eac3to - audio conversion tool

[madshi]

Originally Posted by Bigmango

After playing back on my Yamaha receiver with the latest kodi (xbmc) 15 RC (uses a recent version of ffmpeg 2.6.x), here is the result:

(source DTS-HDMA 3/1)
(eac3to & ffmpeg FLAC : mediainfo shows correct 3/1 channel layout)

Track information on the Yamaha receiver:
DTS-HDMA source : channels 4.0 (3/1)
eac3to & ffmpeg FLAC : PCM channels 4.0 (2/2)

This means the latest ffmpeg versions write the channel layout tags correctly (as eac3to), but they don't play it back with the right channel layout.

This also means the eac3to 3/1 FLACs are not played back correctly, but eac3to doesn't issue any warning (as ffmpeg does when encoding "Channel layout not supported by Flac, output stream will have incorrect channel layout").

Shouldn't eac3to give a warning?

eac3to's job is to produce a correct FLAC file, and that's what it does. So eac3to has no reason to warn about anything.

I don't know if HDMI supports 3/1 PCM transport. Maybe it doesn't? I've no idea. If it doesn't, then maybe 3/1 should simply be extended to 7.1 by adding empty channels? I don't know, and that's clearly outside of what this thread is about.

Originally Posted by Bigmango

And who should I write the bug report to (as per my above post, FLAC or all the tools (ffmpeg and all the tools not using ffmpeg like VLC)) ?

Anyone but eac3to, because eac3to does things exactly right. If you find that other projects have bugs, complain to them.

I think at this point it's time to stop this discussion in this thread. This thread is about eac3to, and not about bugs in other projects like Kodi, ffmpeg, VLC, mediainfo or whatever.

[Bigmango]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Originally Posted by madshi

eac3to's job is to produce a correct FLAC file, and that's what it does.

Yes of course. It can't do anything better with the broken/incomplete FLAC format specs (broken because incomplete).

Originally Posted by madshi

So eac3to has no reason to warn about anything.

Ok. But the problem is that it writes files that will play back with a wrong channel layout for 3/1 (and what else? We don't know if other less used layouts will have problems as well as it doesn't give a warning with the bad player support for 3/1) with the majority of players (all commercial players, everything ffmpeg based, vlc,...).

According to the feedback above only the lav filters and perhaps MPC-HC will play the eac3to 3/1 correctly.

As this is a problem with the majority of players, this is imho an issue big enough to be worthy of a warning (ffmpeg decided it was as they added an error warning).

Originally Posted by madshi

Anyone but eac3to, because eac3to does things exactly right. If you find that other projects have bugs, complain to them.

Ok.

Originally Posted by madshi

I think at this point it's time to stop this discussion in this thread. This thread is about eac3to, and not about bugs in other projects like Kodi, ffmpeg, VLC, mediainfo or whatever.

Yes. But I think it was important to talk about this as the majority of players will not play back the 3/1 eac3to FLAC files correctly AND most users will never know this with no warning (and what else will be wrong in play back? we don't know as eac3to doesn't issue a warning as it does it in the best way it can with the current FLAC spec).

eac3to should tell users the FLAC spec is incomplete for this layout (and what about other layouts) and that playback problems may arise with many players.

If I hadn't tried encoding with makemkv and ffmpeg I would have never known there was a playback problem with my eac3to flac file.

[madshi]

I don't have the resources to test any and every funny format and speaker config. I suppose there will probably many more than 3/1 which may produce problems with some software or hardware players. And it won't be limited to FLAC, either. Warning about bugs in other software or hardware is not eac3to's job. The only thing I worry about is whether eac3to produces correct files. As long as it does, I'm satisfied. So instead of bugging me to add a warning, better spend your time getting the real bugs fixed in the other software/hardware. You're barking up the wrong tree here. It seems eac3to is one of the few parts of your tool collection which works correctly. So why do you bother *me* with change requests and complaints?

Btw, I think that using LAV Audio Decoder to decode eac3to's 3/1 FLAC files will probably produce the same results as playing 3/1 WAV files, or letting LAV Audio Decoder decode 3/1 DTS files in real time during playback. So I think this issue is not FLAC specific.

In any case, this is my last post about this topic.

[Bigmango]

Many thanks for the comprehensive feedback madshi.

I submitted bugs to ffmpeg #4698, VLC #15005 and FLAC #430.

We'll see what comes out of this. Hopefully FLAC will be a complete codec, one way or another.

[ndjamena]

Originally Posted by Bigmango

We'll see what comes out of this. Hopefully FLAC will be a complete codec, one way or another.

Yup, FLAC will finally get out of the CD era and get a proper implementation of channel layouts... just as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X begin to render the whole thing obsolete.

[Mike Chen]

Originally Posted by Bigmango

As ffmpeg 2.7 is writing the correct layout I am guessing 2 possible reasons for this:

1. either makemkv uses an older version of ffmpeg that doesn't work as version 2.7
2. or makemkv modifies the layout to write it by itself, this would be a makemkv bug?

As of now, MakeMKV uses libavcodec from ffmpeg 2.1 . I'll update the libs in next release.

[laz1989]

Hello guys,
After i read the eac3to tutorial, and even google it 100 times i didn't found a solution at this problem so i try to post here maybe someone will help me.
I have a Bluray with TrueHD and i want to extract the audio in 640 .ac3
With nero :

C:\Users\Desktop\eac3to>eac3to.exe D:\test.thd test.ac3 -nero
TrueHD, 5.1 channels, 48kHz
thd, 48000, 5.1
Disabling DRC for Nero (E-)AC3 decoding...
Decoding with DirectShow (Nero Audio Decoder 2)...
The DirectShow audio decoder didn't accept the input stream.
Aborted at file position 262144.

Whitout nero :

C:\Users\Desktop\eac3to>eac3to.exe D:\test.thd test.ac3
TrueHD, 5.1 channels, 48kHz
thd, 48000, 5.1
Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
Remapping channels...
Encoding AC3 <640kbps> with libAften...
The libav decoder reported error -1094995529 while decoding.

And there it's the eac3to test.

C:\Users\Desktop\eac3to>eac3to -test
eac3to (v3.29) is up to date
Nero Audio Decoder (Nero 7) works fine
ArcSoft DTS Decoder (1.1.0.8) works fine
Sonic Audio Decoder (4.3.0.169) works fine
Haali Matroska Muxer (2013-04-14) is installed
There's a new version (2013-06-23) available
http://haali.net/mkv
Nero AAC Encoder (1.5.4.0) is up to date
Surcode DTS Encoder (1.0.29.0) is installed

IF someone can help me, i will be greatful.
Cheers!

[tebasuna51]

Originally Posted by laz1989

...
Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
...
The libav decoder reported error -1094995529 while decoding.

Or your test.thd is corrupt or have some caracteristics not supported by libav decoder.

You can try with the last ffmpeg version:

ffmpeg.exe -i test.thd -acodec ac3 -ab 640k test.ac3

If still don't work and your test.thd play fine with some player you can upload a sample to ffmpeg developers.

[laz1989]

Thanks for your answer @tebasuna51.
Already try that before post here.

[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 13, calculated 1f.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 43, calculated 38.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 2a, calculated 1d.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected c7, calculated 5f.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 9a, calculated 88.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 43, calculated d7.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 7f, calculated f9.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 6f, calculated 37.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected dc, calculated a0.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 13, calculated d0.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 47, calculated 3b.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 8e, calculated 2a.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected b6, calculated 81.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected da, calculated 6a.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected b7, calculated 7a.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 40, calculated e8.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 8c, calculated 7c.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 32, calculated 25.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected c4, calculated f9.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
[truehd @ 04cb2d40] Lossless check failed - expected 29, calculated 10.
[NULL @ 04caa440] mlpparse: Parity check failed.
Last message repeated 13 times
size= 31002kB time=00:06:38.80 bitrate= 636.8kbits/s
video:0kB audio:31002kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing
overhead: 0.000000%

And yes, the .thd it's not corrupt since it plays well different players.
I would wish more to find a problem to that nero encode since that seems the proper way to go from thd to ac3.

[sneaker_ger]

Is there any reason not to extract the core from the Blu-Ray? Free AC3 encoders don't have such a good reputation anyways.

[laz1989]

Originally Posted by sneaker_ger

Is there any reason not to extract the core from the Blu-Ray? Free AC3 encoders don't have such a good reputation anyways.

How do i do that? I used both megui and eac3to cmd.
In MeGui i selected AC3 and didn't work.

[Nebudchanezzer]

Originally Posted by laz1989

How do i do that? I used both megui and eac3to cmd.
In MeGui i selected AC3 and didn't work.

Does not "-core" work?

[Xor]

Please help me, i have extracted 2 audio track LPCM in RAW format, i need to convert to ac3.

For eng track i have converted without problems

d:\eac3to327>eac3to.exe "ENG.raw" ENG.ac3
This might be a RAW/PCM file. Trying to figure out the details.
This will probably take a while. Please be patient...
The RAW/PCM file seems to be little endian.
The RAW/PCM file seems to have a bitdepth of 24 bits.
The RAW/PCM file seems to have 2 channels.
RAW/PCM, 2.0 channels, 1:29:51, 24 bits, 2304kbps, 48kHz
Reading RAW/PCM...
Encoding AC3 <448kbps> with libAften...
Creating file "ENG.ac3"...
The original audio track has a constant bit depth of 24 bits.
eac3to processing took 41 seconds.
Done.

for other Raw track italian eac3to ask me to specify other parameters:
d:\eac3to327>eac3to.exe "ITA.raw" ITA.ac3 -448
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.

How to configure command line to convert to ac3 this raw eac3to.exe "ITA.raw" ITA.ac3 ??? ???

Thanks

[tebasuna51]

@Xor
Never extract audio tracks LPCM like raw, use wav or w64 format to avoid this problem, the data samples are the same.

If you know than ITA.raw have the same parameters than the ENG.raw use:

eac3to.exe "ITA.raw" ITA.ac3 -448 -override -2 -24 -little -48000

Also the bitrate for 2 channels is enough with 256 Kb/s

[Xor]

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

@Xor
Never extract audio tracks LPCM like raw, use wav or w64 format to avoid this problem, the data samples are the same.

If you know than ITA.raw have the same parameters than the ENG.raw use:

eac3to.exe "ITA.raw" ITA.ac3 -448 -override -2 -24 -little -48000

Also the bitrate for 2 channels is enough with 256 Kb/s

BIG THANKS!!! Work fine

d:\eac3to327>eac3to.exe "ITA.raw" ITA.ac3 -448 -override -2 -24 -little -48000
RAW/PCM, 2.0 channels, 1:29:51, 24 bits, 2304kbps, 48kHz
Reading RAW/PCM...
Encoding AC3 <448kbps> with libAften...
Creating file "ITA.ac3"...
The original audio track has a constant bit depth of 24 bits.
eac3to processing took 38 seconds.
Done.

[laz1989]

Originally Posted by Nebudchanezzer

Does not "-core" work?

Nop.Try already.
I have been thinking it s possible to be an error from DirectShow so i changed the permision to nero, nothing.
SO my question is : At that command line input.thd ouput.ac3 , it's working at someone?

[Devilman1]

I want to convert PAL aac audio file to 23.976 wav files, but on every file I try I receive this error message:

AAC, 2.0 channels, 48kHz
Decoding with DirectShow (Nero Audio Decoder 2)...
Getting "Nero Audio Decoder 2" instance failed.
Aborted at file position 262144.

I extracted the AAC audio file using ffmpeg from a .mp4 file.

What does this mean? Is a NeroAacDec error or are the files wrong? They play fine in Vlc.

TIA

[Music Fan]

@ laz1989 : you can extract the ac3 core with TSMuxer.

[tebasuna51]

Originally Posted by Devilman1

I extracted the AAC audio file using ffmpeg from a .mp4 file...

If you have NeroAacDec.exe (free) you can decode the mp4 audio to wav.
Also you can decode to wav, instead extract, with ffmpeg.

After you can use the wav with eac3to to do the 25 -> 23.976 conversion.

To decode aac with eac3to you need Nero7+plugins (not free) installed.

[Nebudchanezzer]

Originally Posted by laz1989

Nop.Try already.
I have been thinking it s possible to be an error from DirectShow so i changed the permision to nero, nothing.
SO my question is : At that command line input.thd ouput.ac3 , it's working at someone?

For "-core" to work with TrueHD you have to use it when demuxing the Blu-ray, if you use eac3to to demux to .thd you lose the core as eac3to discards it when demuxing.

The commandline would look something
like this: eac3to path/to/originalvideofile.m2ts 2: path/to/extractedcore.ac3 - core