RME HDSPe MADI FX [20/87] Dvd playback ac 3 dts

User's Guide HDSPe MADI FX © RME

12.2 DVD-Playback (AC-3/DTS)

AC-3 / DTS

When using popular DVD software players like WinDVD and PowerDVD, their audio data

stream can be sent to any AC-3/DTS capable receiver via the HDSPe MADI FX. For this to

work an output wave device has to be selected in >Control Panel/ Sounds and Multimedia/ Au-

dio< or >Control Panel/ Sound/Playback<. Also check 'use preferred device only'.

The DVD software's audio properties now show the options 'SPDIF Out' or similar. When select-

ing these, the software will transfer the non-decoded digital multichannel data stream to the

HDSPe. Naturally a successful decoding also requires a MADI to AES converter like the RME

ADI-642, converting the playback signals to stereo AES3 or SPDIF.

Note

: This 'SPDIF' signal sounds like chopped noise at highest level. The first 2 MADI channels

(Loudspeaker) do not support digital AC-3/DTS playback.

Multichannel

PowerDVD and WinDVD can also operate as software decoder, sending a DVD's multichannel

data stream directly to the outputs of the HDSPe MADI FX. For this to work select the WDM

playback device ’Loudspeaker’ of the HDSPe MADI FX in

XP: >Control Panel/ Sounds and Multimedia/ Audio<, and 'Use only default devices' has to be

checked. Additionally the loudspeaker setup, found under >Volume/ Speaker Settings/ Ad-

vanced< has to be changed from Stereo to 5.1 Surround.

Vista/7/8: >Control Panel/ Sound/ Playback < as ‘Standard’. Additionally the loudspeaker setup,

found under >Configuration<, has to be changed from Stereo to 5.1 Surround.

PowerDVD's and WinDVD's audio properties now list several multichannel modes. If one of

these is selected, the software sends the decoded analog multichannel data to the HDSPe

MADI FX. TotalMix can then be used to play back via any desired output channels.

The typical channel assignment for surround playback is:

1 - Left

2 - Right

3 - Center

4 - LFE (Low Frequency Effects)

5 - SL (Surround Left)

6 - SR (Surround Right)

Note 1

: Setting the card to be used as system playback device is against common sense, as

professional cards are not specialized to play back system sounds, and shouldn't be disturbed

by system events. To prevent this be sure to re-assign this setting after usage or disable any

system sounds (tab Sounds, scheme 'No audio').

Note 2

: The DVD player will be synced backwards from the HDSPe card. So when using Auto-

Sync and/or word clock, the playback speed and pitch follows the incoming clock signal.