DIY DTS decoder

[Jared]

anyone ever attempt somehting like this?
I have been spending some time checking out the zoran decoder on a chip. www.zoran.com. It is a surface mount chip, so that would cause some difficulty, but it looks like it could be simple enough for DIY purposes to get from a DVD player optical or digital output to RCA outputs for use with some gainclones or better. All the other decoding solutions I could find were DSP chips with unclear specifics as to who supplies the software...

[seangoesbonk]

Sorry. Can't be done. Search the forum for threads on this topic.

Because of licencing issues, it is no where near feasible.

[Da5id4Vz]

Crap I just nuked my own post!

I was trying to insert this post about liscensing fees as they would likely apply to the EZ5.1 (ZR7386011)

SiliconSoftware® is supplied by Zoran, and guaranteed to run on the ZR38601 and ZR38650, as well as some older processors and includes reference designs. Some of the SiliconSoftware is royalty free to qualified customers, and some requires licenses and royalties.

The EZ5.1 (ZR7386011) looks like it would be well suited to a DIY aplucation, but it is a reference enviroment, not always the most cost effective for DIY.

[Jared]

found some more threads here by not including DTS in my search this time. Is there a big quality difference between the different solutions used to do the decoding in mainstream receivers? I am thinking my best option at this point mainly due to financial reasons is to get a CHEAP receiver, like a $150 unit and then later on when finances permit it to redo the DAC's on out to the speakers with some gainclones. any chips or brands to avoid with this in mind?

[Da5id4Vz]

Thinking similar thoughts and googling my brains out I found a handful of these things and posted this in an earlier thread:

I think this decoder costs less than $100 US. Ive been thinking about this or one of a few similar devices marketed for desktop computing as the decoder for a similar project.

http://www.videologic.com/Products/...roduct=VL-60510


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[Da5id4Vz]

It would be interesting to see what kind of performance could be achieved with such a device if the incumbent A/D and D/A were bypassed and something a little more esoteric inserted.

I would also avoid the use of digital attenuation and gain, especially on a cheap core like this. Perhaps the DIPCHIP electronics guys could be persuaded to emulate some control code in order to bundle it with there relay based attenuator or digital crossover projects.

Here is the old DTS thread:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...333#post194333

[Jared]

it is actually about $180 with shipping to the USA. Still might be a beter option thatn a cheap receiver, unless one could find a receiver with the same Zoran chip in it...

[rfbrw]

While it is possible to get 6 individual compressed AC3/DTS datastreams, I have not seen any chips that put out 6 decompressed datastreams.
Given that the specs for both AC3 and DTS are freely available perhaps someone can design a board to create 6 uncompressed
datastream.

ray.

[Schaef]

Originally posted by rfbrw
While it is possible to get 6 individual compressed AC3/DTS datastreams, I have not seen any chips that put out 6 decompressed datastreams.
Given that the specs for both AC3 and DTS are freely available perhaps someone can design a board to create 6 uncompressed
datastream.

ray.

Uhm, unless you know the source, DTS is NOT freely available. AC3, in early incarnations can be found with some digging, though. (I used to have a copy of it, but I think I got rid of it) For AC3, look for standards about HDTV, as that's how I found my copy.

If you know of a source for DTS, I would be interested in seeing it.

[PWatts]

Not entirely impossible...
Don't know if I should be saying this, but it can be done. A fellow student and I wanted to use a home cinema decoder as subject for research for our Masters Degree. Enquiries to both Dolby & DTS for academic licenses has been most favourable, especially from DTS. They've even offered to organize samples of the newest Motorola DSP's (THX-Ultra capabality etc.) which aren't even used in any commercial equipment yet. I doubt wheteher it would be useful to the DIY community as we had to provide full credentials, University details, references from mentor lecturers and even the dean. We'll try to post some of our research here (censored of course).

Pierre Watts