eac3to - audio conversion tool

[Thunderbolt8]

How does eac3to handle 7 and 8 channel lpcm tracks?
Does the -blu-ray switch remap thoose correct when converting to flac?

Is there anyway to preserve all 8 channels when decoding a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track?

BTW ea3to says that the dts-hd ma track is just a dts (the core) when the m2ts is demuxed with h264tsto (Rush Hour 3 and Kingdom of Heaven)
I have just joined and demuxed kingdom of heaven with copy /b and xport successfully, without any error message. atm im converting the dts-hd ma track to flac (1/4 done so far), no error yet here.

edit: its finished now and the only unusual thing was "the last DTS frame is incomplete and thus gets skipped". but as long as the track works fine in the mkv it shouldnt matter, im not watching till the absolute end of credits anyway :P

another thing, the dtshd file's size is 5,06GB and reported as 24-bit, but the final flac file's size is only 4,37GB. shouldnt 24-bit flac files supposed to be bigger than the source files? there was no message that this track was only a 16-bit track and therefore zero bits have been stripped.

[rickardk]

I have just joined and demuxed kingdom of heaven with copy /b and xport successfully, without any error message. atm im converting the dts-hd ma track to flac (1/4 done so far), no error yet here.

edit: its finished now and the only unusual thing was "the last DTS frame is incomplete and thus gets skipped". but as long as the track works fine in the mkv it shouldnt matter, im not watching till the absolute end of credits anyway :P

another thing, the dtshd file's size is 5,06GB and reported as 24-bit, but the final flac file's size is only 4,37GB. shouldnt 24-bit flac files supposed to be bigger than the source files? there was no message that this track was only a 16-bit track and therefore zero bits have been stripped.

Can't understand why I get the same error when demuxing two diffrent sources with xport 1.0. It drives me crazy.

Can it be a bad press?
How old are your release?

[madshi]

another thing, the dtshd file's size is 5,06GB and reported as 24-bit, but the final flac file's size is only 4,37GB. shouldnt 24-bit flac files supposed to be bigger than the source files?
Nope.

[Thunderbolt8]

btw. could there be any problem with that last frame skipping of that dts-hd ma track, when I should play it via a hardware decoder/receiver whatever (when these things become available/cheaper) ? I mean not at that very last moment of the audio but in general, so that it would refuse to play the whole track. if not, then I wont bother try to demux and convert it again, because it took ages with that size and movie length.

[Snowknight26]

yfred wrote this:

here ya go, 27mb sample: http://rapidshare.com/files/79993689/stream.pcm.html

if you try to use eac3to on it:


C:\LPCM>eac3to stream.pcm
This might be a RAW/PCM file. Trying to figure out the details.
This will probably take a while. Please be patient...
Was not able to figure out all parameters of this RAW/PCM file.
Please specify channel, bitdepth and endian parameters via command line.


The actual file demuxed from m2ts:



F:\QUEEN_ROCK_MONTREAL\BDMV\STREAM>xport -h 00000.m2ts 1 0 1
xport Transport Stream Demuxer 1.00
program = 1, video channel = 0, audio channel = 1
Program Number = 0 (0x0000), Program Map PID = 31 (0x001f)
Program Number = 1 (0x0001), Program Map PID = 256 (0x0100)
program descriptor = 0x05, 0x04, 0x48, 0x44, 0x4d, 0x56
program descriptor = 0x88, 0x04, 0x0f, 0xff, 0xff, 0xfc
ES descriptor for stream type 0xea = 0x05, 0x06, 0x56, 0x43, 0x2d, 0x31, 0x01, 0
x94
Audio PID = 4352 <0x1100>, type = 0x80
ES descriptor for stream type 0x80 = 0x05, 0x08, 0x48, 0x44, 0x4d, 0x56, 0xff, 0
x80, 0x31, 0xff
ES descriptor for stream type 0x81 = 0x05, 0x04, 0x41, 0x43, 0x2d, 0x33
ES descriptor for stream type 0x81 = 0x81, 0x04, 0x06, 0x28, 0x04, 0x00
LPCM Audio Mode = 2/0
LPCM Audio Bits/sample = 24
LPCM Audio Sample Rate = 48000

[shanghai2004]

@shanghai2004, since h264tsto doesn't work, either, the problem must be caused by the Haali filters. There's nothing I can do about this. You could try demuxing the video to a raw file and then dropping it into mkvtoolnix. Maybe it works, maybe not. If it works, make sure that the audio sync is correct cause muxing h264 with mkvtoolnix can eventually result in audio sync problems.

Thanks for the response!
As temp solution, for the Eagles disk I'm using now the Graphedit -> Avisynth -> x264 route. First try does work but with small sync problems, I need to look into that. Luckily, eac3to does work on the LPCM file, so I can enjoy lossless audio.

To be sure:
Tried eac3to on several other HD-DVD disks I have here and the program does work for everything else I tried, so I would like to thank you for this great program.

Keep up the good work!

[act.anon]

Thanks for the great tool! Successfully remuxed video to mkv and transcoded TrueHD to FLAC with 10 movies so far.

However:

eac3to D:\video1.EVO
This VC-1 aspect ratio is currently not supported.
EVO, 2 audio tracks, 2:03:53
1: AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, 69ms
2: AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, 69ms

eac3to D:\video2.EVO
This VC-1 aspect ratio is currently not supported.
EVO, 2 audio tracks, 2:23:07
1: AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, 82ms
2: AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, 82ms

Tried reripping, same problem with two different videos. Maybe support will be added in the next version?

Sample from video1 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/3f0mrb)

Sample from video2 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/wc6smq)

[madshi]

yfred wrote this:

here ya go, 27mb sample: http://rapidshare.com/files/79993689/stream.pcm.html

if you try to use eac3to on it: [...]
eac3to's PCM/raw detection logic has some problems with music PCM/raw tracks. These music tracks don't compress as well as movie tracks do. That throws off eac3to. Anyway, just give in the track parameters manually and you should be done. In your case that should be "eac3to stream.pcm dest.wav -2 -24 -big".

[olivierdb]

I've tried to make an MKV(VC-1,Flac) of my HD-DVD movie "300". Unfortunately, I get the following error:

C:\>C:\eac3to.exe "M:\HD Movies\300\300_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\feature_300NDOM6LF1VC1_HD
1.EVO"+"M:\HD Movies\300\300_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\feature_300NDOM6LF1VC1_HD1_Divide.EV
O" 2: video.mkv 5: audio.flac
EVO, 2 video tracks, 5 audio tracks, 1:56:33
1: Joined EVO file
2: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001
3: VC-1, 480p30 /1.001
4: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: TrueHD, 5.1 channels, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
6: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
7: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
8: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
Muxing video to Matroska...
Extracting audio track number 5...
Removing dialog normalization...
Encoding FLAC...
Creating/writing file "audio.24bit.flac"...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------[
mlp @ 68A4E2E0]End of stream indicated
[mlp @ 68A4E2E0]Substream 1 parity check failed
[mlp @ 68A4E2E0]Substream 1 checksum failed
[mlp @ 68A4E2E0]Substream 1 length mismatch.
The libav decoder reported an error while decoding.


Any idea why this isn't working? How can I get this to work?

Thanks

[Thunderbolt8]

had the same, use the -nero switch (libav truehd decoder error)

[Thunderbolt8]

some cosmetics, I tried to use eac3to to remux galapagos HD DVD, which is 1080i @29.97(?) fps. at the timestamps rewriting stage I got an mkvmerge error message, which I also get with normal mkvmerge remuxing when I do so and specify timestamps, because afaik this is not intended here, the video is just muxed again without entering any timestamps with mkvmerge, then it should be fine. luckily eac3to didnt do any rewriting over the video up to that stage so it was still fine afterwards. so maybe the error message could be removed in those cases of movies with different fps rates or just the timestamps rewriting stage skipped at all (do you need a sample of that galapagos .evo?)

[madshi]

some cosmetics, I tried to use eac3to to remux galapagos HD DVD, which is 1080i @29.97(?) fps. at the timestamps rewriting stage I got an mkvmerge error message, which I also get with normal mkvmerge remuxing when I do so and specify timestamps, because afaik this is not intended here, the video is just muxed again without entering any timestamps with mkvmerge, then it should be fine. luckily eac3to didnt do any rewriting over the video up to that stage so it was still fine afterwards. so maybe the error message could be removed in those cases of movies with different fps rates or just the timestamps rewriting stage skipped at all (do you need a sample of that galapagos .evo?)
That mkvmerge error is a bug in mkvmerge, so there's nothing I need to change in eac3to. For 1080i60 content eac3to tries to rewrite timestamps to 29.97, and sometimes that works.

[madshi]

eac3to v2.13 released

http://madshi.net/eac3to.zip

* added option to downmix multi channel audio to stereo
* added support for VC-1 custom aspect ratios
* added stdout output support
For "stdout" output you can do e.g.:

eac3to source.ac3 stdout.wav
eac3to source.mlp stdout.raw -down16
So basically use it as if you wanted to write a file, just use "stdout.*" as the file name. eac3to will then produce the audio data in the specified format and output that to stdout.

[madshi]

eac3to D:\video1.EVO
This VC-1 aspect ratio is currently not supported.
Fixed in v2.13. However, the Haali Matroska Muxer still doesn't like these files. That's not the fault of eac3to, though.

[Thunderbolt8]

That mkvmerge error is a bug in mkvmerge, so there's nothing I need to change in eac3to. For 1080i60 content eac3to tries to rewrite timestamps to 29.97, and sometimes that works.
what I mean is that gdsmux in that case keeps the original timestamps so there should be no need to rewrite them to 29.97 at all. so i dont know if an additional mux with mkvmerge is needed, if yes, then also here with specifying no timestamps

[nautilus7]

Thanks madshi for the update!

[mmoore99]

I am having a problem getting eac3to to recognize the Nero audio codec. I successfully installed Nero 7 Ultra Edtion. The Nero filters appear in GSpot. However when I run eac3to -test, it says "Nero Audio Decoder (Nero 7 or older) is not working correctly." Any suggestions as to how to resolve this?

Thanks.

[nautilus7]

It's been discussed here before.

You have to buy the hd dvd/blu-ray plug-in for nero.

[Chumbo]

what I mean is that gdsmux in that case keeps the original timestamps so there should be no need to rewrite them to 29.97 at all. so i dont know if an additional mux with mkvmerge is needed, if yes, then also here with specifying no timestamps
I'm not an expert when it comes to MKVs, but I've noticed that when you run them through gdsmux, you do have to rerun the resulting mkv through mkvmerge with the proper timecodes file. I use MPC and noticed that it does NOT recognize the fps of an MKV file when you only use gdsmux, but it does once you run it through mkvmerge with the correct fps timecodes file.

So I guess what I'm trying to say, is from what I've noticed, yes the timecodes do need to be rewritten. :)

[act.anon]

Fixed in v2.13. However, the Haali Matroska Muxer still doesn't like these files. That's not the fault of eac3to, though.

Thanks madshi!

[Thunderbolt8]

I'm not an expert when it comes to MKVs, but I've noticed that when you run them through gdsmux, you do have to rerun the resulting mkv through mkvmerge with the proper timecodes file. I use MPC and noticed that it does NOT recognize the fps of an MKV file when you only use gdsmux, but it does once you run it through mkvmerge with the correct fps timecodes file.

So I guess what I'm trying to say, is from what I've noticed, yes the timecodes do need to be rewritten. :)
afaik you indeed do have to make a rerun with mkvmerge yes, but not specify any timecodes for 1080i stuff. from all 1080i caps ive seen and remuxed so far the audio was out of sync when I entered timestaps like 23.9760, 25 or 29.97. it only remained in sync when I entered nothing there and basically just re-ran the file I got from gdsmux with mkvmerge again.

[madshi]

afaik you indeed do have to make a rerun with mkvmerge yes, but not specify any timecodes for 1080i stuff. from all 1080i caps ive seen and remuxed so far the audio was out of sync when I entered timestaps like 23.9760, 25 or 29.97. it only remained in sync when I entered nothing there and basically just re-ran the file I got from gdsmux with mkvmerge again.
Rewriting timestamps for 1080i60 caps with 29.97 should work and give correct audio sync. If you don't like the rewriting you can turn it off by using the "-dontRewritePts" switch.

[Fred7777]

Hi to everybody

First I would like to thank all of you for the great job.

I use eac3to to trancode some eac3 tracks to ac3. When I try the command line : eac3to -test, the log returns that Nero Audio Decoder is not working correctly. I have a Nero 7 version installed (7.10.1.0) and the version of Nero Audio Decoder filter is 2.3.26.0. The eac3to -sonic command line works perfectly but I would like to use Nero filter instead of Sonic because I have read that Nero is better.
Could someone help me ?

Thanks to all.
Fred.

[Beastie Boy]

The Nero decoders are NOT included in Nero package. You need to purchase and register the Nero HD DVD/BluRay plugin.

Madshi, perhaps this should be added in big, bold letters as part of the first post in this thread.

Cheers, Beastie.

[madshi]

Madshi, perhaps this should be added in big, bold letters as part of the first post in this thread.
Well, it's already in the first post and also in the eac3to help text. Maybe just not bold enough yet? There are many important things in the first post, though. Maybe I should make it all bold and big? :D

[Fred7777]

This is not clear for me. I have Nero Audio Decoder 2 in the list of directshow filters in Graphedit. Do you mean that the filter is in the list but not available until I register it ?
In this case I will purchase it on the Nero website.

:thanks:

Fred.

[Beastie Boy]

This is not clear for me. I have Nero Audio Decoder 2 in the list of directshow filters in Graphedit. Do you mean that the filter is in the list but not available until I register it ?

Fred.

Correct.

[madshi]

This is not clear for me.
What part of the following extract from the eac3to help text is not clear to you?

For best AC3, E-AC3 and TrueHD decoding you need:
(1) Nero 7 (Nero 8 won't work!)
(2) Nero HD-DVD / Blu-Ray plugin
Don't you guys read the help text? Or do you think that the help text is wrong?

:confused:

[scarbrtj]

Madshi:

I have been using eac3to for a while. This has become the most important piece of software in my life :) I noticed the new -down2 switch; nice feature. Also I noticed that now you can mux the video streams of separate EVOs into one .mkv?

I have been going through vc1conv to change the framerate to 23.976 and then vc12avi to get AVIs and then AVI-mux GUI to merge the AVIs into a .mkv. Do I need to do all that? Or just use eac3to and it takes care of the framerates and gives me a perfectly playable file? And once you make the .mkv with eac3to do you still need to go back and mux in your dts or ac3 stream? What do you use... mkvmerge?

[madshi]

I noticed that now you can mux the video streams of separate EVOs into one .mkv?
Yep.

I have been going through vc1conv to change the framerate to 23.976 and then vc12avi to get AVIs and then AVI-mux GUI to merge the AVIs into a .mkv. Do I need to do all that? Or just use eac3to and it takes care of the framerates and gives me a perfectly playable file?
You can just use eac3to which should give you a perfectly playable (video only) MKV. No need for vc1conv + vc12avi etc, as far as I can say. Of course if you try eac3to and find some problems, please post a report here.

And once you make the .mkv with eac3to do you still need to go back and mux in your dts or ac3 stream? What do you use... mkvmerge?
eac3to creates a MKV file with only the video track in it plus some external audio files. With some media players you can play the movie directly this way. If you wish, you can mux some selected audio tracks (and also some SRT subtitles, if you wish) into the MKV in an additional step by using mkvtoolnix.

[scarbrtj]

Thanks madshi. To get me started, let's say I have two EVO files, one is pevob1.evo and the other pevob2.evo. They are VC-1 video, and a DTS-HD track #1 and a AC-3 track #2. If I just want to keep the AC-3 track, what's the command line? And if the files had Dolby TrueHD track as #1 audio track and I wanted to merge the EVO videos and convert the TrueHD --> AC3 is there a "one-step" command to make it happen?
:thanks:

[madshi]

Thanks madshi. To get me started, let's say I have two EVO files, one is pevob1.evo and the other pevob2.evo. They are VC-1 video, and a DTS-HD track #1 and a AC-3 track #2. If I just want to keep the AC-3 track, what's the command line? And if the files had Dolby TrueHD track as #1 audio track and I wanted to merge the EVO videos and convert the TrueHD --> AC3 is there a "one-step" command to make it happen?
It's all possible. The video track(s) and the audio tracks all get numbers by eac3to. Just do "eac3to pevob1.evo+pevob2.evo" first. You'll get a listing of video and audio tracks that way. Then you can in one command line execute all the tasks you'd like. E.g. "eac3to pevob1.evo+pevob2.evo 2:Video.mkv 3:Englisch.ac3" in case the video track has number 2 and the TrueHD track has number 3.

[scarbrtj]

Madshi thanks for all the help today. It is time IMHO for you to put up a really nice webpage with a link for donations.

When you are converting to DTS by using Surcode within eac3to... is the output in compact, padded, or wav DTS format? And why did you choose the particular output option which is used?

[mmoore99]

eac3to creates a MKV file with only the video track in it plus some external audio files. With some media players you can play the movie directly this way. If you wish, you can mux some selected audio tracks (and also some SRT subtitles, if you wish) into the MKV in an additional step by using mkvtoolnix.Madshi, first of all, thanks for all of the work you have done on this program. You have really simplified things for us!

Regarding the quote above...if the objective is to mux some audio tracks with the video .mkv that eac3to creates, is it necessary to run the audio and video through "gdsmux" before using "mkvtoolnix"? I am a little confused regarding the difference between "gdsmux" and "mkvtoolnix" and I am asking this due to some earlier comments in the thread regarding the need to do both.

Also, while we're at it... how does what "h264tsto" does compare to "dgsmux" and "mkvtoolnix"?

Thanks, in advance, for your clarification.

[Snowknight26]

There isn't any way to rebuild EVOs with just a single specified video track, is there? I guess you can do the whole EVO by using eac3to evo1.evo+evo2.evo rebuilt.evo (I think, haven't tried it), but thats not what I'm after.

[madshi]

When you are converting to DTS by using Surcode within eac3to... is the output in compact, padded, or wav DTS format? And why did you choose the particular output option which is used?
Compact because that's what you get when you demux DVD, HD DVD or Blu-Ray DTS tracks. Also that's what all freeware software packages (which can handle DTS) expect.

[madshi]

Regarding the quote above...if the objective is to mux some audio tracks with the video .mkv that eac3to creates, is it necessary to run the audio and video through "gdsmux" before using "mkvtoolnix"? I am a little confused regarding the difference between "gdsmux" and "mkvtoolnix" and I am asking this due to some earlier comments in the thread regarding the need to do both.
Just drop the eac3to created MKV file into mkvtoolnix and add the audio tracks. No need to use gdsmux.

Also, while we're at it... how does what "h264tsto" does compare to "dgsmux" and "mkvtoolnix"?
gdsmux and h264tsto are more or less comparable. They do the same thing. Both are based on Haali's splitter and MKV muxing code. mkvtoolnix is different. It can't do some of the things that gdsmux/h264tsto do. It can do some of the things that gdsmux and h264tsto are doing - but does them in a different way. And it can also do some things that gdsmux/h264tsto can not do.

When using eac3to for HD DVD remuxing you don't need gdsmux and h264tsto. You only need mkvtoolnix to add the audio tracks.

[madshi]

There isn't any way to rebuild EVOs with just a single specified video track, is there?
Yes, by using EvoDemux... :) Not by using eac3to, though.

[mmoore99]

Just drop the eac3to created MKV file into mkvtoolnix and add the audio tracks. No need to use gdsmux.

When doing this is there any need to add a timecode file?

[madshi]

When doing this is there any need to add a timecode file?
No. eac3to calls mkvtoolnix to rewrite the timestamps for you. So the mkv file eac3to outputs already has rewritten timestamps.

[zakia]

I need help with Transformers please. Used EVOdemux to extract mpv and wav, and when I run eac3to it says:

"This track is not clean. Processing aborted.
Please clean the track with delaycut and then retry eac3to. "

I read from this thread I will need delaycut 1.3.0.0 but I couldn't track it down? Only found 1.2.1.2 Anybody has a link to 1.3?

[nautilus7]

http://madshi.net/delaycut.rar

Transformers has Dolby Digital Plus (e-ac3) audio. Rename the audio track to *.eac3 and load it to delaycut. Try the fix or silence option and if you get errors post the log here.

[madshi]

I need help with Transformers please. Used EVOdemux to extract mpv and wav, and when I run eac3to it says:

"This track is not clean. Processing aborted.
Please clean the track with delaycut and then retry eac3to. "

I read from this thread I will need delaycut 1.3.0.0 but I couldn't track it down? Only found 1.2.1.2 Anybody has a link to 1.3?
Why do you need EvoDemux to demux video and audio? eac3to can do all that for you. Not sure why you're getting an unclean audio track, though. I'd say: Rerip the disc. Probably something went wrong with the ripping. If you're using AnyDVD HD don't use the Explorer for ripping, but use the AnyDVD HD ripping tool instead.

[Beastie Boy]

Why do you need EvoDemux to demux video and audio?

Can eac3to also demux the raw video stream? I thought video was automatically muxed to mkv. I guess I must have missed that. So for example, would the following work:

eac3to FEATURE_1.EVO+FEATURE_2.EVO 1: RawVideo.vc1 4: Audio.wavs

Cheers, Beastie.

[madshi]

Can eac3to also demux the raw video stream? I thought video was automatically muxed to mkv. I guess I must have missed that. So for example, would the following work:

eac3to FEATURE_1.EVO+FEATURE_2.EVO 1: RawVideo.vc1 4: Audio.wavs
Sure, that works. Although I don't really see why you would want to demux VC-1 instead of remuxing it. But it's your choice. Video track demuxing is supported.

[Beastie Boy]

Sure, that works. Although I don't really see why you would want to demux VC-1 instead of remuxing it. But it's your choice.

I'm just weird :) Actually, what I do is remux the vc1 file into WMV format without re-encoding to play back on the 360. It takes a bit of messing around with vc1conv, vc12av1, VirtualDub, asfMuxer, Windows Media Encoder for audio, and finally Windows Media Stream Editor for muxing, but the result is excellent.

Of course it wouldn't work at all without eac3to, so thank you very much :)

Cheers, Beastie.

[madshi]

I could include vc1conv functionality for VC-1 demuxing if there's demand?

[Beastie Boy]

I could include vc1conv functionality for VC-1 demuxing if there's demand?

WOW!!! For me, that would be great. And I guess a lot of others are also using the 360 for media playback so there may be a broad demand for that.

Does anyone know is the Solveig ASF Muxer will accept .mkv file container as input? If so, eac3to would cut out most of the steps I currently go through to get an asf file.
Sorry for the off topic question.

Cheers, Beastie.

[madshi]

WOW!!! For me, that would be great. And I guess a lot of others are also using the 360 for media playback so there may be a broad demand for that.
Ok, will be added to next build. Should I do that by default with a switch to turn it off? Or should I not do it by default with a switch to turn vc1conv processing on?

[Beastie Boy]

I guess the only time the 30fps flagging would need to remain is if you were intending to create another HD-DVD. Since there aren't many HD-DVD burners around yet, I think the default should be to enable vc1conv with a switch to turn it off.

Cheers, Beastie.