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Scooterboy · May 11, 2005, 05:56 PM

M-Audio has updated their Sonica Theater drivers. There are new drivers for 10.3.9 and 10.4.
The new drivers add support for OpenAL and Core Audio. I tried out a 5.1 Dolby Digital DVD and discrete multichannel sound was coming out of all 6 channels (5.1)! VLC still has some Core Audio bugs to work out, but it should be able to decode DD5.1 and route everything through the Sonica Theater. It is now, but not correctly. The channels are all mixed up, with the subwoofer information coming out of the right surround speaker, and the center channel routed to the left surround speaker..... you get the idea. But they're getting closer.

Mithras · May 11, 2005, 08:03 PM

Does DVD Player do DD5.1? Or just some other kind of 5.1?

Scooterboy · May 11, 2005, 08:36 PM

AS far as I know, DVD Player can only do 5.1 pass through to an external decoder, such as an A/V Receiver or Creative DDTS-100.

VLC can decode in software, and then output the multichannel sound. So far, though, the channels are all mixed up. Center channel coming out of left surround speaker, etc.

Scooterboy · May 11, 2005, 08:52 PM

I don't know if this is an issue with the Sonica drivers, or with VLC, or with Core Audio, or any combination of the above. Discrete multi-channel sound, i.e. DD 5.1, on the Mac is a real mess. It is the least "plug and play", the most user unfriendly aspect about Mac OS X. I'm still hoping this is possible without buying another $100 sound card or $150 decoder. This stuff works on a PC, but it's an unholy mess on an Apple.

The DJ · May 15, 2005, 05:33 PM

You can blame Apple. Their commitment to multichannel audio is truly abominal. The technology is all there, they just don't document it, change it's behaviour randomly between updates and don't provide support for developers of drivers and applications. They are only interested in Midi etc. because that earns them more money.

Scooterboy · May 16, 2005, 10:34 PM

Well, I'd think with all the new Mac owners/switchers who want to turn their Mac Minis into Home Theatre systems, there are gonna be some very frustrated customers. You'd think Apple would have a clue when concentrating on producing all these consumer class machines, that multichannel sound would have a higher priority.

The DJ, I just wanted to thank you for all the work you've done bringing VLC to OS X. I know you didn't have to do this, but thank you. I hope you will continue, and I hope Apple's attitude toward multichannel sound will change.

jasong · May 17, 2005, 12:42 AM

Where are the updated drivers? When I go to their site, I see nothing about new drivers.

Scooterboy · May 17, 2005, 06:28 PM

http://m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers

jasong · May 17, 2005, 08:46 PM

Yeah, when I go to the site and look, I see the 1.6 driver that was released on 4/14, and a note posted on 5/4 stating they are working on Tiger compatibility.

Is it right in front of me and I'm just an idiot?

Scooterboy · May 18, 2005, 06:06 PM

Ahh, my bad. I 'm still on 10.3.9. They should have the Tiger drivers out soon. I hope.