AC3 / SPDIF issues and solutions

[Maxim]

Hello.
My PC is connected via SPDIF output to the receiver and I always had problems with getting it to work properly. It happened with XP and Vista. Sometimes I was able to get it to work, but don't have exact solution since I tried many different things, sometimes I gave up until next reinstall of operating system. Now I just installed Windows 7 and after some research came to conclusion that this codec pack is the best solution. But after installation I got first problem: playing back movies with AC3 sound caused noise instead of normal sound. After playing with settings (unfortunately don't remember what exactly I did) I manged to get sound, but here came second problem: receiver was getting PCM instead of Dolby signal. Looking for the problem resolution I discovered GraphEdit tool and playing with it found that ArcSoft Audio Decoder that stays in filter graph after AC3Filter causes the problem so I disabled it. (On the help TAB of the settings application there is a button 'List Enable/Disable Codecs' that will allow you to disable the offending codec.)
In the beginning I thought that this codec is a part of the Shark007's codec pack since I didn't explicitly install any codecs, but then I found, that it is part of a software that came with Leadtek TV capture card.
I'm sharing this information with the community in hope that it might help somebody with similar problem. Important point is that codecs can appear in your system and you might not be aware about it.

[Shark007]

I've made some huge improvements on how I handle S/PDIF integration.
I suggest nstalling current versions for Windows 7.