[MPlayer-users] dts in libavcodec not working

[Corey Hickey]

khayos wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I've been fighting off and on with libdts for awhile now, and have put
> in some concentrated time on it for the last four hours or so because
> I have a DVD rental (Sin City) which requires it.

Really? I'll bet there are AC3 tracks as well. Try using -aid 128, -aid
129, etc. With some DVDs, mplayer defaults to the DTS track, but I
haven't run across any yet that have DTS only.

> What I've done most recently is:
> 1) cleaned my system of all mplayer and codec files, and all dts files
> 2) installed all mplayer codecs: essential and win32

Those binary codecs don't relate to DTS. They're for the few formats
that mplayer can't decode natively.

> 3) ./configure && make && make install for libdts (aka libdca, from
> videolan), no errors -- yields /usr/local/lib/libdts.a primarily

Ok. You'll also need dts.h somewhere in gcc's include path (see below).

> 4) mplayer: ./configure --enable-libdts --enable-win32 && make && make
> install, no errors

You shouldn't need to use --enable-libdts. MPlayer's configure will
autodetect it. Please run './configure | grep dts' to see if configure
is actually finding dts.h somewhere.

> 5) ensured that all appropriate lib locations show up in
> /etc/ld.so.conf, and got no errors with ldconfig

I'm pretty sure libdts gets statically linked anyway.

> 6) ensured that mplayer itself is still working properly by playing
> other titles on this DVD (which don't use dts) -- all systems go
> 
> But when I go to play the main title on this DVD, I get the same
> message I've been getting for the last however many weeks, any time I
> need something dts-related; the mplayer output is listed below.
> 
> In the reading I've done, I've most often encountered people saying
> that the hwdts codec gives them poor quality sound, but I get nothing
> at all.

You'd need to plug a DTS-capable amplifier into your sound card's
digital output. I don't have such an amplifier, so I've never tried it.

> Just to make sure dts shows up, I did a check on the mplayer audio codecs:
> [20:47:47][hyperion] ~$ mplayer -ac help | grep dts
> ffdts       ffmpeg    working   DTS  [dts]
> hwdts       hwac3     working   DTS through S/PDIF
> [20:47:51][hyperion] ~$

Those codecs are supported by mplayer in general, but they aren't
necessarily supported in your build. It's kind of counterintuitive,
especially since '-vo help' and '-ao help' list drivers supported by
that build.

> For curiosity's sake, my soundcard is:
> 02:06.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 0a)

You probably mean something like:
02:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)

Anyway, sblive cards are in general well supported in Linux. I have no
problems playing DTS with my own.

-Corey