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Showing results for tags 'balanced output'.
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Routing 5.1 from internal DVD to Focusrite 18i20
David Harrison posted a question in Questions and Answers
Here's my dilemma: Our local community theater stages mostly plays and musicals. They have a small theater with what amounts to a 5.1 surround system (L,R,C,RR,LR,LFE) permanently installed. They use this primarily for sound effects and music cues in plays and sound reinforcement in musicals. They have a desktop PC to run their SFX cues and a Focusrite 18i20 USB interface to route the sound to their console which then routes the audio to their 6 active speakers through balanced +4 Db lines. All this works fine and sounds lovely. Now, they have decided to fill in some gaps in their schedule with "Family Movie Nights." They have contracted with Swank for the public performance rights of the "films" and Swank will provide the media in the form of a blu-ray DVD. I want to help them make the right choices in terms of playing that media from their current system. They have, as of yet, not purchased a blu-ray player and they have essentially three choices: 1.) A stand-alone DVD player 2.) Add a USB DVD player 3.) Add an internal player I have found no stand-alone DVD players with professional output levels and interfacing consumer gear into this console is somewhat problematic so this is not my first choice. An external USB DVD would be the best solution because it would mean zero downtime for their computer. An internal player is possible, but properly interfacing the drive with the motherboard is always a challenge. (FWIW--MoBo is MSI -7693) Regarding playback from a PC, what I am most unclear about is the middleware that will allow us to route the audio from the DVD to the 18i20 to get the audio to the console (SFAIK--there is no "surround decoder" in the 18i20. It will need discrete channels.). What software is best to use to play the show? We, of course, would also like the drive to be reliable (and rugged) so your thoughts on brand and model would be greatly appreciated. I am also wondering if there are any DRM compatibility issues that are distinct to audio that I should worry about or if that is all handled in the DVD device. So what say ye? Am I doomed or is there an easy answer?