Yes.
I know it sounds weird, but DTS can also be used as an audio-only format for music.
There are actually many music titles now, available in DTS (either on DVD or DTS-CD). I personally bought all Depeche Mode's albums that were re-mastered in 5.1 channels, and are available as CD/SACD+DVD sets.
I now have many DTS streams (files ripped from my DVDs), which are plain "bit-perfect copy" DTS streams with ".DTS" file extension.
I currently use them in MediaPortal (one advantage over playing from DVDs directly, is that I can build playlists and shuffle among different albums). I'm able to hear those streams just right (SPDIF passthrough to my Amplifier), using a directshow filter (either MPA or FFDSHOW) and adding the ".DTS" extension to MediaPortal's "music extensions" configuration.
However...
Current support in MediaPortal for DTS music files is very poor. Here are the reasons, along with suggestions for improvements:
You may consider me of a "pioneer" since I found myself the only person (in this forum) that currently enjoys 5.1 multi-channel music (not video!) in MediaPortal. However, I beleive it will become more common soon, as additional DTS titles are published/re-mastered.
General remark: I used "DTS" format to describe the problem, but the same solution(s) may be applied to "AC3" music files, which also become common. Implementation should be the same for both formats.
Here's an example for a "folder.tag" file, used in my "solution 2" above:
I would like to hear other users' opinions!
Are you listening to DTS music?
Are you listening to DTS music files?
Are you listening to DTS music files through MediaPortal?
I know it sounds weird, but DTS can also be used as an audio-only format for music.
There are actually many music titles now, available in DTS (either on DVD or DTS-CD). I personally bought all Depeche Mode's albums that were re-mastered in 5.1 channels, and are available as CD/SACD+DVD sets.
I now have many DTS streams (files ripped from my DVDs), which are plain "bit-perfect copy" DTS streams with ".DTS" file extension.
I currently use them in MediaPortal (one advantage over playing from DVDs directly, is that I can build playlists and shuffle among different albums). I'm able to hear those streams just right (SPDIF passthrough to my Amplifier), using a directshow filter (either MPA or FFDSHOW) and adding the ".DTS" extension to MediaPortal's "music extensions" configuration.
However...
Current support in MediaPortal for DTS music files is very poor. Here are the reasons, along with suggestions for improvements:
- BASS Engine cannot play those files. Therefore, I find myself going to the MP configuration too many times, switching between "BASS" (which is cool for other file formats) and "Internal DSHOW" (which is the only way to play DTS). Suggestion: have an additional checkbox option "fallback to Internal DSHOW for formats not supported by BASS". This way I can choose BASS as my music engine, an use it for common formats (MP3, FLAC) and still be able to play "DTS" files directly through DSHOW --> SPDIF.
- Music Tags are not supported for DTS files. I know this is not a MP problem, since there's currently no standard way for doing this. However, I can suggest two solutions for MP.
- Solution 1: padding a ".DTS" file with additional 128 bytes containing a standard ID3v1 tag. I did some tests, and so far those 128 bytes are ignored by the amplifier anyway (since they're not a valid DTS frame). The TagReader will then need to be modified, so it looks for ID3v1 tags at the end of DTS files also. Sounds pretty easy to implement - only the "duration" calculation can be complicated.
- Solution 2: using an external "filename.tag" file with manual tags entered by the user. Again, the TagReader will have to be modified, so it looks for "xxx.tag" file for "xxx.dts" file, and read tags from it. The ".tag" file can be either XML or INI-style file. An additional "folder.tag" file can also be looked for. It can contain the Tags for all files inside a folder. Very useful for albums! It is also a more generic solution that can be used for other weird formats in the future.
You may consider me of a "pioneer" since I found myself the only person (in this forum) that currently enjoys 5.1 multi-channel music (not video!) in MediaPortal. However, I beleive it will become more common soon, as additional DTS titles are published/re-mastered.
General remark: I used "DTS" format to describe the problem, but the same solution(s) may be applied to "AC3" music files, which also become common. Implementation should be the same for both formats.
Here's an example for a "folder.tag" file, used in my "solution 2" above:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<tags>
<section name="folder">
<entry name="Album">Violator [DTS]</entry>
<entry name="Artist">Depeche Mode</entry>
<entry name="Year">1990</entry>
<entry name="Genre">Synthpop</entry>
</section>
<section name="01-World In My Eyes.DTS">
<entry name="Title">World In My Eyes</entry>
<entry name="Duration">266</entry>
<entry name="Track">1</entry>
</section>
<section name="02-Sweetest Perfection.DTS">
<entry name="Title">Sweetest Perfection</entry>
<entry name="Duration">243</entry>
<entry name="Track">2</entry>
</section>
:
:
<section name="09-Clean.DTS">
<entry name="Title">Clean</entry>
<entry name="Duration">214</entry>
<entry name="Track">9</entry>
</section>
</tags>
I would like to hear other users' opinions!
Are you listening to DTS music?
Are you listening to DTS music files?
Are you listening to DTS music files through MediaPortal?