So can Front Row do AC3 5.1 passthrough at the moment?

[sddawson]

Bit confused by what I've read around the traps. Does the current version of Quicktime allow Front Row to pass through AC3 5.1 with Perian and the plist tweak?

If so, are you able to select the second (AC3) track in a movie that's encoded for AppleTV?

Thanks.

[Smithcraft]

QuickTime after 7.4.1 does not pass 5.1.

Haven't heard of any plist tweak.

SC
_________________
Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[sddawson]

By plist tweak, I meant the process of getting AC3 passed when using Perian, as documented at http://www.cod3r.com/2008/02/the-correct-way-to-enable-ac3-passthrough-with-quicktime/. Are you saying that even with this process it's not possible to get Quicktime (and therefore Front Row) to pass AC3? It seems to imply that Apple fixed a bug in Quicktime 7.4.5.

Thanks for the help...

[Smithcraft]

As far as I recall, they did not fix the bug. I could be wrong since I gave up and figured out how to reinstall 7.4.1.

Then I found Plex and couldn't give a rats back side about what was fubared in QuickTime.

SC
_________________
Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[sddawson]

Yeh, I'm with you on that one. The only thing that worries me is the future! If I go the Mac Mini/Plex route, I can't buy/rent from iTunes and get 5.1 passthrough. I can with AppleTV, but that's so much more restrictive.

I'd love Plex to automatically pick the AC3 track in an AppleTV-formatted file rather than having to pick it manually (over the stereo AAC track). By the look of a thread over at Plex they might consider that...

[Fred76]

If you use the optical out, frontrow passes everything through in bitstream by default (e.g. passes through DTS, Dolby digital 5.1 even DD 5.1 EX).
This means you need an A/V receiver to do the decoding. In that case, you will see "Dolby Digital 5.1" or something similar on the display of your receiver. *NO* need to mess around with Perian and older versions of quicktime in this scenario.

You only need Perian or similar codecs if you want your Mac mini to do the decoding, instead of your receiver. In that case, you will output in 6 channel PCM format, which is not "passthrough". The only case I can think of why you would want to go with this solution is if you have 5.1 PC speakers hooked up to your Mini (which do not have decoding capability).

In terms of audio quality, it doesn't matter where the decoding takes place.
_________________
Mac mini 2,1 2.33Ghz C2D with 1TB 12mm internal HDD / 2GB RAM / Broadcom Crystal HD Mini PCIe
Apple TV with 500 GB HDD / Broadcom Crystal HD Mini PCIe
i7 iMac / 12GB RAM
Denon AVR-3312 with Airplay

[sddawson]

Hi, Fred76. From everything I've read, Front Row only passes AC3 when playing DVDs or ripped VIDEO_TS files. It doesn't when playing, for instance m4v files. It can't even pass AC3 when playing purchased or rented HD movies from Apple's own store! AppleTV can, however. I'd love to hear any experiences you have to the contrary.

[Fred76]

[Wedge]

[sk3ndall]

In Plex on the menu where you select the AC3 audio track, there is a option for "make this the default for video type" I checked this on a movie I was watching from my collection, and now any movie in my collection I play, it defaults to AC3 if that track is available.

[sddawson]

Really? I've read a number of times that that option has no effect on the audio track that gets chosen.

[sk3ndall]

I find that it has to be set per source. So if you store movies in multiple directories it has to be check for at least one file from each source. I keep all my movies in one dir now because of this.

[sddawson]

Hmmm...I'll have to give this a try when I've got Plex installed. Thanks.