Dolby Headphone Technology on the PC

[Denon]

After checking out the following demonstration of Dolby's Headphone Technology,
I was amazed and had to have it for my PC.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/headphone.html

I actually found a free and flexible way to use this on my PC.

Here's what you need to download / use:

- dolbyhph.dll (ver 1.10.0.270) which is supplied from PowerDVD
(you can  retreive it from the demo, trial install)

http://www.tucows.com/preview/213357

- Foobar2000 v0.9.2
http://www.foobar200.com

- Foobar compatible plugins for 0.8.3 (DTS / AC3, Nero AAC, etc)
http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/foobar2000/

- Dolby Headphone Wrapper (foo_dsp_dolbyhp)
...many thx to the dev who wrote this...
http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/plugins/redir.php?id=584

copy all .dll plugins and
"C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\AudioFilter\dolbyhph.dll"
to:
"C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components\"

After you have copied dolbyhph.dll, you can uninstall PowerDVD if you want to.

Follow this guide for tuning your audio playback with Foobar2000.
It's a very short, easy / straightforward guide to get the best possible
sound from your computer's sound card with Foobar2000.

http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/foobar/

For me, I have an Audigy 2 Value card in a AMD64 3500+ computer.
Here's my foobar2000 settings that work great for me:

Options (Preferences) ->
   
-> Playback:
   
- 32bit fixed-point
- Dither Unselected

-> Playback -> DSP Manager -> Active DSPs:
   
- Resampler (SSRC)
- Advanced Limiter
- Dolby Headphone (DH2-Live Room for Music Playback)
- Make sure you configure the location of the dolbyhph.dll to point to:
"C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components\" within
Foobar2000 -> Preferenses -> Playback -> DSP Manager -> Dolby Headphone.

Playback -> Output method:
- Kernel Streaming

Make sure you extract the attached foo_out_ks.zip (kernel streaming plugin) file into
"C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components\"  as I can't remember if it was included
 by the Foobar2000 v0.8.3 installer or not.

Need support? have questions?

Post them at:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=28

[kay]

Very cool tip! Thanks, I'll try it when I get home

[Denon]

If anyone is in need of a good quality *cheap* sound card then you should
pickup a Chaintech AV-710 Sound Card. In Canada it costs around $30.

The card is ideal for S/PDIF Optical Out to your Receiver and
2 Channel Analog as well (Pair of speakers or headphones).

Here's some more info about the Chaintech AV-710 and it's Envy24HT-S APU:

http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3616

I also use FLAC for my lossless encoding of CD's, etc.
(Open Source - Free Lossless Audio Codec)
http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

Windows Media Player - Directshow Filters for Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and FLAC:
http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/

Windows Media Player - AAC/aacPlus Plugin:
http://www.orban.com/plugin/

WMP Tag Support Extender:
http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/

[Denon]

Hey kay,

Did you have a chance to install Foobar2000  and the Dolby Headphone wrapper? if so, what did you think of it?

[kay]

Nope, just got back after 2 weeks away from computers Will give it a bash at some point but right now is a bad time. Think sifting through thousands of emails etc.

[skinnyfat]

- Dolby Headphone Wrapper (foo_dsp_dolbyhp)
...many thx to the dev who wrote this...
http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/plugins/redir.php?id=584


Hey Denon, This link is dead I think, An ideas ?

[Byrd]

If anybody has not found it yet

Another link - http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/plugins/dsp.php

[skinnyfat]

Thanks for that

[skinnyfat]

Just to let you know, I had issues with foobar ver 0.8.x but have since installed ver 0.9.2 and it works a treat

NOTE: I have edited the original post to indicate ver 0.9.2 (sorry Denon) and I will also post the dolbyhp.dll to save you from downloading the whole demo.