FLAC Source Filter (1 Viewer)

lloydsmart

MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • January 10, 2009
    134
    4
    UK
    Home Country
    Wales Wales
    Hi all.

    Just a quick question to see if anyone can help me out. I've been looking round the internet, but can't seem to find what I need. Basically, I'd like to have my FLAC decoding done by ffdshow, then passed on to the Reclock Audio Renderer, which I've got installed and working well already.

    I'm using the Shark007 codec pack, along with a reinstalled DC-Bass Filter and Reclock. I also have PDVD9 installed, but that's kinda irrelevant.

    I can play FLAC audio from movies just fine, for example if it's encoded in an MKV or something, but .flac files on their own won't play without DC-Bass Filter, which isn't just a filter but a decoder aswell, outputting pure PCM sound straight to the audio renderer, bypassing ffdshow.

    What I need is a FLAC source filter for directshow that is just a filter/parser/source thingy, not a decoder aswell. I need it to pass the FLAC stream to ffdshow for decoding.

    (Just in case you're wondering, I use ffdshow to resample any 44.1KHz stuff (most music) before sending it to reclock, because there's some bug in the nvidia GeForce 8300 drivers at the moment that stops 44.1KHz audio being sent directly over HDMI, at least in WASAPI exclusive mode).

    Any help would be very much appreciated. :D

    EDIT: I suppose the only other alternative if this directshow filter doesn't exist is to mux all my FLAC files to MKA container, then they'd presumably work. Does anyone know of a handy little utility that will batch-mux FLAC files to MKA? Preferably preserving tags and album art if possible. Also, is there any reason why I shouldn't do this?
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom

    lloydsmart

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • January 10, 2009
    134
    4
    UK
    Home Country
    Wales Wales
    Hmm... thanks for that Owlsroost, it's an interesting little filter. I've registered it and it shows up in my directshow filters as "MPC - Flac Source", so promising.

    However, when I try to use it it's a different story. I can put it in a graphstudio graph ok, it asks me for a file upon selecting it for inclusion in a graph, I choose a FLAC file and everything appears to be going smoothly. However, it won't connect to any blocks! I can't connect it to ffdshow audio decoder, can't connect it to any audio renderer (although this is a good thing - kinda what I wanted), can't seem to use it usefully at all! And yes, I have turned FLAC decoding on in ffdshow. I'm using libavcodec, the only option in my copy. Ffdshow is also set to accept uncompressed audio as its input, so I'd know if the filter was doing any sneaky decoding behind-the-scenes. Besides, it won't connect to a renderer, so I don't suspect extra decoding's messing things up.

    Does anyone know how to get this filter connected? Graphstudio says it outputs WAVEFOMATEX, if that helps anyone.

    :D
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    As a sanity check, will your files play in the standalone MPC-HC player (using it's internal filters only) ?

    If they do play, pop up the 'Play -> Filters' menu item and see which filters it's using....

    Tony
     

    lloydsmart

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • January 10, 2009
    134
    4
    UK
    Home Country
    Wales Wales
    Well, MPC-HC plays the file fine, even though I can't actually hear anything because ffdshow isn't used to resample the 44.1KHz to 96KHz. (See FP for why this is a problem. Basically my audio drivers won't send 44.1KHz over HDMI in WASAPI exclusive mode, hence the resampling as a workaround).

    The items in the "Filters" submenu are:
    • ReClock Audio Renderer
    • Audio Switcher (submenu)
    • Flac Audio Decoder
    • C:/Users/lloyd... etc (file path)

    Any ideas? How come it's not using ffdshow? Thanks for all your help!
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    OK, so try adding FFDshow as an external filter in MPC-HC (view->options->external filters) then disable the internal FLAC decoder (view->options->internal filters->transform filters) - does that work ?

    I guess it could be a 32bit versus 64bit filter issue maybe (I've no personal experience with 64 bit windows).

    Tony
     

    lloydsmart

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • January 10, 2009
    134
    4
    UK
    Home Country
    Wales Wales
    Okay, now I still don't get ffdshow processing, but the "filters" submenu is slightly different.
    • ReClock Audio Renderer
    • Audio Switcher (submenu)
    • Flac Audio Decoder (low merit)
    • C:/Users/lloyd... (file path)
    And here's the graphstudio graph of the filters being used in MPC-HC:

    Untitled.png


    P.S. It's not a 64/32 thing - I'm using all 32bit programs and filters, so 64 doesn't come into it even though the OS is X64. ;)

    An alternative solution to my problem, although not preferrable to getting flac parsing working correctly, would be to find a way to force ffdshow to be loaded for all audio, even uncompressed. That way it would be ok for something like madFlac to do the decoding, because it would still send the PCM to ffdshow for resampling before it's passed on to an audio renderer. I can make a graph like that, with a FLAC source/decoder block connected to the ffdshow audio block connected to ReClock audio renderer, but ffdshow doesn't load by default. Is there a way to force it?
     

    Owlsroost

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 28, 2008
    5,540
    5,038
    Cambridge
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    I had a try with FLAC files on my system in MP and MPC-HC - it all behaved exactly as you found..... :(

    I don't know a way to force FFDShow to load in My Music - unlike the TV/Video/DVD sections there is no 'load post-processing filters' facility....maybe it's time for a feature request ?

    On my system, if the FFDShow audio decoder is set to accept 'raw' audio formats and it's set to the highest directshow merit setting it loads as a post-processing filter in MPC-HC - but this doesn't work for MP....

    Tony
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom