eac3to - audio conversion tool

[Jong]

Thanks! I knew I should have actually tried that. In fact I thought I had, but there you go! Doh!

[nautilus7]

For your 1st question...

If you run eac3to and give it a hd dvd folder (either main or hvdvd_ts) it would list all titles found in the xpl file. It is very easy to get an idea of what's into the hd dvd. After that you can "add" a title # in the command and get more detail description of the contents. E.g:

eac3to "G:\Galapagos HD DVD 1080p VC-1 DD 2.0"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) EPISODE1.EVO+EPISODE2_1.EVO+EPISODE2_2.EVO+EPISODE3.EVO, 2:26:44
   "PlayAll"
   - VC-1, 1080i (16:9)
   - E-AC3, 2.0, 48khz

2) EPISODE1.EVO, 0:49:02
   "Episode1"
   - VC-1, 1080i (16:9)
   - E-AC3, 2.0, 48khz

3) EPISODE2_1.EVO+EPISODE2_2.EVO, 0:48:55
   "Episode2"
   - VC-1, 1080i (16:9)
   - E-AC3, 2.0, 48khz

4) EPISODE3.EVO, 0:48:47
   "Episode3"
   - VC-1, 1080i (16:9)
   - E-AC3, 2.0, 48khz

5) PLANETEARTHTRL.EVO, 0:01:02
   "Planet Earth Trailer"
   - VC-1, 1080p (16:9)
   - E-AC3, 2.0, 48khz

and then

eac3to "G:\Galapagos HD DVD 1080p VC-1 DD 2.0" 3)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EVO, 1 video track, 1 audio track, 1 subtitle track, 0:48:58
"Episode2"
1: Joined EVO file
2: Chapters, 6 chapters with names
3: VC-1, 1080i60 /1.001 (16:9)
4: AC3, 2.0 channels, 448kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: Subtitle, English

Note that stream listing from xpl reading (1st case) isn't 100% reliable. To be sure you have to read the actual evo files (2nd case).

EDIT1: I was more detailed, therefore 2nd...

EDIT2: Since i started, i can't stop...

eac3to "G:\Galapagos HD DVD 1080p VC-1 DD 2.0" 3) 2: galapagos.ep2.chapters.txt 3: galapagos.ep2.mkv 4: galapagos.ep2.ac3 5: galapagos.ep2.sup
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EVO, 1 video track, 1 audio track, 1 subtitle track, 0:48:58
"Episode2"
1: Joined EVO file
2: Chapters, 6 chapters with names
3: VC-1, 1080i60 /1.001 (16:9)
4: AC3, 2.0 channels, 448kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: Subtitle, English
Creating file "galapagos.ep2.chapters.txt"...
Extracting primary video track...
Muxing video to Matroska...
Extracting audio track number 4...
Removing dialog normalization...
Extracting subtitle track number 5...
Creating file "galapagos.ep2.ac3"...
...
...
...

EDIT3: Put some colors to make it more beautiful and eye catching.

eac3to is great!!! No need to type any input files anymore. All being done automatically. And it's a command line program.

madshi you are my hero!!!

[Jong]

Tried it and it works, thanks. Is there any way to specify a path for the log file, rather than it going in the eac3to program directory? Small thing I know.

[boykster]

Your explanation was better, it had illustrations

[Jong]

Thanks to both of you. I was aware of the xpl generated listing and of the ability to extract without refering to the evo files, just not the ability to list the streams using "eac3to z:\ n)". I really did think I had tried that but clearly not! I have amended the guide.

I'd appreciate any comments/thoughts on points 2) and 3) above.

Cheers.

[nautilus7]

Originally Posted by boykster

Your explanation was better, it had illustrations

Look again, i added more...

btw, galapagos hd dvd is weird. When i mux it to mkv the framerate is set (correct) to 29,97fps but both wmr9 & haali renderers try to playback it at 59,97fps, which results in too fast playback and dropped frames. Evr on the other hand deals correctly with it. Wtf?

In adition, ffdshow can't decode the video, but that's because it's interlaced and it's a limitation of the libav codec.

[boykster]

Originally Posted by nautilus7

Look again, i added more...

btw, galapagos hd dvd is weird. When i mux it to mkv the framerate is set (correct) to 29,97fps but both wmr9 & haali renderers try to playback it at 59,97fps, which results in too fast playback and dropped frames. Evr on the other hand deals correctly with it. Wtf?

In adition, ffdshow can't decode the video, but that's because it's interlaced and it's a limitation of the libav codec.

Its interesting you posted that particular disc; I recently got the BluRay version of that disc and am having the devil of a time playing it back without stuttering or dropped frames, etc. It is also 1080i / 29.97 fps.

It plays back just fine as a BD disc using PowerDVD Ultra, but any other form, I just can't get smooth playback. I've muxed it into an mkv, m2ts, ts, etc.

This probably isn't the best thread to discuss that though

[bmnot]

You'll never get Galapagos running perfectly smooth:

If you want to see 60i done wrong, get the us release of Galapagos. 25p source has been converted with frame-blending to 60i. Just like the nasty pal-to-ntsc days (I tought we're rid of those days ). The sad thing is, they could have made it a perfect 50i instead. 50i is part of the Blu-Ray spec so there's noooo reason to make 25 frames into 30. I hope the uk release is 50i

[Blue_MiSfit]

Yeah. 1080i has to be deinterlaced for playback, and the "best" way to do that is to bob-deinterlace it - in other words separate the interlaced fields, interpolate them to full height, and output double frame rate (since 29.97i has 59.94 images per second due to the interlacing).

Doing this in real-time can be challenging for a decoder! You may get dropped frames / stuttering etc... Technically, the renderer handles all this stuff. EVR likely offloads it to your graphics card, since it can do a nice job. Haali Renderer _should_ also do this, but who knows. PowerDVD has its own system, which talks to EVR / VMR9. I assume, anyway

It's also important that the audio doesn't get played at 59.94!

Also,

ffdshow can't decode the video, but that's because it's interlaced and it's a limitation of the libav codec.

Yep. Hopefully the libav guys will gift that one on us eventually!

~MiSfit

[boykster]

Thanks for the input on Galap guys, I know it's OT, but it's been really bugging me the past week or so.

[bullet_ballet]

Is there a way to demux an audio stream without demuxing video and subtitles as well? Perhaps if I simply output in the same format the audio stream is encoded in, ie, by outputing ac3 track as output.ac3?

[Jong]

Yes, just use something like.

eac3to f:\ n) m: "d:\Moviepath\audiostream.ac3" {–libav} where "f:\" is the path to your drive/virtual drive
n) is the title and m: is the stream in that title you wish to convert and "Moviepath" is the working directory you wish to use. Add the -libav switch (without the curly brackets) if you do not have the Nero 7 decoder.

Maybe take a look at my new guide to HD-DVD conversion:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=15543

[bullet_ballet]

Thank you very much, Jong. That is very helpful!

[madshi]

Originally Posted by Jaja1

Okay, thanks for the explanation. I wonder then how standalone players work with EVO's. But that is another discussion.

Maybe they just guess better. Or maybe they make use of those MAP files. Not sure...

Originally Posted by Jaja1

Are you therefore saying that even in the unlikely event, that you make your splitter available as DS filter, your splitter will have the same problems?

If I wrote a DS EVO splitter I'd add an option to ignore the video timestamps and play the stream back with straight 24/1.001 timestamps. That should solve any stuttering issues. However, there might be audio sync problems with some titles (should be extremely rare, though).

Originally Posted by Thunderbolt8

I got a request, could you make eac3to handle at least corrupt TV sources (.ts files)? I understand that it makes sense to improve clean support for disc sources, as a disc can be re-ripped if there should be an error. but in most TV sources theres always at least 1 video or audio error

I might do that sooner or later. But it's difficult. So it's rather down my priority list. BTW, my own TV recordings are totally clean in 99% of the cases. Don't know why you have so many damaged captures? But maybe that differs between different broadcasters/countries...

Originally Posted by Greif

madshi, can you update your first post to provide examples of how to demux chapters and subtitles.

Changed one of the examples to include chapters and subtitles.

Originally Posted by BLKMGK

One thing I noticed that is different with M2TS files vs EVO is that when done eac3to isn't reporting a framecount.

Will be fixed in the next build.

Originally Posted by Chumbo

I believe the frame count is only returned if your source is VC-1.

No. The framecount should be reported for every primary and secondary video track, regardless of the codec.

Originally Posted by pbjr

I converted Constantine's TrueHD to Flac, but the channel mapping is wrong when I playback through mplayer.

Hmmmmm... Are you sure that this is not a bug in mplayer? What happens if you convert the TrueHD track to another format, e.g. to AC3? Is the channel mapping then wrong, too?

Originally Posted by umaximus

Is it safe to join seamless branching titles by 'copy b method.. Will the future version of eac3to be able to mux the audio without gaps/overlaps on already joined files? Or should we wait with any kind of joining.

I'm not sure yet but I think eac3to will work better if you don't join the files manually with copy /b.

Originally Posted by umaximus

How come there is no sync issues with ''copy /b'' & tsRemux on seamless branching discs (i have made several titles like ratt, deja vu, cars, etc, with no playback problems)?

There are 2 possible reasons:
(1) Either the audio sync issues are so small that they are there but not really noticable.
(2) Or the problem doesn't occur because when joining the m2ts parts the timestamps are still in the container which tell the splitter how to keep audio and video in sync.

If it's (2) then I expect that you might see some (small) video stuttering at the join points. Maybe just a video frame shown twice or video speeding up a little for a few frames or something like that.

What happens if you demux audio and video and then join the demuxed files and mux them to MKV? Are there audio sync problems then? If so, it's (2) from above. If not, it's (1) from above.

[madshi]

Originally Posted by DoomBot

Why does my encoded lpcm to dts file have a buzzing noise i hardly hear the audio?

Where did you get the LPCM file from? With which tool did you demux it? And how did you encode it to DTS? Did you use eac3to for the DTS encoding? If so, please post the eac3to log.

Originally Posted by bmnot

It is possible to extract the 2 channel mix from eac3 or TrueHD streams? I know you can downmix, but wouldn't the internal 2.0 mix be superior?

I don't think that the TrueHD stream format allows extracting of the 2 channel mix into a new TrueHD stream. At least I wouldn't know how. The decoder can decide to only decode 2 channels from the multi channel TrueHD stream and that will give you a good 2 channel downmix. This is currently not supported by eac3to, though.

Originally Posted by wildchild22

Yeah their are no errors in the file made by eac3to it makes the file fine. tsremuxer and manzanita do not recognize the stream (pcm file made by eac3to) it does recognize the dts file and ac3 file so I know the demuxed file is fine.

I don't know what format TsRemuxer and Manzanita expect. You need to ask the TsRemuxer and Manzanita programmers which format they accept LPCM data in. Then I can tell how to create that format with eac3to.

Originally Posted by wildchild22

Okay last thing. Why cant I play back the pcm file?

Because it's just the raw audio data without *any* information about the format of the data. So the media player doesn't know how to handle the file. The media player doesn't know how many channels are in the LPCM data or what bitdepth the data has. Information about this is stored outside of the LPCM data in the m2ts container.

Originally Posted by Jong

2) I am not clear how you find subtitle streams. Somewhere in this mammoth thread you talk about parsing the first 300MB for subtitles. My concern is that "Forced" subtitles, such as those that handle conversations in a language other than that of the main soundtrack may only have a few lines in them and these may not be until WELL into the film. In an extreme example there may be just one conversation 5 minutes before the end. EVO Demux is fine with this as it uses the xpl info to list the streams. Is Eac3to also fine, if there is an XPL file? Or will it fail to find the stream if it does not start near the beginning?

In such a situation eac3to will fail to find the subtitle stream. Do you have a list of movies where this can happen? I need a way to reproduce such a problem on my PC, then I can fix it.

Originally Posted by Jong

3) One further question, if I may, that probably should be in the MadFLAC thread, but since it is all about the same guide I thought I'd post here. I currently suggest installing ffdshow for FLAC decoding. I know that MadFLAC can now also decode FLAC in a Matroska container. Is this just so MadFLAC is able to offer a full solution to FLAC decoding or do you feel you have a superior FLAC decoder for use in mkv playback? I know you may find this question amusing - "of course mine is better!" - but I did read in the MadFLAC thread that you doubted you would be able to offer anything over and above what ffdshow offers.

That was when I wrote madFlac. Later I was told that madFlac works better than ffdshow in some cases. E.g. I got reports that ffdshow sometimes had audio drops or things like that while madFlac worked well.

Also I just checked: ffdshow seems to only output 16bit. This is a limitation of the libav decoder. libav audio processing is generally limited to 16bit (unless it is hacked to support higher bitdepths). madFlac always outputs the native bitdepth of the FLAC file.

Originally Posted by nautilus7

EDIT3: Put some colors to make it more beautiful and eye catching.

Nice...

Originally Posted by nautilus7

eac3to is great!!! No need to type any input files anymore. All being done automatically. And it's a command line program.

madshi you are my hero!!!

Thanks...

Originally Posted by Jong

Tried it and it works, thanks. Is there any way to specify a path for the log file, rather than it going in the eac3to program directory? Small thing I know.

The latest eac3to version always copies the log file to the destination folder.

[Roscoe62]

Originally Posted by madshi

In such a situation eac3to will fail to find the subtitle stream. Do you have a list of movies where this can happen? I need a way to reproduce such a problem on my PC, then I can fix it.

Madshi,

A good example of this happening is in Ocean's Thirteen. One of the gang are in a Mexican town and are speaking Spanish. I only cottoned on because someone I was watching it with had seen the DVD and said "err, I think there are supposed to be subtitles here".

I think the subtitles for this movie won't start until around the 37 minute mark.

Hope this helps!

[nautilus7]

Maybe the same happens to The Shining hd dvd. That's why the sort sample i uploaded in the previous page doesn't include any subs. I'll look into it.

EDIT: Yep... Subs on this evo start after 300MB. Much after 300MB. As i wrote initially, 1st.evo from that movie don't list any subs, while 2nd.evo does, as well as 1st.evo+2nd.evo combination. EVOdemux shows exactly the same behavior with the 2 evo files.

[wildchild22]

Okay I am making some headway on the lpcm from hd-dvd. Okay now how do the channel mapping work. I have made a .wav file and when I open it sonic scenerist detects it as a lpcm file but complains the channel mapping is wrong. I assume When I make the beowulf.eac3 file I need to add the -0,1,2,3,4,5 at the end.
Sonic expects it to be l c r ls rs lfe

so if anyone can help with the channel mapping
I think where is used the -blu-ray switch on it before it switched the order to l, r, c, sl, sr, lfe
0 1 2 3 4 5

so if my thinking is correct I need to change the order to
-0 2 1 3 4 5

[DoomBot]

Originally Posted by madshi

Where did you get the LPCM file from? With which tool did you demux it? And how did you encode it to DTS? Did you use eac3to for the DTS encoding? If so, please post the eac3to log.
.

Its from Ghost Rider blu-ray and i demuxed it with tsremuxer and tried tsmuxer. I have surcode 1.0.23 for the DTS encoding and used eac3to to do this all. I even tried just getting the mono wav files with eac3to and they sound the same having the buzzing noise.


eac3to v2.39
command line: "C:\Documents and Settings\er\Desktop\HD Tools\eac3to239\eac3to.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\er\Desktop\test\test.pcm" ".wavs"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 big endian.
The RAW/PCM file seems to have a bitdepth of 16 bits.
The RAW/PCM file seems to have 6 channels.
RAW/PCM, 5.1 channels, 0:01:19, 16 bits, 48khz
This is probably a Blu-ray PCM track. Will remap channels accordingly.
Reading RAW/PCM...
Swapping endian...
Remapping channels...
Writing WAVs...
Creating file ".R.wav"...
Creating file ".L.wav"...
Creating file ".C.wav"...
Creating file ".SL.wav"...
Creating file ".LFE.wav"...
Creating file ".SR.wav"...
eac3to processing took 1 second.
Done.

[nautilus7]

1sec??? Try giving a name to the output files (output.wavs, not just .wavs).

Anyway, demux the pcm and convert it to dts in 1 step using eac3to:

eac3to input.m2ts

to list the stream numbers and then:

eac3to input.m2ts 2: output.dts

where you 'll replace 2: with the appropriate one.