Windows 5.1 up conversion for music (Similar to WInamp A3d Plugin)

Hello,

I have an XBMC Windows 7 PC connected through my 5.1 receiver via hdmi.

I have a fairly nice set of surround speakers, and would like to be able to use all of my speakers when listening to music. In XBMC I only get sound from my front speakers. I believe the output may even be 2.0, not 2.1 as I don't seem to get the full effect of the sub.

For MP3 listening, I have been using Winamp, primarily because of a winamp output plugin called A3d.

Per the website for the plugin (http://a3d-output-plug-in-winamp.softwar....com/1.2/) The plugin plays audio using Aureal's A3D 2.0 - 3.0 sound engine, or DS3D. It creates a sound source for each audio channel of a song and places it in 3D space around the listener. Under A3D 3.0 the plugin can add a reverb effect to the audio. The user can set the position for sound sources using the plugin's OpenGL-based graphic interface.

This plug-in is exactly what I've been looking for! I don't use the reverb, but it does a great job of utilizing all of my speakers, and the sub. I would love to be able to use this plugin in XBMC, and stop using winamp on my HTPC.

I'm not sure how difficult it would be to port this to XBMC, however if anyone has any thoughts, or even knows another way to achieve a similar result I would love more info.

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As a side note, if anyone wants to take a look at the plugin in winamp, Its UI is a little buggy, and doesn't work right when using modern skins, use the winamp classic skin to configure the plugin, and set back to modern after configuration if you prefer.

In my opinion this is the job of the reciever. I have never heard of any players doing stuff like Dolby Pro-Logic or DTS Neo6 in software and I assume the algorithms are proprietary. Try it out for yourself, if your reciever has HDMI inputs then it most certainly has pseudo-surround enhancers like the ones I mentioned as well. DTS Neo6 Music in particular is awesome for most types of music.

Many receivers will do this as negge suggests... a simple 'surround' effect based on some frequency analysis /.algorithm.

I'm reluctant to use the term 'fake surround' as that's misleaded... and of course, some receivers can just mirror the front stereo to the rear speakers too... which can be helpful.

I do genuinely see a use for this, and I'm guessing so do some amp/receiver manufacturers. Is it worth replicating within XBMC? Not sure.

+1 for this. That way it avoids me from having to adjust the reciever settings everytime I switch a source.

@negge If this was done, you wouldn’t be using the software to convert to Dolby D or Neo 6 (or whatever) you would convert it to Multichannel PCM, which doesn’t require any proprietary algorithms

But generally I agree that the receiver should be doing this job, if at all.

Although my AV reciever will turn 2.0 sound into 5.1 (or 7.1) sound and to be honest it is pretty good. But... It will only do it if the it is receiving 2.0 sound. So if I tell windows that I have 5.1 speakers it will send 5.1 sound down the HDMI lead, just with the surround and sub channels will be silent. Because the surround and sub channels are present, it won't upscale the sound. I don’t really think adding this feature to XBMC is the best work around.

I think the new AudioEngine will have a stereo2surround upmix feature - but I'm not entirely sure.

(2012-04-22 22:22)negge Wrote:  In my opinion this is the job of the reciever. I have never heard of any players doing stuff like Dolby Pro-Logic or DTS Neo6 in software and I assume the algorithms are proprietary. Try it out for yourself, if your reciever has HDMI inputs then it most certainly has pseudo-surround enhancers like the ones I mentioned as well. DTS Neo6 Music in particular is awesome for most types of music.

With windows configured for 5.1 surround, and XBMC configured for the same, It seems that when playing 2 channel music, XBMC does output 6 (5.1) individual channels. Unfortunately only 2 of them have any sound. This means that my receiver can't take a 2 channel signal and emulate a 5 channel sound space because it "thinks" it's getting 5.1(6) channels of audio. It's a decent receiver (Marantz SR5002) so I don't think it's a limitation of the receiver, and as I'd stated in my original post, it works brilliantly in Winamp with the A3d plugin ( I mean brilliantly, if you have a 5.1 setup, try it out, you'll be giggling from its awesomeness)

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(2012-04-26 14:44)da-anda Wrote:  I think the new AudioEngine will have a stereo2surround upmix feature - but I'm not entirely sure.

AudioEngine ?? Darn.. Now I gotta read more !

Just found out that the latest build of AudioEngine is an entire build of XBMC, and when installed over a later build of XBMC (Eden) things get rather unhappy in short order. Fortunately, a reinstall of Eden fixed whatever file mismatches existed, and I'm back in business, but I'm curious if that's going to be incorporated into XBMC at some point.

**Note my comment above where I said I have to read more... I REALLY have to read more

AE does upmix stereo to the selected speaker count. And yes, it's coming soon

Any file mismatches are due to the latest library version being used, but it will migrate everything fine.

(2012-05-05 14:21)DDDamian Wrote:  AE does upmix stereo to the selected speaker count. And yes, it's coming soon

Any file mismatches are due to the latest library version being used, but it will migrate everything fine.

That is the most fantastic news I've heard all day! I like to use my android phone/tablet to select/queue songs from my music collection, and now it will sound good too!

Do you know approximately how soon is soon (are we talking days, weeks, months?)