Tom Holman is a marketing hack, and not an engineer. THX was a bad joke on the movie business, and you'll note has mostly disappeared. Most of Holman's ideas are long since discredited - read Dr. Floyd Toole's book surround sound where he guts Holman like a fish.
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Apple Reportedly Hires Audio Pioneer Tomlinson Holman
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Tom Holman is a marketing hack, and not an engineer. THX was a bad joke on the movie business, and you'll note has mostly disappeared. Most of Holman's ideas are long since discredited - read Dr. Floyd Toole's book surround sound where he guts Holman like a fish.
I believe it's gone back and forth over the years whether that worked to mute the startup.
Well, if it doesn't work consistently on current machines, that's a good reason for "life long" mac users not to be aware of it.
But it's not like AAPL has been leading this progressive and perfectionist push you mention. They're just getting started, and we don't even know what he'll be workin on yet.
DVD player and VLC are the only apps (that I know of) that support Dolby Digital or DTS out of S/PDIF, primarily because they do not use Quicktime.
My 2006 Mac Pro has HD audio hardware, supporting 192khz 32-bit, though the Mac OS only supports 96kHz at 24-bit. Whether that is "HD" audio or not, I'm not sure.
Interesting. Some others, if you are interested: DVR software. Web browsers. (that's where I got "4")
EyeTV is a bitch. IF you set it to the proper mode, it will playback the 5.1 Dolby from HD broadcasts. I just use it with an antenna, and this works. HOWEVER, if you set it to this setting, it will block Dolby (maybe all) audio from other apps, so you would have to switch it back before using something else. I tend to watch talking TV shows more than explosions, so I just leave it in the mode that offers only stereo.
I think it has 2 settings, so just try the other one. I actually watch much of my EyeTV recordings through VLC, now. EyeTV stutters constantly, on a 2.4Ghz C2D. Even worse when you try to watch from another computer via the network. VLC is much better.
Pretty sure iTunes rentals come through as 5.1, don't they? I've never rented from there. Or is that just on
TV, idk.All good stereo system can do this. Must have been the first time you ever hear a stereo that was not some junk. Seriously, if you buy even "decent" gear and take the time to understand about how to set it up in a room and treat any problems in the room you can have this result now at home. This has been true from at least the 70's and in many cases before
The reason it blocks audio from other apps is the data that's sent through S/PDIF from EyeTV is an exact bit-for-bit copy of the audio portion of the signal from your aerial. Any modifications to that digital stream (i.e. other apps making sound) would be non-Dolby Digital, and your receiver wouldn't be able to decode it. It's not possible for a receiver to decode both DD and non-DD simultaneously. If Apple included a DD encoder, CoreAudio could decrypt the EyeTV DD stream, add the extra sound from a different app, re-encrypt to DD, then send it over S/PDIF. Then you'd get surround sound with sound from whatever app added in too. Hope that makes sense
I've only had one problem with EyeTV really, when there's a double episode of something, it starts recording early, then cuts off the last 3-4 mins of the first show. It then makes a second recording for the second show, but with last 3-4 mins of the first show. Weird. We barely get SD digital TV here, so I never bothered to get a HD tuner for EyeTV and so no Dolby. Strange that you have problems on a C2D. I have the first Core Duo iMac which has no problems with EyeTV, and the same goes for my brother's old 1.2Ghz iBook G4. Download the EyeTV reporter app and uninstall then reinstall maybe.
Pretty sure iTunes rentals come through as 5.1, don't they? I've never rented from there. Or is that just on
Yeah they seem to have it working on the ATV (1 and 2), I've not tried an Apple-purchased rental in iTunes. One I created myself (through Handbrake, with 6 channel discreet audio) works only in stereo on ATV and iTunes. The best option for ATV seems to be "AC3 Passthru", which just copies the DD stream into the new file. iTunes really struggles with that though, only working some of the time with the Perian preference hack.
Are you really stating that Apple is brilliant for working on audiophile sound quality while simultaneously saying that no one cares?
Apple has long been behind the curve on SQ. It's funny you should mention MS. The Zune is felt to have much better SQ than the iPod.
It's more than that. You are talking about blocking audio while EyeTV is playing. Other apps do that, too. It blocks when it is not playing, but open. I haven't allowed it to happen in months, but I seem to recall it frys the other apps. If you try running them before changing EyeTV back or quitting it, they never play properly again until reboot of the computer. Something like that.The reason it blocks audio from other apps is the data that's sent through S/PDIF from EyeTV is an exact bit-for-bit copy of the audio portion of the signal from your aerial. Any modifications to that digital stream (i.e. other apps making sound) would be non-Dolby Digital, and your receiver wouldn't be able to decode it. It's not possible for a receiver to decode both DD and non-DD simultaneously. If Apple included a DD encoder, CoreAudio could decrypt the EyeTV DD stream, add the extra sound from a different app, re-encrypt to DD, then send it over S/PDIF. Then you'd get surround sound with sound from whatever app added in too. Hope that makes sense
That's probably just the settings for padding under Recording in the prefs. You have only one tuner, I assume.
Tried that, tried support, etc. They just came out with a new version this week, haven't loaded it, yet. Maybe we'll get lucky.
It is worst on 1080 sources, does better on 720, I never do SD so don't know, but sounds like it's fine for you. It's actually about the same on my 1.8Mhz CD Mini, maybe slightly worse. So it really seems to be their engine. Like I said, VLC plays the unaltered file just fine, even over ethernet.
Oh boy I hope this is true... Macs speakers are rubbish.
True. Hope they improve speakers for iOS devices as well.
10.2 - old way to go?
They should have hired the people behind this technology:
http://iosono-sound.com/
They should have hired the people behind this technology:
http://iosono-sound.com/
Forget 10.2, and wavefield synthesis is
Forget that, it works but it is too intensive. 10.2 is rubbish, it only means that next decade we need 20.4, zillion.zillion eventually.
What we need is a better way to manage audio. A method that stores the XYZ (yes Z!) components of a directional sound, storing and managing it INDEPENDENTLY of the sound system capabilities.
Then the system renders it to the best ability of the attached speakers, and SCALES properly. Ie, you have 6 speakers in a ring, it will work, you have stereo speakers, it will do the best it can, you have 8 speakers in a cube - it will deliver proper surround sound with HEIGHT...
It exists today, fully researched etc. It's called Ambisonics. It will revolutionise the movie industry, except that the likes of THX have a _marketing_ advantage
Yes, I am an audio production professional, and ambisonic sound works amazingly well. Wavefield synthesis (Iosono etc) is very good in some ways, but it does not scale, is horribly intensive of resources (128 channels etc), and is only planar - cannot go 3D... Ambisonics scales properly and very elegantly degrades to stereo.
PB
Forget that, it works but it is too intensive. 10.2 is rubbish, it only means that next decade we need 20.4, zillion.zillion eventually.
What we need is a better way to manage audio. A method that stores the XYZ (yes Z!) components of a directional sound, storing and managing it INDEPENDENTLY of the sound system capabilities.
Then the system renders it to the best ability of the attached speakers, and SCALES properly. Ie, you have 6 speakers in a ring, it will work, you have stereo speakers, it will do the best it can, you have 8 speakers in a cube - it will deliver proper surround sound with HEIGHT...
It exists today, fully researched etc. It's called Ambisonics. It will revolutionise the movie industry, except that the likes of THX have a _marketing_ advantage
Yes, I am an audio production professional, and ambisonic sound works amazingly well. Wavefield synthesis (Iosono etc) is very good in some ways, but it does not scale, is horribly intensive of resources (128 channels etc), and is only planar - cannot go 3D... Ambisonics scales properly and very elegantly degrades to stereo.
PB
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Mostly, you are correct. But THX did get into commercial theater setup more than home, it's more than just a list of equipment specs. And soundtracks are recorded in a certain way (for commercial theaters) based on the THX specifications for theaters. Sooo, many processors have a THX mode which alters the sound. The intended alteration is to changes the higher frequencies to sound better in a smaller venue as compared with the original soundtrack designed for a large venue.
Not everyone likes the alteration, though. Most serious AV geeks ignore THX and make their own decisions about quality specs.
So....what are you saying, really? Is this theory something beyond the idea of setting up speakers to fit best in a room (like with Audyssey)? Are you suggesting putting this into the soundtrack instead of people simply setting up their room properly?
Are you using speakers plugged into the mac? If so you need to set the volume with then unplugged before it will work.