eac3to - audio conversion tool

[piratburner]

I'm Intresting to convert TrueHD and DTS-MA to PCM

If using eac3to input.thd output.thd
Is that the correct way to get a prober MultiChanel PCM ? or do I have missed something in the command line ?

I dont want to get a bad track,

Doing this do I got a better soundtrack or should I stay with the original ones ?

So what would the best command be to convert to PCM ?

Have a nice day ALL


Results
[a03] Extracting audio track number 3...
[a03] Extracting TrueHD stream...
[a03] Removing TrueHD dialog normalization...
[a03] Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
[a03] Swapping endian...
[a03] Creating file "l:\Soundoutput.24bit.pcm"...
[a03] This audio track contains more than 16 bits of information.


Is it not possible to get a 24bit PCM


Is a lot of questions and I hope some one can give me a short Answer :-)

EDIT
One example.... look at the command, to be a good output do I need more commands ?


L:\BT\bd-tg\BDMV\STREAM>eac3to 1)
M2TS, 1 video track, 5 audio tracks, 8 subtitle tracks, 2:57:09
1: Chapters, 23 chapters
2: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
3: TrueHD/AC3, English, 5.1 channels, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
4: AC3, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: AC3, French, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
6: AC3, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
7: AC3, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
8: Subtitle (PGS), English
9: Subtitle (PGS), English
10: Subtitle (PGS), French
11: Subtitle (PGS), Spanish
12: Subtitle (PGS), Portuguese
13: Subtitle (PGS), English
14: Subtitle (PGS), French
15: Subtitle (PGS), Spanish

L:\BT\bd-tg\BDMV\STREAM>eac3to 1) 3: output.pcm

It gives me this info ... Is this right ??

[a03] Extracting audio track number 3...
[a03] Extracting TrueHD stream...
[a03] Removing TrueHD dialog normalization...
[a03] Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
[a03] Swapping endian...
[a03] Creating file "l:\Soundoutput.24bit.pcm"...
[a03] This audio track contains more than 16 bits of information.

[shambles]

Originally Posted by madshi

eac3to v2.64 released

thank you :D

[lexor]

Originally Posted by rica

Lexor,
i don't know even any expensive remuxer which is able to remux HD audio formats with h264 or vc1 videos; do you?

I know of Manzanita MP2TSME (there are also MS/MM versions of it, they are useless for us without h264 support), but it must cost a metric shit-ton, since I can't even find a price for it. It does offer a full featured demo on their site, so you can try everything, but output file will be limited to 10 sec.

And a request for eac3to, if I may. Can we get something like .ini file, so we can specify a few paths to nero aac encoder and mkvtoolnix? First one I have to move into the folder every time I update eac3to, and I don't use installer for the second, so it's "unavailable".

[rica]

Originally Posted by lexor

I know of Manzanita MP2TSME (there are also MS/MM versions of it, they are useless for us without h264 support), but it must cost a metric shit-ton, since I can't even find a price for it. It does offer a full featured demo on their site, so you can try everything, but output file will be limited to 10 sec.

Thanks, but VC1 support is still missing?

[madshi]

Originally Posted by piratburner

One example.... look at the command, to be a good output do I need more commands ?

L:\BT\bd-tg\BDMV\STREAM>eac3to 1) 3: output.pcm

It gives me this info ... Is this right ??

Yes, that's just right if you want to get PCM. However, PCM in itself is not very useful. You may want to convert to WAV, FLAC, AC3, AAC or DTS instead. Or, if you plan to mux the PCM track to m2ts again, you may want to check out Pcm2Tsmu + tsMuxeR.

Originally Posted by lexor

Can we get something like .ini file, so we can specify a few paths to nero aac encoder and mkvtoolnix? First one I have to move into the folder every time I update eac3to, and I don't use installer for the second, so it's "unavailable".

Sorry, but I don't want to add an ini file right now. IIRC you can copy the NeroAAC exe to the system32 folder. And mkvtoolnix is not used by eac3to at all. eac3to just checks whether there's a new version available, that's it. So it's not a big loss if eac3to doesn't find mkvtoolnix.

[tebasuna51]

Originally Posted by madshi

eac3to v2.64 released

* changed 5.x channel mask from $03x to $60x

I think is a bad idea. We will see in the future ...

* changed 6.x channel mask from $13x to $70x

I think is a wrong idea. At least you need remap the output from ArcSoft decoder with DTS-ES discrete. I think the DTS Hi-Res, 6.1 channels also need the remap.

* when transcoding 6.1 sources to PCM, 7th channel doubling is activated now

If is automatically activated you need recover the
-no7doubling parameter.
or let the doubling optional using the active parameter
-double7

[Nullity]

Originally Posted by madshi

How did you rule that out?

I as able to rule them out because I never got to those steps. I only ever used eac3to. However, it doesn't really matter because...

Originally Posted by madshi

Does GraphStudio support raw PCM files in the first place? If you want to check whether eac3to is doing everything correctly or not you should ask eac3to to convert the PCM file to WAV (if it's smaller than 2GB) or FLAC (if it's bigger than 2GB) and then try to play that.

I did this test as you suggested by converting the PCM file to FLAC, and it played fine. So, I ran it through pcm2tsmu and then muxed it with the video stream in TsMuxer to m2ts. As I suspected, playing it back on my PC results in just static for audio. However, I tested playing it on my PS3 anyway, and it worked fine!

So it seems that you were correct about GraphStudio, I was not able to get raw PCM to play back correctly on my PC, but the PS3 can handle it fine.

I apologize for the confusion though, I wasn't exactly blaming eac3to. The main point of my previous post was just to show that the problem was not with pcm2tsmu or tsmuxer. But as it turns out, it wasn't eac3to either, just my PC.

I also want to thank you for the development of eac3to, it is definitely the best software of its kind!

Lastly, does anyone know how I can play back raw PCM files on my PC? If anyone wishes to respond, you're welcome to PM me, as I know this subject isn't on topic. Thanks!

[madshi]

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

I think is a bad idea. We will see in the future ...

Any other suggestions? Do you agree that $603 is the proper value? As you can see here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa474707.aspx

Microsoft wants 5.1 by default to map to "FL, FR, FC, LFE, SL, SR". And IMHO that's the correct mapping. Do you disagree?

I guess that there might be some trouble. Maybe some applications will complain because they expect $3f. But should I output a wrong mask just because some apps expect a wrong value? I don't like to behave like that...

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

I think is a wrong idea. At least you need remap the output from ArcSoft decoder with DTS-ES discrete.

Yes, you're right about the remapping, forgot about that. But why do you think that is the wrong idea? For people who do have a 6.1 speaker setup, there's one rear speaker and two side speakers. So using $13f is clearly wrong. Or do you disagree?

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

If is automatically activated you need recover the -no7doubling parameter. or let the doubling optional using the active parameter -double7

The idea of the "pcm" output is to produce a Blu-Ray compatible PCM stream, similar to what e.g. xport demuxes. But the Blu-Ray spec clearly doesn't allow a 6.1 channel configuration for PCM. So what sense does it make to offer a 6.1 PCM output option?

[xkodi]

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

I think is a bad idea. We will see in the future ...

look at the Microsoft document "Audio Driver Support for Home Theater Speaker Configurations":

http://xkodi.svobodno.com/SpkrConfig5.rar

currently, the only valid channel mask for 5.1 channels is 0x3f.

[madshi]

Originally Posted by xkodi

look at the Microsoft document "Audio Driver Support for Home Theater Speaker Configurations":

http://xkodi.svobodno.com/SpkrConfig5.rar

currently, the only valid channel mask for 5.1 channels is 0x3f.

Thanks, that a good document. However, I'm not sure if I interpret it to say that 0x3f is the only valid channel mask. The document contains this paragraph:

"In Windows XP with SP2 and Windows Server 2003 with SP1, if the system mixer produces a 5.1-channel output stream, the mixer always sets the stream's channel mask to 0x3F. The system mixer behaves this way even if it receives a 5.1-channel input stream with a channel mask of 0x60F."

So clearly the system mixer supports receiving a 0x60f channel mask.

Fortunately the document contains a Microsoft email address for questions about this topic. I'll write to that address and ask for clarification - also about 6.1.

[lexor]

Originally Posted by madshi

The idea of the "pcm" output is to produce a Blu-Ray compatible PCM stream, similar to what e.g. xport demuxes. But the Blu-Ray spec clearly doesn't allow a 6.1 channel configuration for PCM. So what sense does it make to offer a 6.1 PCM output option?

For re-encoding to dts/ac3? But then I think I'd rather have 5.1 option, since people who don't have receivers to accept a lossless 7.1 probably also don't have 7.1 or 6.1 speakers.

[xkodi]

Originally Posted by madshi

However, I'm not sure if I interpret it to say that 0x3f is the only valid channel mask.

Microsoft's explanation:

Originally Posted by SpkrConfig5.doc

According to the bit definitions in Figure 3, the channel mask for recording the 5.1 stream shown on the left side of Figure 5 should be 0x60F, which assigns the six channels to the following speaker positions: FL, FR, FC, LFE, SL, and SR. (This is the side-speaker 5.1 configuration discussed earlier.) In fact, the channel mask for the 5.1 stream is 0x3F rather than 0x60F for reasons that were mentioned previously and will now be explained in detail.
In earlier versions of Windows (Windows 98/Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP with SP1, and Windows Server 2003), the interpretation of the channel mask 0x3F is that it assigns the six channels in the 5.1 format to the following speaker positions: FL, FR, FC, LFE, BL, and BR. (This is the back-speaker 5.1 configuration.) However, the interpretation in Windows XP with SP2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, and Windows Vista is different: by convention, the 5.1 format with the channel mask 0x3F is interpreted to mean the side-speaker 5.1 configuration instead of the back-speaker 5.1 configuration.
Interpreting the channel mask in this manner eliminates the requirement to introduce a second 5.1-channel format descriptor to distinguish the side-speaker 5.1 configuration from the back-speaker 5.1 configuration. These two configurations are so similar that typical users might have difficulty distinguishing between them. Although having only a single 5.1-channel format descriptor avoids confusing users, it does require hardware vendors to remember to interpret the 0x3F channel mask to mean that channels 5 and 6 are assigned to the SL and SR speaker positions instead of the BL and BR positions. In return for having to remember this special-case interpretation of the channel mask for a 5.1 stream, vendors can spare users the difficulty of distinguishing between two very similar 5.1-channel format descriptors.

that give me the impression that the mask is always 0x3f.

[madshi]

Originally Posted by xkodi

Microsoft's explanation:

that give me the impression that the mask is always 0x3f.

"eliminates the requirement to" doesn't equal "disallows the option to". But let's wait what Microsoft says. I've asked them a number of funny questions...

Originally Posted by lexor

For re-encoding to dts/ac3?

Why would you ask eac3to to export to PCM if you want to reencode to DTS/AC3? That doesn't make much sense to me. If you want to reencode to DTS/AC3, you should either ask eac3to to do that directly for you. Or alternatively you could ask eac3to to output to WAV or AGM and then use an external AC3/DTS encoder. I'm not aware of any DTS/AC3 encoder which would accept a Blu-Ray style PCM file with the Blu-Ray channel ordering and handle that correctly.

[lexor]

Originally Posted by madshi

Why would you ask eac3to to export to PCM if you want to reencode to DTS/AC3? That doesn't make much sense to me. If you want to reencode to DTS/AC3, you should either ask eac3to to do that directly for you. Or alternatively you could ask eac3to to output to WAV or AGM and then use an external AC3/DTS encoder. I'm not aware of any DTS/AC3 encoder which would accept a Blu-Ray style PCM file with the Blu-Ray channel ordering and handle that correctly.

Sorry, I got lost in what we were talking about. I was thinking wav all the time.

[DeepBeepMeep]

It seems that last version of EAC3TO has broken DTS encoding with surcode. I get the following:

C:\EAC3TO>eac3to "f:\dir" 1) 2: d:\file.mkv 4: d:\file.dts 5: d:\file.ac3 -keepdialnorm

...
[a04] Extracting audio track number 4...
[v02] Extracting video track number 2...
[a05] Extracting audio track number 5...
[a04] Extracting TrueHD stream...
[a04] Removing TrueHD dialog normalization...
[a04] Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
[a04] Writing WAVs...
[v02] Muxing video to Matroska...
[a04] Creating file "d:\file.L.wav"...
[a04] Creating file "d:\file.R.wav"...
[a04] Creating file "d:\file.LFE.wav"...
[a04] Creating file "d:\file.BR.wav"...
[a04] Creating file "d:\file.BL.wav"...
[a04] Creating file "d:\file.C.wav"...
[a05] Creating file "d:\file.ac3"...
[libav] End of stream indicated
[a04] This audio track has a constant bit depth of 16 bits.
Encoding DTS <1536kbps> with Surcode...
Found Surcode DTS Encoder version 1.0.23.0.
Surcode says/asks: "Invalid Wave File d:\file.SL.wav.".
Surcode says/asks: "Invalid Wave File d:\file.SR.wav.".
Surcode says/asks: "Source file sample rates differ from encoding sample rate.
Cannot encode.".
Pressing the Surcode "Encode" button didn't seem to work...
Closing Surcode...

[Fer]

Great job madshi!

Where is on the to-do list the cross conversion between 23.976 and 24.000?

[tebasuna51]

Originally Posted by madshi

Any other suggestions? Do you agree that $603 is the proper value? As you can see here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa474707.aspx

Microsoft wants 5.1 by default to map to "FL, FR, FC, LFE, SL, SR". And IMHO that's the correct mapping. Do you disagree?

In the MS page I only see the 0x3F Channel Mask before and after XP SP2. Never recommend 0x603, I only see: when receive a 0x3F channel mask, and we have a system with Side and Back channels, send the output to "FL, FR, FC, LFE, SL, SR"

I guess that there might be some trouble. Maybe some applications will complain because they expect $3f. But should I output a wrong mask just because some apps expect a wrong value? I don't like to behave like that...

For what is wrong $3f? Must be accepted by old and new soft, then is the best value to use without problems.
The Surround channels (110-120º) aren't the Side (90º) or Back (150º) channels, also $603 is wrong.

Yes, you're right about the remapping, forgot about that. But why do you think that is the wrong idea? For people who do have a 6.1 speaker setup, there's one rear speaker and two side speakers. So using $13f is clearly wrong. Or do you disagree?

We can think than a 6.1 is 3 front speakers and 3 back speakers
FL-FR-FC (LF) BL-BR-BC. Isn't a name question is the channel order here

The idea of the "pcm" output is to produce a Blu-Ray compatible PCM stream, similar to what e.g. xport demuxes. But the Blu-Ray spec clearly doesn't allow a 6.1 channel configuration for PCM. So what sense does it make to offer a 6.1 PCM output option?

Only by coherence. Please, only recover the -no7doubling parameter.

[rica]

Hi guys, thanks for all those technical discussions since they will make SW better but as far as i remember somebody suggested some time ago opening a new thread on developing eac3to?

[rica]

Is anybody who knows making it in a more practical way ?

 F:\>eac3to\eac3to.exe 00000.m2ts+00001.m2ts+00002.m2ts+00006.m2ts+00007.m2ts+00008.m2ts+00009.m2ts+00010.m2ts+00011.m2ts+00012.m2ts+00013.m2ts+00014.m2ts+00015.m2ts+00016.m2ts
+00017.m2ts+00018.m2ts+00019.m2ts+00020.m2ts+00021.m2ts+00022.m2ts+00024.m2ts+00025.m2ts+00026.m2ts+00027.m2ts+00028.m2ts+00032.m2ts+00033.m2ts+00034.m2ts+00036.m2ts+00037.m2ts
+00038.m2ts+00039.m2ts+00040.m2ts+00041.m2ts+00042.m2ts+00043.m2ts+00044.m2ts+00045.m2ts+00046.m2ts+00047.m2ts 
1: E:\output\video.h264 2: E:\output\audiothd.thd+ac3 3: E:\output\audiodts.dtshd 4: E:\output\subtitle_en.sup 23: E:\output\subtitle_tr.sup

M2TS, 1 video track, 2 audio tracks, 20 subtitle tracks, 2:39:54

1: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
2: TrueHD/AC3, 5.1 channels, 48khz
3: DTS Master Audio, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
4: Subtitle (PGS)
********
23: Subtitle (PGS)
[v01] Extracting video track number 1...
[a02] Extracting audio track number 2...
[a03] Extracting audio track number 3...
[s04] Extracting subtitle track number 4...
[s23] Extracting subtitle track number 23...
[v01] Creating file "E:\output\video.h264"...
[a03] Creating file "E:\output\audiodts.dtshd"...
[a02] Creating file "E:\output\audiothd.thd+ac3"...
[s04] Creating file "E:\output\subtitle_en.sup"...
[s23] Creating file "E:\output\subtitle_tr.sup"...
-------------------------------------

[rica]

The rest of the log; what should i do now?

Please don't tell me this:

Please rerun the same eac3to command line. That will correct the gaps/overlaps.

 [v01] Extracting video track number 1...
[a02] Extracting audio track number 2...
[a03] Extracting audio track number 3...
[s04] Extracting subtitle track number 4...
[s23] Extracting subtitle track number 23...
[v01] Creating file "E:\output\video.h264"...
[a03] Creating file "E:\output\audiodts.dtshd"...
[a02] Creating file "E:\output\audiothd.thd+ac3"...
[s04] Creating file "E:\output\subtitle_en.sup"...
[s23] Creating file "E:\output\subtitle_tr.sup"...
[a02] Audio overlaps for 5ms at playtime 0:46:24.
[a02] Audio overlaps for 5ms at playtime 1:28:23.
[a02] Audio overlaps for 5ms at playtime 2:33:42.
[a02] The audio gaps/overlaps technically can't be removed from the TrueHD bitstream.
[a02] In order to remove them you'll have to transcode the audio to another format.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 12ms at playtime 0:17:55.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 6ms at playtime 0:26:28.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 10ms at playtime 0:28:43.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 6ms at playtime 0:31:42.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 8ms at playtime 0:32:19.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 13ms at playtime 0:37:23.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 10ms at playtime 0:38:37.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 6ms at playtime 0:42:03.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 6ms at playtime 0:45:20.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 7ms at playtime 0:50:38.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 7ms at playtime 0:54:43.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 13ms at playtime 0:58:37.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 11ms at playtime 1:04:12.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 9ms at playtime 1:17:40.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 12ms at playtime 1:26:10.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 7ms at playtime 1:32:06.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 10ms at playtime 1:34:01.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 7ms at playtime 1:35:03.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 6ms at playtime 1:36:00.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 6ms at playtime 1:40:20.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 10ms at playtime 1:43:08.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 9ms at playtime 1:55:53.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 7ms at playtime 1:56:38.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 9ms at playtime 1:57:12.
[a03] Audio overlaps for 10ms at playtime 2:33:42.
[a03] The audio file was demuxed without making use of the gap/overlap information.
[a03] Please rerun the same eac3to command line. That will correct the gaps/overlaps.
Video track 1 contains 230070 frames.
eac3to processing took 3 hours, 13 minutes.
Done.

And this is what i had at the end of the process:





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