eac3to - audio conversion tool

[EPiPH0NE]

Bit identical or not I can hear a difference between Sonic and ArcSoft and even between libav and Nero. Maybe it's the way I have my system set up but I am not using HTPC like many of you so maybe that's the difference.

[nautilus7]

Bit identical or not I can hear a difference between Sonic and ArcSoft.There must be something wrong with your ears if you hear a difference between bit-identical audio data.

[mrr19121970]

@madshi

I just used your tool for the 1st time to demux Gone Baby Gone (as TSMUXER didn't seem to like it).

I have a request. The file log.txt (and file names) produces:

M2TS, 1 video track, 8 audio tracks, 11 subtitle tracks, 1:53:55
1: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
2: RAW/PCM, 5.1 channels, 16 bits, 48khz
3: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
4: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
5: DTS, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1536kbit/s, 48khz
6: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
7: DTS, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1536kbit/s, 48khz
8: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
9: AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB

etc, however without any options, I get the info:

1) 00000.mpls, 00000.m2ts, 1:53:55
- VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
- RAW/PCM, English, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, English, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, French, multi-channel, 48khz
- DTS, Italian, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, Italian, multi-channel, 48khz
- DTS, German, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, German, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, English, stereo, 48khz


My request is, can we also get the language in the log.txt (and file names) too ?

Thanks for looking, Mike.

[EPiPH0NE]

There must be something wrong with your ears if you hear a difference between bit-identical audio data.

I must have super powers then :p Must be all the w33d. When I use libav to do TrueHD 5.1 -> PCM 5.1 I get low voulme sub channel and high volume surrounds that get way too loud during a loud scene. The same with Sonic and DTS-MA -> PCM. When I use ArcSoft/Nero decoders I get a much more equalized sound out of my Sony DG720. Maybe it's because I am using an NMT and the chip doing the PCM audio processing is different then on your typical HTPC set up.

[xkodi]

Bit identical or not I can hear a difference between Sonic and ArcSoft

if you open with hex editor the DTS track decoded with Sonic and the same track decoded with ArcSoft you will see that they are byte by byte identical, so they are exactly the same and thus it is simply impossible to sound different, so you are experiencing something that in medicine is called placebo effect.

[lexor]

if you open with hex editor the DTS track decoded with Sonic and the same track decoded with ArcSoft you will see that they are byte by byte identical, so they are exactly the same and thus it is simply impossible to sound different, so you are experiencing something that in medicine is called placebo effect.

didn't someone provide proof a few pages back that newer Sonic decoders are not bit identical to old Sonic and ArcSoft?

[EPiPH0NE]

if you open with hex editor the DTS track decoded with Sonic and the same track decoded with ArcSoft you will see that they are byte by byte identical, so they are exactly the same and thus it is simply impossible to sound different, so you are experiencing something that in medicine is called placebo effect.

Nope, no placebo effect. I just tested this recently with The Bank Job BluRay. I did a small test with a loud scene that with Sonic, during the loud part, the surround channels would become VERY loud and almost unbearble, at this point hurting my ears. As an example, Alien Vs. Predator 2 was rough on the ears using Sonic. If I turn the volume down, then I can't hear the vocals well enough. Yes, I could fix these problems by changing the speaker volumes each time but then I would have to change it back for AC3/DTS, as my rears are already at -2 and everything sounds good using AC3/DTS as is. It's just PCM that usually gives me these problems.

When I played the clip back, at the same volume, using ArcSoft I get loud rears but they are not overdriven and seem to go right to the limit of cuttoff but come out sounding perfect. I dunno. Time for a night cap :D

[Encoder888]

I'm assuming you're testing this with FLAC, even though it shouldnt really matter (except obviously in the case of the Bank Job, as FLAC is your only option for 7.1)

Also, you can't really test this with the Bank Job, because it has DTS-HD 7.1 which only ArcSoft can fully decode into 7.1 FLAC, Sonic downgrades it to 5.1, so that would explain that difference...

With AvP 2, it's a funny coincidence because I also tested that one, decoded into FLAC with both Sonic and ArcSoft and I got bit-to-bit identical results, both files are exactly 2,903,150,592 bytes (on disk) :P and they sound exactly, I mean exactly the same, its the same file.

Even if somehow the different decoding changed the mapping of the loundness of the channels or whatever, that would result in a slight difference in the two files wouldnt it.

I think you're trying to hear it differently :D

lexor - read thru the last page, madshi answered this twice...

[nautilus7]

@EPiPH0NE

What is your point with all these? What you 're saying is just not possible.

[madshi]

I just used your tool for the 1st time to demux Gone Baby Gone (as TSMUXER didn't seem to like it).

I have a request. The file log.txt (and file names) produces:

M2TS, 1 video track, 8 audio tracks, 11 subtitle tracks, 1:53:55
1: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
2: RAW/PCM, 5.1 channels, 16 bits, 48khz
3: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
4: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
5: DTS, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1536kbit/s, 48khz
6: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
7: DTS, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1536kbit/s, 48khz
8: AC3, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz
9: AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB

etc, however without any options, I get the info:

1) 00000.mpls, 00000.m2ts, 1:53:55
- VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
- RAW/PCM, English, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, English, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, French, multi-channel, 48khz
- DTS, Italian, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, Italian, multi-channel, 48khz
- DTS, German, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, German, multi-channel, 48khz
- AC3, English, stereo, 48khz

My request is, can we also get the language in the log.txt (and file names) too ?
They are in the log file for me! Also the demuxed file names contain the language name for me. I'm not sure why it doesn't work for you. The only explanation for me would be if for whatever reason the "CLIPINF" directory was not available to eac3to when you did the actual demuxing. Don't know why that should have been the case, though...

didn't someone provide proof a few pages back that newer Sonic decoders are not bit identical to old Sonic and ArcSoft?
Yeah, that might be an explanation for why EPiPH0NE hears a difference. Which Sonic version are you using, EPiPH0NE? Also are we really talking about DTS decoding here? Or maybe about other codecs, too? Remember, Sonic is only good for DTS decoding. And also only for 5.1 tracks.

[mrr19121970]

They are in the log file for me! Also the demuxed file names contain the language name for me. I'm not sure why it doesn't work for you. The only explanation for me would be if for whatever reason the "CLIPINF" directory was not available to eac3to when you did the actual demuxing. Don't know why that should have been the case, though...


Yes, that is a good explanation. As I've never used your program before (and therefore didn't really know what it would output) I copied the 00000.m2ts file into another directory to demux.

I can't see an option that allows me to produce a single file with selected tracks (eg video and 1 audio only). The nearest seems to be:

eac3to.exe 00000.m2ts 2: 00000.vc1 4: 00000.ac3

followed by tsmuxer to put them back together. Is there a more efficient (one pass) way ?

Thanks. Mike.

[madshi]

I can't see an option that allows me to produce a single file with selected tracks (eg video and 1 audio only). The nearest seems to be:

eac3to.exe 00000.m2ts 2: 00000.vc1 4: 00000.ac3

followed by tsmuxer to put them back together. Is there a more efficient (one pass) way ?
No, there isn't a one pass way. You can either do as you suggested (eac3to followed by TsMuxer) or you can ask eac3to to mux the video track to MKV. The audio tracks will then still be stored as separate files. In that case you'll have to use mkvtoolnix to add the audio files into the MKV. So in order to create a single movie file with both video + audio in it, you need to use either eac3to+tsmuxer (creates m2ts) or eac3to+mkvtoolnix (creates mkv).

Personally, I'm muxing the video to MKV and I'm leaving the audio tracks as external files. My HTPC plays movies just fine this way. Plus, it's much easier for me this way to mix video and audio tracks of different releases. E.g. if there's a different release of a movie with a better audio track but worse video track, I just need to replace the audio track and I'm done. No need to touch the video MKV in that case...

[mrr19121970]

shame...

if you ever fancy creating a one pass solution, i'm sure all us TVIX owners will appreciate it.

mike.

[madshi]

if you ever fancy creating a one pass solution, i'm sure all us TVIX owners will appreciate it.
I don't think I'll do m2ts/ts muxing. Maybe some day I'll do a one pass solution for MKV. But probably not anytime soon.

[lexor]

the help file says:
Decoded audio data can be stored as / encoded to:
(3) WAVs (multiple mono WAV files, PCM only)

But how do you get that? There is no switch for outputting 6 WAVs. Do I have to give it 6 filenames in command line, if so in which order?

[madshi]

But how do you get that? There is no switch for outputting 6 WAVs. Do I have to give it 6 filenames in command line, if so in which order?
You have to take the help literally... :)

"eac3to sourcefile dst.wavs"

[lexor]

Awesome. Still, maybe an extra note in the help, for the less attentive readers, is in order.

[Encoder888]

Has anyone tried extracting the TrueHD audio from 21 yet? Hi-Def Digest says it's supposed to be 24-bit, but libav reports it only as 16-bit. I mean, at first it creates that 24-bit file and then it says audio only has 16-bit and it deletes all the 0 bytes. I'm assuming it's all good, I was just wondering if anyone has gotten different results by any chance, cause that's the first time I've seen a discrepancy between a Hi-Def Digest's review and what I got, so... They must be wrong I guess.Still, please report if you've messed with 21.

[nautilus7]

that's the first time I've seen a discrepancy between a Hi-Def Digest's review and what I got, so...
Me, on the contrary, I have seen a lot of discrepancies between Hi-Def and actual disc data. Hi-Def is wrong, don't worry about this.

[rickardk]

Hmmmmm... Does it help if you use the "-60i" option? Can I have a sample of the DVD (first 50MB should be enough, if the eac3to complaint still occurs with those 50MB).


How do you know? This "is a mixture" comment does not mean to say that the movie in itself is a mixture of native movie and video content. The comment means that the MPEG2 encoder has produced a mixture or movie and video type encoding (some frames are encoded progressively, others interlaced). That happens very often with MPEG2 DVDs.

Sorry, been away for a couple of days.
To sum up:
Wrong length (reports about 14 hours when using 1.vob+2.vob etc), frame rate (24p when using extracted mpeg-2, 30p when using vob), aspect ratio and ac3 delay (about 475ms ..should be more like 75 ms).

www.earselect.se/test.vob

[rebkell]

Can eac3to deal with aac audio tracks? I'll soon be getting an HD-PVR from Hauppauge and I know it records in .ts files with h264 video and aac audio.

[madshi]

Wrong length (reports about 14 hours when using 1.vob+2.vob etc), frame rate (24p when using extracted mpeg-2, 30p when using vob), aspect ratio and ac3 delay (about 475ms ..should be more like 75 ms).
Argh, so in other words: Everything is wrong. ;(

Thanks for the sample, I'll give it a try later...

Can eac3to deal with aac audio tracks? I'll soon be getting an HD-PVR from Hauppauge and I know it records in .ts files with h264 video and aac audio.
Not yet, but it's on my to do list...

[rebkell]

Can eac3to deal with aac audio tracks? I'll soon be getting an HD-PVR from Hauppauge and I know it records in .ts files with h264 video and aac audio.

Not yet, but it's on my to do list...

Excellent, looking forward to it.

[sehgal.v7]

Can someone tell me, if i'm correct. I tried to simplify "evaluation of available decoders:" for myself:-

SONIC
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 16-bit 48kHz
Very Good // removes Dialog Normalization
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 48kHz
Very Good // removes Dialog Normalization
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 96kHz
Very Good // removes Dialog Normalization
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 16-bit 48kHz
Good // removes Dialog Normalization but also downconverts to 5.1
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit 48kHz
Good // removes Dialog Normalization but also downconverts to 5.1

Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-bit 48kHz
Suffers from Dialog Normalization
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 20-bit 48kHz
Suffers from Dialog Normalization + Downconvert to 16-bit
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-bit 48kHz
Suffers from Dialog Normalization + Downconvert to 16-bit
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-bit 96kHz
Suffers from Dialog Normalization + Downconvert to 16-bit
Dolby TrueHD 6.1 16-bit 48kHz
Suffers from Dialog Normalization
Dolby TrueHD 7.1 16-bit 48kHz
Suffers from Dialog Normalization

Nero
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 16-bit 48kHz
Can remove Dialog Normalization but decodes only Core
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 48kHz
Can remove Dialog Normalization but decodes only Core
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 96kHz
Can remove Dialog Normalization but decodes only Core
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 16-bit 48kHz
Can remove Dialog Normalization but decodes only Core
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit 48kHz
Can remove Dialog Normalization but decodes only Core

Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-bit 48kHz
Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 20-bit 48kHz
Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-bit 48kHz
Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-bit 96kHz
Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 6.1 16-bit 48kHz
Perfect upto 5.1
Dolby TrueHD 7.1 16-bit 48kHz
Perfect upto 5.1

LibAV/ffmpeg
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 16-bit 48kHz
Can only Decode Core upto 5.1
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 48kHz
Can only Decode Core upto 5.1
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 96kHz
Can only Decode Core upto 5.1
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 16-bit 48kHz
Can only Decode Core upto 5.1
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit 48kHz
Can only Decode Core upto 5.1

Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-bit 48kHz
Good or Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 20-bit 48kHz
Good or Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-bit 48kHz
Good or Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-bit 96kHz
Good or Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 6.1 16-bit 48kHz
Good or Perfect
Dolby TrueHD 7.1 16-bit 48kHz
Good or Perfect

Arcsoft
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 16-bit 48kHz
Perfect
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 48kHz
Perfect
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 24-bit 96kHz
Perfect
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 16-bit 48kHz
Perfect
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit 48kHz
Perfect

Regards,
Sehgal

[madshi]

@Sehgal, why don't you check the first post of this thread? I've explained everything there. Your list is not fully correct. E.g. the Sonic DTS decoder is not "very good", it's "perfect" for all 5.1 and most 6.1 tracks. The Sonic TrueHD decoder is unusable. The libav TrueHD decoder is perfect. All of this is explained in the first post of this thread.

[sehgal.v7]

@madshi, i know you explained in your first post only. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you for your prompt response. One more thing i wanted to ask is that, when i demux original bluray m2ts file, total size of demuxed files is mostly around 90% of actual file, does the BluRay container take all that space?

P.S. And hows Nero TrueHD Decoder? Does it have any limitations?

Regards,
Sehgal

[madshi]

One more thing i wanted to ask is that, when i demux original bluray m2ts file, total size of demuxed files is mostly around 90% of actual file, does the BluRay container take all that space?
I guess so. m2ts is the most space consuming container of all containers that I know.

P.S. And hows Nero TrueHD Decoder? Does it have any limitations?
Yes, it's limited to 5.1 channels.

[lithiumus]

First, let me say, thanks for the awesome software and great work continuing to improve it. It's fast, efficient, simple and works a charm!

I'm new to this so please forgive my confusion. I've been doing some searches and trying to read up the last week and I'm trying to get some clarity on the concept...

Is there a difference between "demuxing" and "decoding" or are they the same thing?

I see all the requirements / suggestions for certain codecs to decode and encode which makes sense but does the demuxing use the decoders?

I ask because there are tools like EVOdemux and TsMuxer that allows you to demux audio, extract AC3 or DTS cores, downconvert from DTS-HD, etc but make no mention of what codecs it requires or are using?

Thanks in advance!

[nautilus7]

You demux a container to get the streams inside as they are (untouched).

You extract the DTS core of a DTS-HD track.

You decode an AC3, DTS, TrueHD or any other compressed audio format to uncompressed audio data. Then you encode (compress) them to another format.

[lithiumus]

Thanks Nautilus. That clarifies a lot.

Demuxing audio will extract audio streams untouched so no codecs are involved. As soon as you do any conversion, a decode and encode is required.

I assume that extracting AC3 and DTS cores from EAC3, TrueHD or DTS-HD requires decoding? or does it?

[madshi]

I assume that extracting AC3 and DTS cores from EAC3, TrueHD or DTS-HD requires decoding? or does it?
No. Demuxing and extracting works on the bitstream level. That means the compressed audio data is not changed. It's just ripped into pieces. However, please note that E-AC3 and TrueHD are different between Blu-Ray and HD DVD. On Blu-Ray both have a core (although technically Blu-Ray TrueHD tracks do not really have a "core", instead they just contain additional AC3 frames which the TrueHD stream does not depend on). On HD DVD neither has a core. DTS-HD has a core on both Blu-Ray and HD DVD.

[sehgal.v7]

@Madshi
I worked on an sample of original m2ts file. Actual size of demuxed contents is 84.74MB// with TS container it's 93.80MB(10.69% Increase) // with M2TS container it's 95.88MB(13.1% Increase).

Question- I tried compiling original VC1 stream with original TrueHD stream (Without Core) to MKV Container >
command line: eac3to.exe 1.vc1+2.thd 3.mkv
VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
Muxing video to Matroska...
-----------------
It doesn't do anything from here// Is anything wrong in command line??
I think MKV Container doesn't support TrueHD Stream or I think TrueHD Stream can't be added in any container without Core, any suggestions?

Regards,
Shroff

[madshi]

command line: eac3to.exe 1.vc1+2.thd 3.mkv
That won't work. Using two different input files with a "+" in between is only supported for streams of the same type. So you could do "1.vc1+2.vc1". But you cannot combine two different formats that way. Furthermore eac3to can currently only mux one *video* track to MKV. eac3to does not mux audio tracks into MKV. You need to use mkvtoolnix for that purpose.

I think MKV Container doesn't support TrueHD Stream or I think TrueHD Stream can't be added in any container without Core, any suggestions?
I'm not sure if there's already a specification for storing TrueHD tracks in the MKV container. Maybe there is, maybe not. Anyway, none of the MKV tools support it at this time, as far as I know. Your best option would probably be to transcode the TrueHD track to FLAC. That's a lossless process. You won't lose any audio quality that way. And FLAC can be stored in MKV without any problems...

[sehgal.v7]

@Madshi
Thank you sir for your guidance & hard work. mkvmerge too doesn't support TrueHD stream. I decoded TrueHD track to FLAC with Nero Audio Decoder 2 coz my track is Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-bit so hope its better than libav/ffmpeg (actually i paid for that plugin, that's why i preferred decoding by it & it's not a 7.1 track too). Now the problem came that mkvmerge isn't accepting VC1 track. So i have to copy VC1 track to AVI container with help of VC12Avi, it added 0.07% Bytes// after that i compiled AVI File + Flac File into MKV Container, & it just added 0.04% Bytes. Now i'm saving 13% space comparable to M2TS container.

Can other masters tell me is there any worth saving backups in M2TS containers?? And is there any other container that can save VC1 & TrueHD(without Core) directly without any conversion?

Regards
Shroff

[madshi]

Now the problem came that mkvmerge isn't accepting VC1 track. So i have to copy VC1 track to AVI container with help of VC12Avi, it added 0.07% Bytes// after that i compiled AVI File + Flac File into MKV Container, & it just added 0.04% Bytes. Now i'm saving 13% space comparable to M2TS container.
I'd suggest using eac3to to mux the VC-1 track directly to MKV and to transcode the TrueHD track to FLAC. You can do both in one step (e.g. "eac3to source.m2ts movie.mkv"). Afterwards use mkvtoolnix to add the FLAC file to the MKV created by eac3to. mkvtoolnix can handle MKV files with VC-1 tracks in them. mkvtoolnix can just not handle raw VC-1 streams...

Can other masters tell me is there any worth saving backups in M2TS containers??
Not sure what you mean with that...

[sehgal.v7]

@Madshi
Now first i removed other tracks expect VC1 Stream from M2TS with TSMuxer, then command line: eac3to.exe 1.m2ts 1.mkv >
M2TS, 1 video track, 0:01:20
1: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
[v01] Extracting video track number 1...
[v01] Muxing video to Matroska...
-------------------

Nothing happens after that// waiting since 15mins

Can other masters tell me is there any worth saving backups in M2TS containers vs MKV Containers??
Hope i clarify now// I meant is there any loss saving MKV container.. as i read somewhere that extra space that M2TS container takes, its for Scrambling control, blah, blah..

[madshi]

Now first i removed other tracks expect VC1 Stream from M2TS
Why? You don't need to do that. Just do "eac3to original.m2ts movie.mkv" with the original unchanged m2ts file.

Nothing happens after that// waiting since 15mins
Don't know why. Make sure that you have the latest Haali Media Splitter version installed. Which OS are you using?

I meant is there any loss saving MKV container.. as i read somewhere that extra space that M2TS container takes, its for Scrambling control, blah, blah..
Technically there is no loss worth mentioning when remuxing m2ts to MKV. However, current external media player hardware seems to prefer m2ts over MKV. So you might have a certain loss of compatability...

[73ChargerFan]

mkvtoolnix won't mux raw .vc1 files, and totally screws up 1 out of 10 files (demux bd with eac3to, convert lossless to dts & flac) so I'm now using Haali's mkv muxer. No problems so far.

[EPiPH0NE]

However, current external media player hardware seems to prefer m2ts over MKV. So you might have a certain loss of compatability...

Looks this is gonna change soon. From new NMT beta firmware:


1. New MKV demux from Haali, improved MKV decode performance above 33Mbps from local
HDD, SMB and NFS shares. HTTP performance still below 20Mbps

:)

[lexor]

Looks this is gonna change soon. From new NMT beta firmware:
what's NMT?

[sehgal.v7]

@Madshi
Problem was with my Haali Media Splitter, it was last year, now everything is working like a charm. Thank you very much sir. Your application saved me, as i wasn't able to experience true audio HD. Now i can hear TrueHD and DTSHD MA tracks on my PC with help of Loseless Codec - FLAC and remove unwanted audio streams to save space. Day by Day you're adding new features to your app and limiting need of any other app. I don't think in coming few months, i'll be needing any app other than eac3to.

Compatability isn't a loss for me as i've to play it on PC only..

One last question :) should i use Nero Audio Decoder for TrueHD tracks which are upto 5.1, is Nero decoding better than LibAV//FFmpeg except 7.1 limit? & can you tell what command line you instruct to Eac3to for encoding into FLAC// is it compression level 8??

Found a comparision of lossless codecs, it might be helpful for some hxxp://www.synthetic-soul.co.uk/comparison/lossless/

Edited- Meanwhile i got Rambo 4 with DTS-HD MA 7.1 48 kHz/24-bit track// now for me my ArcSoft DTS Decoder (1.0.2.2) is not working correctly. How can i remove DTS Core from DTSHD and whats problem with my decoder?? I'm using ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre v2.1.4.108

Thanking You :thanks:,
Shroff

[sehgal.v7]

From some article by Amir (Retired Digital Media/HD DVD insider (circa fall 2007)) -

FLAC is not in there because no company in DVD Forum proposed it! No representation, no selection . We for example, proposed WMA Pro and got it selected as optional (in both DVD and hence, HD DVD).

Some advantages of other codecs has been mentioned. Here are some more:

1. TrueHD has layered decoding. Decode 2 channels and you automatically get the downmixed version. I don't think FLAC has this.

2. TrueHD is based on MLP which was already a standard in DVD-A, a DVD Forum standard.

3. DTS is a layered coding on top of DTS so provides backward compatibility, such is not true of FLAC.

4. It takes a lot of political will to get something approved in there. That is why we did not push for WMA Pro to become mandatory and cost us incredible amount of resources to get VC-1 in there.

5. Patents, patents, patents. Just because something is open source, it says nothing about who owns the patents or mean that it is "free". DVD Forum would not accept technology where this is no clear licensing authority behind the technology (or at least they would use this as a reason to disqualify). This is why there is a patent pool for VC-1 and we went as far as picking "MPEG"-LA.

[kurt]

what's NMT?
he meant the Popcorn Hour (NMT A-100)

[swindmill]

Similarly to this post:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1085664#post1085664

I have ripped the nine inch nails live: beside you in time blu-ray and extracted/muxed the video into an .mkv.

PowerDVD plays this disc fine, but playing the .mkv results in pixelation and artifacting.

I can upload a sample of the .m2ts if necessary. What is the best method to cut it down to a smaller size in order to do so?

[madshi]

mkvtoolnix won't mux raw .vc1 files, and totally screws up 1 out of 10 files (demux bd with eac3to, convert lossless to dts & flac) so I'm now using Haali's mkv muxer. No problems so far.
Did you mux the raw video streams to MKV with mkvtoolnix? That's not recommended. You should use eac3to for that and then use mkvtoolnix only to add the external audio tracks into the MKV created by eac3to. That has never failed for me yet. Haali's muxer works fine in many cases. It usually never totally screws up. However, there are some cases where eac3to creates "better" MKVs compared to Haali's muxer...

Looks this is gonna change soon. From new NMT beta firmware:

1. New MKV demux from Haali, improved MKV decode performance above 33Mbps from local
HDD, SMB and NFS shares. HTTP performance still below 20Mbps

:)
Looks promising! We need more than 33Mbps for some Blu-Ray to MKV muxes, though.

One last question :) should i use Nero Audio Decoder for TrueHD tracks which are upto 5.1, is Nero decoding better than LibAV//FFmpeg except 7.1 limit?
Doesn't really matter. They output identical results.

can you tell what command line you instruct to Eac3to for encoding into FLAC// is it compression level 8??
eac3to uses the highest FLAC compression level.

Meanwhile i got Rambo 4 with DTS-HD MA 7.1 48 kHz/24-bit track// now for me my ArcSoft DTS Decoder (1.0.2.2) is not working correctly.
You need the ArcSoft DTS Decoder version 1.1.0.0 (or newer).

How can i remove DTS Core from DTSHD
You can use the "-core" parameter for that.

I have ripped the nine inch nails live: beside you in time blu-ray and extracted/muxed the video into an .mkv.
Which tool did you use for extraction/muxing? eac3to? Or something else?

PowerDVD plays this disc fine, but playing the .mkv results in pixelation and artifacting.
Using which decoder?

I can upload a sample of the .m2ts if necessary. What is the best method to cut it down to a smaller size in order to do so?
Yes, a sample would be helpful. You can use a hexeditor to cut the size down. E.g. this one: http://www.mh-nexus.de/

[EPiPH0NE]

Looks promising! We need more than 33Mbps for some Blu-Ray to MKV muxes, though.


Yeah, the current limit is 33Mbps as I found this out when I first tried to play my Transformers HD-DVD 1080p ES MKV back in Nov. 07 on my NMT. Haali will allow >33Mbps and should finally allow for full BluRay/HD-DVD 1080p ES video in MKV on the NMT. Still no multi channel FLAC but, I don't mind using (L)PCM, as optical storage space is cheaper then ever (for the price of 50 DVD-R's ($8-10$) I can store ~10 BluRay/HD-DVD projects) and if I'm already keeping 1080p ES video @10-25GB a pop what's aother 3-6GB for (L)PCM audio?. I think I will choose to sitck with TS/M2TS as I get hardware decoding instead of relying on software. I'm baked and it's time to go floss and brush :)

[sehgal.v7]

@Madshi
I'm using ArcSoft TotalMedia Extreme v1.0.9.4, in that dtsdecoderdll.dll seems to be 1.0.2.2 & when i checked update// it said no available update, i uninstalled it. Then i installed earlier version ArcSoft TotalMedia Extreme v1.0.6.28 and then updated it to v1.0.6.29. After that copying dtsdecoderdll.dll 1.1.0.0 and uninstalling v1.0.6.29, i installed v1.0.9.4 and replaced existing dtsdecoderdll.dll 1.0.2.2 with dtsdecoderdll.dll 1.1.0.0, its working. Now i'm using ArcSoft TotalMedia Extreme v1.0.9.4 with dtsdecoderdll.dll 1.1.0.0.
Everything seems to be running fine:-

Nero Audio Decoder (Nero 7 or older) works fine
ArcSoft DTS Decoder (1.1.0.0) works fine
Sonic Audio Decoder (4.3.0.169) works fine
Haali Media Splitter (2008-3-29) is installed
Surcode DTS Encoder (1.0.23.0) is installed
MkvToolnix (v2.2.0) is installed

My question was, How can i remove DTS Core from DTSHD not How i can extract Core from Stream. Like in TrueHD, eac3to demuxes Core & TrueHD data seperately.

Sehgal

[madshi]

Yeah, the current limit is 33Mbps as I found this out when I first tried to play my Transformers HD-DVD 1080p ES MKV back in Nov. 07 on my NMT. Haali will allow >33Mbps and should finally allow for full BluRay/HD-DVD 1080p ES video in MKV on the NMT.
Ah, so the new limit is not "a little bit over 33Mbps", but it's now "not limited to 33Mbps like the old firmware"? So in other words there's no new limit known yet? That would be awesome, of course! Now if they just could add multichannel FLAC support, please! If possible together with playing external audio tracks... ;)

[madshi]

My question was, How can i remove DTS Core from DTSHD
That makes no sense because the core is essentially needed for DTS-HD. If you removed the core you'd destroy the track.

[sehgal.v7]

@Madshi
Is TrueHD track too destroyed after removing Core??