shark's win7 codecs + reclock wasapi excl. = sweet audio

Meocene · *Last edited by Meocene; 12-04-2010 at 23:50.*

thought i'd share this.
using this combination i get a huge boost in sound quality (onboard soundmax 1988b). the difference is surprising.

i dont do any adjustments to the video, like locking the vids fps to my moniters refresh rate. i just set up ffdshow to output 32bit float to reclock, set reclock to adjust to 16bit (16bit pcm's all my soundmax supports), and use wasapi exclusive for output.

i think reclock needs the haali splitter. using sharks config panels you can set haali as the default splitter for all containers. also, in the "swap" panel, disable windows media audio decoder and enable windows media foundation.

ROBSCIX · 12-04-2010, 16:37 | posts: 16,079 | Location: Guru3D Audio Lab

You can get boosts in sound quality by using specific filters, effects and renders but you will always be limited by the lower sound quality of the onboard audio chip.
Have you considered getting a soundcard?

Meocene · 12-04-2010, 23:44 | posts: 203

what i don't get is why wasapi exc' makes such a huge difference to an onboard?

i've gone from a pretty flat stereo image and muddy bass to an great image and seamless bass. no need to blind abx. the difference is night and day.

if i had an x-fi for example, do creative replace/disable the windows mixer?
assuming they don't, i'm guessing any audio in windows that isn't being routed using asio or wasapi exc' first goes through the windows audio stack, then through the x-fi's dsp (unless it's set to creation mode)?
i know the 20k2 resamples pretty much transparently, but judging from the difference i'm hearing the win7 audio stack is pretty destructive, despite outputing 32float by default.

is it windows that's killing the audio, or soundmax's drivers?
if it's the drivers, why would using wasapi exc' make any difference to an onboard?

deltatux · 12-05-2010, 00:21 | posts: 18,773 | Location: Toronto, Canada

where can you find this "wasapi exc"?

deltatux

Redemption80 · 12-05-2010, 01:20 | posts: 13,433 | Location: Glasgow

In ReClock settings, Audio Interfaces To Use For....

deltatux · 12-05-2010, 03:12 | posts: 18,773 | Location: Toronto, Canada

Where's this "ReClock" settings in Shark's codecs?

deltatux

Meocene · 12-05-2010, 13:19 | posts: 203

there's no setting for reclock in ffdshow itself.
i don't use ffdshow on it's own though. ffdshow is included along with just about every other codec and splitter in shark's codec pack. i just installed reclock after installing shark's, set pcm and bitstream to use wasapi, then played a vid.
a little reclock window pops up letting you choose how wmplayer uses reclock (just this once, always, etc), and that's it.

there's one minor downside, custom matrix's don't work.
being able to output L,C,R,LFE was cool, but reclock doesn't like it.

I just click Shark007 SUGGESTED settings then go through the tabs and change all containers to use haali (read somewhere it's best to use haali with reclock - haven't bothered trying any other), and here's everything else:

setup like that, this is what reclock gets

what's great about this is what works in WMP also works in MCE.

always run sharks settings app with admin rights