio. Only a few applications support encoded digital audio, see the linked for the applications that do. Your MacBookPro test should have alerted you to an invalid experiment. You proved a non working application on native hardware also doesn't work on non native hardware, expected behavior. By the way, the opinion expressed in the side note is wrong.

toleda said:

OS X is not broken; obviously did not read Post #1 of the linked thread. Optical 2.0 is not an OS X problem. OS X supports encoded digital audio. Only a few applications support encoded digital audio, see the linked for the applications that do. Your MacBookPro test should have alerted you to an invalid experiment. You proved a non working application on native hardware also doesn't work on non native hardware, expected behavior. By the way, the opinion expressed in the side note is wrong.

Click to expand...

Well, so somehow it did not work for me via VLC, but now it does. For me the trick was NOT to chose encoded digital audio because then the primary sound interface would change to some analog one, but to chose the same interface and then setup VLC correctly (which was already).

A.) So now Dolby Digital is working via TOSLink on my Macbook Pro Retina.
So the only thing "broken" about OS X that remains is it's ability to not always play AC3 well through quicktime components. There are tons of threads about that on the net, no point discussing.

In the Audio Midi Setup in Audio Devices "Encoded Digital Audio" is selected automatically when playing back Dolby Digital in VLC now.

B.) For my Hackintosh the PCIe and USB Audio Devices I have tried so far did not allow selecting Encoded Digital Audio. For the next USB Audio Device to arrive I will try that with my MacBook Pro Retina first.

AppleHDA ALC889 via Multibeast on x58a supplies working PCM/2.0 optical but no Encoded Digital Audio option for TOSLink ... for me at least.

C.) By the way you may explain to me what is wrong about my "opinion" in regards to the compression required to transport DD 5.1 (or even more channels) through 2.0 PCM? I am fine learning stuff. I don't think stating that someone else has a mere and wrong opinion helps the other one to learn (in case you are right). Maybe it is not the fault of the PCM transport layer (cause DTS transmits a lot more KBPS than DD) but as far as I know DD is Encoded at 24-bit/48kHz with a transfer rate of 640Kbs
So if you omit the subwoofer if you simply transmit 5.0 per channel you will get pure 640/5 = 128KBs ... low quality mp3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#Dolby_technologies_in_packaged_media_formats

I doubt that DD's encoding/decoding quality is on par with something like AAC (simply due to its age). HDMI - despite its flaws regarding stupid loop-though etc or true multichannel should get you something like TrueHD or lossless surround... given that the source material isn't in a bad compression state already.

im82 said:

AppleHDA ALC889 via Multibeast on x58a supplies working PCM/2.0 optical but no Encoded Digital Audio option for TOSLink ... for me at least.

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Fail again. Non native hardware does not support Audio MIDI Setup/Optical/Encoded Digital Audio.
For the third time, these are the only applications that support Optical/Encoded Digital Audio
Recommendations (Post #1, Mavericks: Surround Sound [Guide])
2. Optical 5.1 - DD/DTS

1. Players
   1. PlexHT_v1.0.13
   2. XBMC_v13.0
   3. MPlayerX_v1.0.22.1

Do you see VLC or Quicktime on this list? You have proven what is already well known.
Suggestion: non native hardware/OS X/optical/5.1, test the applications noted.

It is not like I did not try MPlayer - So I tried the latest MPlayer Extended rev15 1511.

Using that and DTS/Dolby Pass through only creates horrible noises (e.g. the signal seems to be digital but the driver sends the digital signal not flagged as DTS/DD and the receiver does not decode it).

So you are saying non-native hardware via USB does not support encoded digital audio either? *wonder*

When the soundblaster surround usb device arrives I will see if I can find that old mplayer version you recommend... and I will make sure to test different setups.

p.s.: As for VLC, it does work well with HDMI and now with TOSLink optical for passing through Dolby Digital ... it is also listed under "Player Test Results (OSX: 10.9.2/C1021/DD 5.1/DTS 5.1)" as working for optical 5.1?

im82 said:

Using that and DTS/Dolby Pass through only creates horrible noises
So you are saying non-native hardware via USB does not support encoded digital audio either? *wonder*
p.s.: As for VLC .. working for optical 5.1?

Click to expand...

MPlayer must be configured exactly as noted (Preferences/Audio/Pass through AC3=Yes/DTS=Yes)
No. the players that work with optical 5.1 work the same with USB 5.1
No. VLC outputs Dolby Digital Pro Logic II /LPCM for any 5.1 source.
VLC is poor choice for optical or USB and frankly, the most difficult, with HDMI audio.

Helloes,

I have no problem using different software.

On My Hackintosh (via TOSLink): I did configure MPlayer OS X Extended with "(Preferences/Audio/Pass through AC3=Yes/DTS=Yes)" - if I don't I simply get PCM. If I do I get annoying noise (digital signal not decoded by my Yamaha RXV 2700).

On my MacBook Pro Retina (via TOSLink): MPlayer OS X Extended does pass through DTS/DD fine (at least my receiver again displays Dolby Digital instead of PCM or MPCM).

The settings, the source material, the software version, the cable and the receiver are all the same... the only thing different is that the TOSlink of my Macbook Pro Retina is built-in whereas the TOSlink options on my hackintosh are either onboard (AC889) or via PCIe (ESI MAYA44e native mac PCI sound card). For both sound chips, there is only distortion/noise coming through on my hackintosh. The USB Soundblaster 5.1 is yet to arrive.

p.s.: VLC is working with native hardware (MacBook Pro Retina) and TOSLink via DolbyDigital5.1 (not sure if I made that clear, but that's the way it is). VLC also works with HDMI and DolbyDigital5.1. At least my receiver displays Dolby Digital instead of PCM or MPCM. Maybe it is still wrong and only interpolates channels via Dolby Pro Logic as you state... unsure.

im82 said:

I did configure MPlayer OS X Extended with "(Preferences/Audio/Pass through AC3=Yes/DTS=Yes)" - if I don't I simply get PCM. If I do I get annoying noise (digital signal not decoded by my Yamaha RXV 2700).

Click to expand...

The noise is encoded digital audio played as analog; your configuration is not correct. MPlayerX surround sound on my non native hardware shows as DD or DTS on my receivers.