eac3to - audio conversion tool

[shinchiro]

Does eac3to support stdin?

Originally Posted by wiggaz

"C:\Program Files (x86)\eac3to 3.27\eac3to.exe" "D:\audio.dtshd" "D:\audio.dtshd_.ac3

I've found that Eac3to sometimes does not like multiple stops in output file-names. Try this.

eac3to "D:\audio.dtshd" "D:\audio.ac3"

[tebasuna51]

Originally Posted by wiggaz

I'm trying to convert some dtshd files into AC3. I've done this a lot of times even between those files I'm talking about.
...
Well, after the 1st pass, eac3to get stuck at the .wav file and nothing happened then.

If work with some dtshd but not with other maybe the last one is corrupt. (I supose you have enough disk space for the wav file)

Originally Posted by shinchiro

Does eac3to support stdin?

Nope.

[manolito]

Sorry if this has been asked before - but this thread is really long...

Last time I looked eac3to could not handle AAC audio files, probably because I do not have Nero 7 installed. Since I have no intention to install Nero 7 I would like to ask if current versions of eac3to can handle AAC sources by using other decoders like ffdshow or faad.


Cheers
manolito

[LigH]

From the help screen:

eac3to v3.27, freeware by madshi.net
...

Supported source formats:
...
(6) AAC audio

So with the help of the included libavcodec, probably yes.

[the_weirdo]

Actually, eac3to still need "Nero Audio Decoder 2" (from Nero 7) to decode AAC. Currently, it can't use any other DirectShow decoders or libavcodec to do that.

[Lenmaer]

I was wondering if it was possible in the future to have eac3to read avisynth scripts?
Tha would be great to make audio trims using eac3to.

[therube]

Originally Posted by manolito

eac3to could not handle AAC audio files, probably because I do not have Nero 7 installed

You do not need Nero 7.
All you need is Nero AAC Codec, Free.
http://www.nero.com/eng/company/about-nero/nero-aac-codec.php

Download (~2 MB), unzip & drop the .exe's into your eac3to directory.

[manolito]

Originally Posted by therube

You do not need Nero 7.
All you need is Nero AAC Codec, Free.
http://www.nero.com/eng/company/about-nero/nero-aac-codec.php

Download (~2 MB), unzip & drop the .exe's into your eac3to directory.

Sorry, you are posting incorrect information...

Of course I have tried your recommendation before I posted my question here, and it sure DOES NOT WORK.

eac3to v3.27
command line: eac3to i:\test.mp4 i:\testac3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The format of the source file could not be detected. <ERROR>

So please, next time you post, please verify that your information is correct...


Cheers
manolito

[tebasuna51]

eac3to never support mp4 container like input.
Also .m4a (only aac audio in mp4 container) is not supported.

.aac input (with ADTS headers for instance) is only supported with Nero 7 installed.

[LigH]

Sorry for a wrong hope then.

[therube]

Something like this certainly does work, with eac3to & nero encoder:

eac3to.exe   INPUT            OUTPUT                                OPTIONS                    DELAY
eac3to.exe   riot_INPUT.wav   riot_OUTPUT.w.18-1350ms.speedup.m4a   -quality=0.18   -speedup   -1350ms

eac3to.exe  SN.ac3   sn+2300.m4a   +2300ms   -quality=0.18

eac3to.exe  ie.wav  ie-speedup+2100.m4a  -speedup  -quality=0.75  +2100ms

eac3to does not take mp4 as a source.

Supported source formats:
(1) RAW, (L)PCM
(2) WAV (PCM, DTS and AC3), W64, RF64
(3) AC3, E-AC3
(4) DTS, DTS-ES, DTS-96/24, DTS-HD Hi-Res, DTS-HD Master Audio
(5) MP1, MP2, MP3 audio
(6) AAC audio
(7) MLP, TrueHD, TrueHD/AC3
(8) FLAC
(9) EVO/VOB/(M2)TS and MKV

Decoded audio data can be stored as / encoded to:
(1) RAW, (L)PCM
(2) WAV (PCM only), W64, RF64, AGM
(3) WAVs (multiple mono WAV files, PCM only)
(4) AC3
(5) DTS
(6) AAC
(7) FLAC

[manolito]

Originally Posted by tebasuna51

.aac input (with ADTS headers for instance) is only supported with Nero 7 installed.

@therube
Seems like you did not read my question...

I asked if eac3to handles aac audio without Nero 7 installed, and tebasuna answered my question in a very clear way. So the eac3to feature list is a little bit misleading.


Cheers
manolito

[LigH]

"Misleading", indeed. If it is written in such a general form like

(6) AAC audio

the "average user" would probably assume that it is generally supported without specific prerequisites. But after reading the longer explanation by tebasuna51, that is obviously not true. Just not every user will have read this post.

Therefore I would recommend to include such unexpected prerequisites in the help text:

(6) AAC audio (ADTS only, requires Nero 7)

At least as long as eac3to does not use LAV or L-SMASH "completely" as alternative splitter/decoder.

[shh]

Hi!
How do I extract the core AC3 stream of a combined E-AC3/AC3-stream?
My file looks exactly like a combined DTS-MA/DTS-core stream, but eac3to always want's to convert the file to AC3:

C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe german.ac3 out.ac3 -core
E-AC3, 7.1 channels, 1:44:16, 896kbps, 48kHz
(core: AC3, 5.1 channels, 1:44:16, 512kbps, 48kHz)
Extracting E-AC3 core...
Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
Remapping channels...
Encoding AC3 <640kbps> with libAften...
Creating file "coreac3.ac3"...
Clipping detected, a 2nd pass will be necessary.
-------^C

[Snowknight26]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=169776

[shh]

Originally Posted by Snowknight26

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=169776

Oops, thank you very much!

I got it to work:
You have to create an output.ec3, though the result is an AC3 actually. So you also have to rename your .ec3 to .ac3 afterwords.
Hmm. This should be considered as a bug: I'm creating a real AC3, no E-AC3. Why should I name my output ec3? And, additionally, where's the doc to this secret .ec3-switch? I never read about an ec3 file before...
For .dtsma -> .dts -core the engine works correctly.

Perhaps I should've used full paths in my first post
(no audio issue for me)

D:\monster>C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe german.ec3 coreac3.ec3 -core
E-AC3, 7.1 channels, 1:44:16, 896kbps, 48kHz
(core: AC3, 5.1 channels, 1:44:16, 512kbps, 48kHz)
Extracting E-AC3 core...
Creating file "coreac3.ec3"...
eac3to processing took 5 seconds.
Done.

D:\monster>C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe coreac3.ec3
AC3, 5.1 channels, 1:44:16, 512kbps, 48kHz

[Snowknight26]

I wouldn't call it a bug per se but more of an unintended consequence of the relationship between E-AC3 and AC3, the fact that eac3to can natively encode AC3 (which it tries to do by default), and that eac3to only recently added support for extracting the E-AC3 core (from Blu-ray tracks only).

You don't have to name it .ec3.. you could choose .eac3 because, again, with .ac3 eac3to will try to transcode it by default, regardless of the -core switch. DTS, however, cannot be encoded by eac3to without additional software, hence the reason the -core switch works as you want it to.

Try the following and you'll see what I mean:

eac3to file.dtshd core.dtshd -core

As expected, the output is still the 'core' DTS track but with the .dtshd extension.

[LigH]

The fact that the work mode of eac3to is determined mainly by the filename extension of the output, appears to be a weakness in this case.

[Snowknight26]

Originally Posted by LigH

The fact that the work mode of eac3to is determined mainly by the filename extension of the output, appears to be a weakness in this case.

True. Maybe when (or should I say 'if') eac3to starts using ffmpeg for processing/conversion will it be a good idea to switch to its command line arguments style of specifying formats (-acodec, -vcodec, -f, etc.).