Audio for AC3 & DTS

I have read through most of the other posts, but none of the provided solutions seem to have helped so far.

QT does not support AC3 natively. Even Adding an AC3 component and converting your "muxed" files to M2V/AC3, you will be limited to AC3 stereo content by current core audio. Only VLC and the DVD Player support AC3 "Pass Through" to a carded or external decoder. VLC will play VOBs and both VLC and the DVD Player will play VIDEO_TS content as if it were a DVD. (MPEG Streamclip will also play both, but as I have about 16 TV shows still in my batch list, I am not able to check to see if "Pass Through" capabilities were added to the current beta version.)

Does Quicktime support ANY surround format?

AAC 5.1/7.1 track or AIFF (Linear PCM) independent tracks. (Use "assigments" to specify channelization.) Your problem is playback. I use the M-Audio card to output direct, independent channels to a Logitec Z680 or playback AC3 "pass through" audio via the optical output.

I had no sound with an AC-3 track and started looking for decoders. I tried Perian, which didn't work, then got the A52Codec from SourceForge via Version Tracker, and installed by hand. That's supposed to be the same decoder Perian installs and uses, but this time it worked. No idea why.

deecypher69 wrote:
Furthermore, MPEG Streamclip does not seem to recognize DTS audio at all.

It definitely doesn't but I've mailed the developer asking if there are any plans to support it.

deecypher69 wrote:
I wish I could say that worked for me, but then I'd be lying. Thanks for the mention though...anyone else?

My attempt to get it working on my iMac G4 or wife's eMac failed earlier this year and I haven't tried again since.

Any updates? It's just about to be 2008 and still not AC3 or DTS. I just setup a mini at my mom's house (her xmas gift) and was sorely disappointed to only get 5.1 through VLC.

It has to be in Front Row to really be mom-proof.

Really I'm surprised Quicktime is this far behind in both audio support and subtitle support. Quicktime used to be the premiere format.

Front Row uses DVD Player to play DVD's, not quicktime, so you should see some sort of 5.1 sound. It really *** that QT doesn't support DTS yet though, very disappointing for an enthusiast, let alone a pro! Subtitles! Don't even go there!

Yeah, the 5.1 works fine in front row for DVD's once you turn it on in the DVD Player, its really every other format that is the problem...

I found a solution, but it's not pretty or easy. But it's not terribly time consuming either. Essentially, it involves taking your AC3 and turning it into AAC. I realize it's not what you asked for, but it does allow you to play your MPEG2 video with surround sound from QuickTime without any special codecs (other than the MPEG-2 Component you already purchased).


Google:
"Converting a VIDEO_TS to quicktime w/ 5.1 sound"

...and the article pops up. I couldn't get the link to work, but the Google cache does work. I tried the entire process. It took about 30-45 minutes. But it did work. The first portion of the post deals with video conversion. But you can just ignore it and go to the sound conversion. Combine your MPEG2 video with your new AAC audio and save it as a mov.

Hope this helps.