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Author Topic: Building a PC help Fernando Caldeira Film Handler Posts: 45 From: Lisbon , Portugal Registered: Mar 2010 posted 05-14-2014 06:09 AM                        Hi, I´m trying to build a PC/server to play video files. .Mov .MP4 etc. The goal is to have a machine that is has close to a Digital Cinema Server as possible without the incovinience of playing only DCPs. Right now my biggest problem is the sound card. I´ve been searching for one that I could connect to de Cinema Sound Processor directly in to the 6 channel analog DB25 plug. Is there such a thing? I´ve olny been able to find 5.1 in digital output or with XLR. I could make a cable XLR to DB25 but that woudn´t be very "clean" would it? Can I buy the Sound card that Digital Cinema Servers have? Where can I find one? I tried to look for the answers in the furum but could not find them. Thanks for the Help. Fernando  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 05-14-2014 10:36 AM                    If you want it to be server-like then you'd have it putting out 3 or 4 AES/EBU pairs, not analog. If I Google "PC sound card AES EBU," I see various options. If you want a sound card that puts out analog audio, those are available, too. Appropriate player software to do what you want is another matter but likely exists as well. That's as far as my limited knowledge takes me.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-14-2014 12:14 PM                     Power DVD 14 has internal decoding for a lot of different audio formats, including the various Dolby & DTS lossy & lossless formats. It will play back 4K material and 3D material (typically from Blu-ray discs). It has a list of HD audio compatible sound cards. Maybe one or more would have the AES EBU output capability: Realtek ALC679X (support up to 192kHz/24bit 2-6 channels) Realtek ALC898 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 2-8 channels) Realtek ALC899 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 2-8 channels) Realtek ALC672 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 2-6 channels) Realtek ALC885 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 2-channels or 96kHz/24bit 4-8 channels) Realtek ALC889 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 2-channels or 96kHz/24bit 4-8 channels) Realtek ALC669 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 6 channels) Realtek ALC670 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 6 channels) Realtek ALC892 (support up to 192kHz/24bit 8 channels) VIA EnvyHD Vinyl VT1818S codec (support up to 192kHz/24bit 8-channels) VIA EnvyHD Vinyl VT1828S codec (support up to 192kHz/24bit 8-channels) VIA EnvyHD Vinyl VT2020 codec (support up to 192kHz/24bit 8-channels) Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD (supports HDMI 1.3a bit-stream lossless pass-through) AMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 Series graphics cards supporting lossless pass-through NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 Series graphics cards supporting lossless pass-through Intel Core i3/i5/i7 with integrated audio and graphics  |  IP: Logged Ron Ellis Film Handler Posts: 20 From: In my Home Theater in Concord California Registered: Feb 2014 posted 05-14-2014 12:44 PM                     Would a MAudio Delta 1010 soundcard work for you? http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta1010LT.html You could also use JRiver MC19 for software...  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-15-2014 02:09 PM                        This might be helpful too: QUVIS  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 05-15-2014 04:25 PM                     quote: Fernando Caldeira I´ve been searching for one that I could connect to de Cinema Sound Processor directly in to the 6 channel analog DB25 plug. What cinema processor do you have? Depending on the specific CP, there are different options for multichannel audio. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged John Roddy Expert Film Handler Posts: 114 From: Spring, TX, United States Registered: Dec 2012 posted 05-15-2014 04:34 PM                        As Carsten said, it depends on the sound processor. It might be possible to build a cable that can take the audio from the 3.5mm outputs on the motherboard/sound card (green, black, and orange for six channel, and I think gray added in for eight channel), and lead to an input on the processor. The best case scenario would be if you could plug directly into it with HDMI, but the CP850 is the only processor I'm aware of with HDMI inputs. And even then, I'm pretty sure those haven't been software-enabled yet. Also, if you have an IMB with HDMI in, you could probably run through that. The SX-2000 new IMB we use at my theater can handle full 7.1 through HDMI. You could run a full 1080p picture through there too. Software-wise, you can get it all for free. Just get the K-lite codec pack or something. You'll get all sorts of visual and audio customization options on there. VLC Player is another good option. I've gotten beautiful picture and full 5.1 audio from both. They even do blu-ray playback these days.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 05-15-2014 05:15 PM                     Since you want to have something that works like a Digital Cinema Server, I guess you also want something with multiple digital video outputs? One output dedicated to playback and the other to operations? Did you already decide what OS you're going to use?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-15-2014 11:21 PM                     I'd be doing Ubuntu Linux for my OS if I was going that route - none of this Windows Server nonsense.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-16-2014 06:41 PM                        Since no one has asked this yet...are you outputting the picture using a regular graphics card (VGA/DVI) or using an HD-SDI card? If the latter, you really want to use an HD-SDI disembedder to give you either AES or analog audio from the HD-SDI stream. AJA and Blackmagic (among others) make these. There is some latency in the HD-SDI cards, so there will be sync issues if you output the sound with a regular sound card (though that can be solved with a digital delay in the processor or D-A converter). If I were doing this, I think that I would approach it as a broadcast playout server. There are inexpensive HD-SDI output cards (e.g. Blackmagic Decklink series and the equivalent from AJA) and there is freely available software for this sort of task. The only issue that I can think of with HD-SDI output is that it will output at the frame rate of the file, so a playlist of files with a mix of frame rates will cause the picture to bounce or roll at the transition points unless you convert all of your files to the same frame rate (e.g. 59.94 or 50Hz). If you wanted to get slick, you could automate a series of commands for douser-close, pause, douser-open at the transition points. Or it might just be easier to buy a prebuilt box that does this sort of thing. The AJA Ki-Pro is the most common unit, but many others are available from Blackmagic, Grass Valley, etc.  |  IP: Logged Fernando Caldeira Film Handler Posts: 45 From: Lisbon , Portugal Registered: Mar 2010 posted 05-16-2014 09:13 PM                        First of all thank you for all the answers, sugestions and questions. Our equipment. We will be equiping 2 rooms. One with the DTS 6AD witch is running with the barco DP90, Doremi DCP2000 and the Barco ACS2048. And the other with a dolby cp650, Nec 3240s with IMB and also the ACS. We have been using Media player classic with te Klite in a "normal" windows PC and it works but it´s not very reliable and has its bugs. The sound card only outputs stereo and its conected to a sound desk witch in turn gos in to the nonsinc. It works but....I´m looking for a professional way of playing files that are not DCP. Ithought about the OS and the linux is verysweet, specialy when i have all kind of formated hard drives, but then will media plaier work on it? VLC is just to unstable with heavy prores files...so witch player to use with linux? Has i´m using the ACS and the SDI plug already is being used i was thinking of a dual DVI Matrox video card. FYI - SSD 250gb for OS only 2x1TB HDD 7200RPM -Raid 10 16GB Ram Matrox M-series Sound card ?? Bluray Drive What are your thoughts?? Thanks Fernando  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-17-2014 06:43 AM                        Under Linux, I have had the most success with mplayer as the playback software. It runs on Windows, too, and plays pretty much anything. Set it up as a two-monitor system and then run this command mplayer -osdlevel 0 -monitoraspect 1.78 -fs -xineramascreen 1 to send the full-screen picture to one of the monitors, while keeping the control window on the other one. It works best if you use a window manager that can be configured to have no on-screen icons, no window borders, and a black background (I have a hacked-up fvwm configuration for this).  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-17-2014 02:09 PM                     I've been wanting to do something similar. The part I've always wondered about was weather there was a piece of software that would allow me to easily assign serial output cues to a specific timecode on a video file. Something I could use to automatically trigger lights at credits...  |  IP: Logged Fernando Caldeira Film Handler Posts: 45 From: Lisbon , Portugal Registered: Mar 2010 posted 05-17-2014 10:53 PM                        There are virtual light desks...supose you could use one..but then you would need to have a DMX output to the Dimmers ...or just a USB conection to a "real" light desk. Think moast light deks have time cue... just use a countdown timer on the light desk plug in to coincide with the credits. That might work  |  IP: Logged Fernando Caldeira Film Handler Posts: 45 From: Lisbon , Portugal Registered: Mar 2010 posted 05-23-2014 09:12 AM                        Any suggestions for the sound card solution?  |  IP: Logged

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