AC3 support

[robertmro]

Does VLC support AC3 sound under any condition?

[dionoea]

yes

(btw, what do you call any condition ?)

[aldus]

I have a problem with AC3 playback too. I'm using VLC 0.8.2 on a G5 with OS X 10.3.9, as far as I know the codecs are correctly loaded, there are no obvious error messages in the message dump which is:

main debug: `/Volumes/Slave/films/magicflutedisc1.avi' successfully opened
avi debug: old:0 < new 0
macosx debug: input has changed, refreshing interface
main debug: no usable vout present, spawning one
main debug: looking for video output module: 4 candidates
opengl debug: Texture size: 640x426
main debug: looking for opengl provider module: 1 candidate
macosx debug: display is Quartz Extreme accelerated
main debug: using opengl provider module "macosx"
main debug: using video output module "opengl"
main debug: waiting for thread completion
main debug: got 1 direct buffer(s)
main debug: picture in 640x426 (0,0,640x426), chroma I420, ar 108169:72000, sar 1:1
main debug: picture user 640x426 (0,0,640x426), chroma I420, ar 108169:72000, sar 1:1
main debug: picture out 640x426, chroma YUY2, ar 108169:72000, sar 7679999:7680000
main debug: looking for chroma module: 6 candidates
main debug: using chroma module "i420_yuy2_altivec"
main debug: indirect render, mapping render pictures 0-7 to system pictures 1-8
main debug: thread 35558912 (video output) created at priority 37 (src/video_output/video_output.c:466)
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 2
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 3
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 4
main debug: Registering subpicture channel, ID: 5


Yet I get no sound. Any ideas?

[robertmro]

I am by no means an expert. My solution was to download MPEG Streamclip, a Mac shareware, with it I opened the file and used "Convert to MPEG with MP2 Audio" which produced an MPEG2 file that plays with sound on everything including VLC.

If your not on a Mac I don't know what to do.

[ErrantAahz]

I have experienced a similar problem with .AC3 playback over several versions of both VLC and OS X.

When I open certain file types using the .AC3 codec I experience either (a) no sound, or (b) an ear-splitting and speaker-popping noise. In the second case, VLC will often crash.

I am not sure about the root of the problem, but I do find that if I open the Audio MIDI Setup utility after this has happened (installed by OS X) my audio output has been changed to "Digital Out" (optical) instead of the correct "Line Out" (analogue).

At this point I simply quit/force quit VLC (if it hasn't crashed and done so itself), change the audio output back to "Line Out," and re-open the file with VLC. 9/10 times this does the trick. I usually leave Audio MIDI Seteup running so the process is even quicker...

1.6 G5 / 10.4.2 / VLC 0.8.2 / Analogue Line Out

[ErrantAahz]

On occasion I must also toggle the Audio Device output in:

VLC Preferences > Audio > Output modules > coreaudio

This generally coincides with the need to reset the audio output to "Line Out."

[snuffleupagus]

Hi

I got this avi of a film which states in its file name
(DTS 5.1)XviD .avi

and with it i was given this:
AC3-Filter 1.02a test5.exe

which isnt much use as I am on mac os 10.3.8

there is a read me with the video file which states:
Codec: XviD
Resolution: 640x400
Sound: DTS 5.1, 48000 Hz, 5 Channels, 754kb/s

I have vlc 8.4 but the movie wont play any sound

This is the warning I get from vlc

main: couldn't find a filter for the first part of the conversion
main: couldn't set an input pipeline

I can see the picture but there is no sound

Is it the 5 channels that are causing the problem???

Is there anything I can do or should I just give up?


I downloaded this for quicktime but I dont know if vlc can see it or make use of it:

AC3 Codec.component
The component uses the liba52 library for the AC3
decompressing

thanks for any advice

[webman]

I am also trying to play a video on VLC-0.8.4 using Mac os X 10.4.3 using the AC3 audio codec (AC3 Codec.component) placed in /Library/QuickTime folder. I get video and no sound with this error message:

main: couldn't find a filter for the first part of the conversion
main: couldn't set an input pipeline

After a few seconds VLC crashes.

I checked the Audio MIDI Setup utility and don't see anything to do with "Digital Out" (optical).

If anyone finds a solution to the AC3-filter problem for a Mac, please post.

[Guest]

You do not need to put anything in your Quicktime folder. The AC3 codec is included in VLC.

You'll have to give more information about your problem, as AVI files with AC3 sound play fine for me.

[Guest]

AC3 files, DVD's and AVI's with AC3 in them play fine on my Mac too, but the audio is always mixed down to 2 channels. Any ideas how to get all the channels out?

I use OS X 10.4.2 on G4 1.42 GHz with M-AUDIO FW 410.

Thanks for any help.

[Guest]

Me again (I wrote the above post)

Didn't want to leave this open ended so here's what I found.

I solved the problem by checking the Audio/MIDI Setup and selecting the Multichannel tab at the top. When I had done that I saw that only 2 speaker output was selected. I changed this to 6 and now it's all lovely.

I know you were all going to write back when you had any ideas, so thanks for your help.

[The DJ]

Whenever you work with a multichannel analog audio device, you should ALWAYS configure your speaker setup with Audio Midi Setup Utility.

[Stevee]

Just a thank you for the excellent work - audio out with AC3 sound has never been easier (better) on a mac! Vlc rocks.

[Paragonidae]

I am also trying to play a video on VLC-0.8.4 using Mac os X 10.4.3 using the AC3 audio codec (AC3 Codec.component) placed in /Library/QuickTime folder. I get video and no sound with this error message:

main: couldn't find a filter for the first part of the conversion
main: couldn't set an input pipeline

After a few seconds VLC crashes.

I checked the Audio MIDI Setup utility and don't see anything to do with "Digital Out" (optical).

If anyone finds a solution to the AC3-filter problem for a Mac, please post.

I have the same problem, but I didn't even know about the ac3 filter (I didn't know it exist or anything about these mutters) my point is that the same file works fine on the vlc windows machine.
ps:
how do I find out this info about sound and video codecs of an .avi file?

[fkuehne]

Have a look at the information-window (Window -> Information) while trying to play your file

[The DJ]

Try an alternate audio track, perhaps the default audio-track is DTS, another case in which you will get this error.