5:1 Surround Sound DivX

quazzy

Hi All,

Just want to check something with you all.

I am planning to buy a new DVD player with DivX / Xvid playback.
Probably gonna be Cyber Home 462 DVD Player from marxcomputers. Only 60 euro ish and I thinks its worth a Punt.

I also have a 5:1 Surround sound system that I want to hook up to the player.

The question is.. will the DivX / Xvid movies I convert output the surround sound? The Player supports the Dolby output but I just want to know if it will work with DivX as well as DVDs

Hope I'm not confusing everyone here?

BTW: I used DVD Decrypter and AutoGK to convert the files.

Regards
Quazzy.

Charlie

I have a phillips home cinema system and the player allows divx/xvid. As far as I know when you compress a movie to divx, the sound is converted to stereo quality. Your home cinema will give surround sound on stereo quality movies through dolby pro logic II, but you wont get dolby digital as the movie soundtrack has to be encoded in dolby digital. Pro Logic II Suuround is good, but just not as good as dolby digital.

qBot

charlie mchugh wrote:

I have a phillips home cinema system and the player allows divx/xvid. As far as I know when you compress a movie to divx, the sound is converted to stereo quality. Your home cinema will give surround sound on stereo quality movies through dolby pro logic II, but you wont get dolby digital as the movie soundtrack has to be encoded in dolby digital. Pro Logic II Suuround is good, but just not as good as dolby digital.

Thats a load of rubbish. Generally when DVD's are converted to DivX or XVid the soundtrack is converted to mp3 (not pro logic). In this case you only have two channels of sound in your movie ie left and right. Your dolby system may still output sound out of all speakers, in front and behind but your left back speaker and front left speaker output the same sound. If your converting the DVD yourself, you can copy the ac3 (Dolby Digital) soundtrack to the final Divx. In this case as long as your DVD player is compatible (This should be the case) you'll get dolby digital surround sound. Some movies downloaded off the internet are encoded with dolby digital. The file sizes are usually much larger than the 700mb file size that are usually associated with avi movies though. In such examples the movie file name usually contains the initials ac3 and are usually in the region of 1.4gigs as the ac3 audio is much bigger than mp3. Hope this helps.

quazzy

qBot wrote:

Thats a load of rubbish. Generally when DVD's are converted to DivX or XVid the soundtrack is converted to mp3 (not pro logic). In this case you only have two channels of sound in your movie ie left and right. Your dolby system may still output sound out of all speakers, in front and behind but your left back speaker and front left speaker output the same sound. If your converting the DVD yourself, you can copy the ac3 (Dolby Digital) soundtrack to the final Divx. In this case as long as your DVD player is compatible (This should be the case) you'll get dolby digital surround sound. Some movies downloaded off the internet are encoded with dolby digital. The file sizes are usually much larger than the 700mb file size that are usually associated with avi movies though. In such examples the movie file name usually contains the initials ac3 and are usually in the region of 1.4gigs as the ac3 audio is much bigger than mp3. Hope this helps.

Thanks qBot,

I think one of the options in Auto GK for encoding the files to DivX include AC3 so I'll check it when I get the player.

It may be January before I get it though, but i'll post back.

Regards
Quazzy

Balfa

qBot wrote:

Thats a load of rubbish. Generally when DVD's are converted to DivX or XVid the soundtrack is converted to mp3 (not pro logic). In this case you only have two channels of sound in your movie ie left and right.

Pro Logic 2 only has two discrete sound channels as well :rolleyes:
It uses mathematical comparisons of the left and right channels to generate the other four channels. So if done correctly, a stereo mp3 file can certainly contain dplII surround. if done correctly.

By the way, I recommend staying away from Cyberhome. I had one once and it was a dog.

Bartonprince

You don't get Dolby Digital on anything. Unless it has a Dolby Digital decoder.
Like i have an Audigy 2 sound card that has Dolby Digital all over the box, and i have some inspire 5300 5.1 speakers that have dolby digital all over the box. But it's still not dolby digital, unless i buy a decoder thing for it.

LIES i tell ya.

Most home cinema systems don't have dolby digital. they say it on the DVD player though. Same as the PS2. It's all crap.

Charlie

qBot wrote:

Thats a load of rubbish. Generally when DVD's are converted to DivX or XVid the soundtrack is converted to mp3 (not pro logic).

My friend, an mp3 is generally in stereo sound, hence when played on peo logic II system you get surround sound.

qBot

charlie mchugh wrote:

My friend, an mp3 is generally in stereo sound, hence when played on peo logic II system you get surround sound.

Soz Charlie. I stand corrected on that one. I thought Pro Logic was a codec. Still though. If u want true surround sound it requires Digital.

Balfa

qBot wrote:

Still though. If u want true surround sound it requires Digital.

No, Dolby Pro Logic II is true surround sound. And very good surround sound at that. And it works from just two channels.

qBot

Don't think so. U can't make true surround sound out of just two channels. Pro logic is just a simulated version of Digital.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Pro-Logic

Charlie

qBot wrote:

Soz Charlie. I stand corrected on that one. I thought Pro Logic was a codec. Still though. If u want true surround sound it requires Digital.

No problem mate. There is a sound quality difference betwwen the two, but in simplistic terms the difference is, Pro Logic II has to figure out for itself where to put what sound for surround sound, but dolby digital soundtracks are predetermined so dolby digital dosent have to work out what speaker emits what sound.

Charlie

P.S Balfa, he is right in saying that Pro Logic isn't true surround.

Balfa

qBot wrote:

Don't think so. U can't make true surround sound out of just two channels. Pro logic is just a simulated version of Digital.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Pro-Logic

Yeah, you can. This is exactly what Dolby Pro Logic II (and Dolby Pro Logic, and the older Dolby Surround) do. The link you provided doesn't say anything about Dolby Pro Logic not being "true" surround sound. In fact the first sentence says "Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology".

edit: oh, and there's a sentence in there that says "A Pro Logic decoder/processor "unfolds" the sound into the original 4.0 surround". Note the word "original". Although it's talking about DPL1 which only has 4 channels, the same applies for six channel DPL2.

charlie mchugh wrote:

the difference is, Pro Logic II has to figure out for itself where to put what sound for surround sound, but dolby digital soundtracks are predetermined so dolby digital dosent have to work out what speaker emits what sound.

You make it seem like Pro Logic is guessing where to put certain sounds, but this is untrue.

Dolby Surround takes six completely distinct sound channels and encodes them using clever maths into two channels, and then when you play your movie, the DPLII decoder separates them back into the original six channels just the way the sound director of the movie predetermined them to be.

The frequency spetrcum isn't as broad, and hence the sound quality isn't as good, as in DD5.1 where each channel has the full spectrum to itself. But apart from that, DPLII surround is just as "true" as DD5.1.

Hope that helps clear up the confusion!

quazzy

Balfa wrote:

By the way, I recommend staying away from Cyberhome. I had one once and it was a dog.

Hey Balfa,

What would you buy to play DivX / Xvid , if you dont recommend the CyberHome?

qBot

@Balfa I'm not looking for a flame here but If you read the article you would see that it uses the word simulate. Also, I believe quazzy was really referring to Dolby Digital in his original post. I don't think he cares much for other dolby technologies. This thread has gone a bit off track from his original question

Dolby Pro Logic II

In 2000, Dolby introduced Dolby Pro Logic II (DPL II), an improved implementation of Dolby Pro Logic. DPL II processes any high quality stereo signal source into "5.1"—five separate full frequency channels (left, center, right, left surround and right surround ) plus one low-frequency-effects (deep bass) channel. Dolby Pro Logic II also decodes 5.1 channels from stereo signals encoded in traditional four-channel Dolby Surround. DPL II implements greatly enhanced steering logic compared to DPL, and as a result, offers an exceptionally stable sound field that simulates 5.1 channel surround sound to a much more accurate degree than the original Pro Logic.

Because of the limited nature of the original DPL, many consumer electronics manufactures introduced their own processing circuitry, such as the "Jazz", "Hall", and "Stadium" modes found on most common home audio receivers. DPL II forgoes this type of processing and replaces it with simple servo (negative feedback) circuits used to derive five channels.

qBot

quazzy wrote:

Hey Balfa,

What would you buy to play DivX / Xvid ?

I use a modified Xbox to play my divx movies. U can get software called Xbox media center for it which is feature rich. This might be a bit over the top so maybe a better choice might be the dvd players that lidl sells every so often. Teh support xvid and divx and usually go for bout €60. As BartonPrice said You would probably have to buy an external 5.1 decoder though as I don't think they come with one built in. Neither does the xbox.

Balfa

qBot wrote:

@Balfa I'm not looking for a flame here

Nor am I, although I do want to dispell any misinformation about DPLII, and since the OP doesn't explicitly mention DD5.1 or DPLII, we can't assume he means one or the other. If he wants surround sound and DPLII gets him surround sound, then it's just as viable as DD5.1.

Dolby Pro Logic II also decodes 5.1 channels from stereo signals encoded in traditional four-channel Dolby Surround. DPL II implements greatly enhanced steering logic compared to DPL, and as a result, offers an exceptionally stable sound field that simulates 5.1 channel surround sound to a much more accurate degree than the original Pro Logic.

You're misunderstanding this. It's talking about Dolby Pro Logic 2 decoders simulating six channels from a FOUR channel Dolby Pro Logic 1 source. In this case, yes it's guessing as to what should go on the extra two channels. In the much more common case, however, of using a Dolby Pro Logic 2 source, the source contains the full six channel and nothing needs to be simulated.

Trust me, there's nothing at all untrue about DPL2 and again I press the point that DPL2 is a whole, accurate, real, fully-capable six channel surround system that sounds excellent (and more than adequate for most) though still not as excellent as DD5.1.

Because of the limited nature of the original DPL, many consumer electronics manufactures introduced their own processing circuitry, such as the "Jazz", "Hall", and "Stadium" modes found on most common home audio receivers. DPL II forgoes this type of processing and replaces it with simple servo (negative feedback) circuits used to derive five channels.

Again, this is talking only about DPL1, the sound quality of which is much worse than DPL2.

Balfa

quazzy wrote:

What would you buy to play DivX / Xvid , if you dont recommend the CyberHome?

The last time I looked into this, there were only a handful of players on the market, and a Lite-On model was the best of the bunch. I'm sure things have changed since then, though. qBot's solution seems good if you already have an xbox. If not, any player should be fine as long as it's a quality brand.

quazzy

Balfa wrote:

Nor am I, although I do want to dispell any misinformation about DPLII, and since the OP doesn't explicitly mention DD5.1 or DPLII, we can't assume he means one or the other. If he wants surround sound and DPLII gets him surround sound, then it's just as viable as DD5.1.
DPL2.

OK, to clarify what I have : Acoustic Solutions DS533
http://www.acousticsolutions.net/product.asp?ID=112

Manuel says: "Built in 5.1 Dolby Digital AC-3 decoder for direct connection with any DVD featuring digital audio output... "

The DivX player I was looking at is this:
http://www.cyberhome.de/en/Article8.html

with the tech data here:
http://www.cyberhome.de/en/Sections-article8-p1.html
*******
# Formats: DVD-Video, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, SVCD, MP3 CD, Kodak Picture CD
# Playable media types: MPEG 4 (DivX v3.x, v4.x, v5.x, XviD) MPEG 1 / 2, VCD, SVCD, JPEG, MP3, WMA
# TV systems: PAL, NTSC, Multi
# Video outputs: FBAS, RGB via SCART, S-Video, Component, Progressive Scan
# Analog audio output: 1x stereo
# Coaxial digital output: (SPDIF) IEC 958 for CD-DA/LPCM, IEC 1937 for MPEG 1 / 2, Dolby Digital
# Digital audio data: D/A converter: 96kHz / 24 bit
# Power consumption: 8.5 W Standby: 3.3W
# Dimensions: 350x48x232 mm
# Weight: 2.075 kg
*******


Just has a breeze thru Auto GK and I have options for creating DivX in AC3 format with 2 or 6 channels

Don't know it that helps anyone but there it is for your perusal...

Thanks for every1s input.

PS. i dont have an X-Box

Quazzy

Balfa

The specs of the player and receiver won't make any difference. The difference will be in the software you use. As you've pointed out, Auto GK can copy 6 channel AC-3 audio. This is the optimum choice, but as qBot said, it'll make the file size a lot bigger.

If disc space is a priority (e.g. if you want to copy to CD), then another option would be to have the ripping software take the six channels of audio and encode them onto stereo DPL2, which will be decoded and reproduced faithfully as 5.1 surround by your receiver when you're watching the movie, and will save you tonnes of space.

Now I don't know if Auto GK, or any other rippers, can encode DPLII, but if it can, and you need the space, this is the way to go.

qBot

Fair enough.. I was wrong....again..Now i'm regretting posting in this thread..