eac3to - audio conversion tool

[madshi]

I cant get eac3to encode a DTS-HD track.

I wont recognise the file.. How can i re-encode it to an AC3??????
I can't say anything without more details. Where did you get the DTS-HD track from? Which file extension does it have? Try renaming it to "something.dtshd". And please post the full eac3to text output here.

[onlym3]

How do i convert a TrueHD track from a Bluray? The info on the first page says use evodemux to create an evo but that only works for HD DVDs since you first need to load an evo to be able to rebuild it.

[Thunderbolt8]

regarding the blue ray thing, how do I manage to use something similar like offsetpts for evo files for m2ts files?
afaik a common way is, when having multile m2ts files to add them together like with copy /b etc. but what if there are also slightly audio delay problems then, like in some hddvd cases? for that reason madshi created offsetpts, but how can I treat the blue ray files to prevent desyncing?

[madshi]

How do i convert a TrueHD track from a Bluray? The info on the first page says use evodemux to create an evo but that only works for HD DVDs since you first need to load an evo to be able to rebuild it.
Blu-Ray TrueHD tracks are not fully supported yet. You can demux them with "TsRemux" or "xport" and then eac3to can extract the AC3 track which is stored inside the TrueHD track. But currently decoding of the full TrueHD information is not possible yet. However, I hope to be able to make that work soon.

[madshi]

regarding the blue ray thing, how do I manage to use something similar like offsetpts for evo files for m2ts files?
afaik a common way is, when having multile m2ts files to add them together like with copy /b etc. but what if there are also slightly audio delay problems then, like in some hddvd cases? for that reason madshi created offsetpts, but how can I treat the blue ray files to prevent desyncing?
Currently I don't know any way to "delay" m2ts files. Maybe I'll enhance offsetpts sooner or later to also handle m2ts files.

[Thunderbolt8]

i wonder about one thing, I converted the 5.1 eac3 from mad max: the road warrior to ac3 and the size remained the same for the ac3 track. I did the same with the 2.0 eac3 commentary track, but the ac3 size doubled in that case. is this a normal procedure? afaik the eac3 track had 192kbps, but the ac3 file now has 384kbps :S (made with eac3to)

[madshi]

i wonder about one thing, I converted the 5.1 eac3 from mad max: the road warrior to ac3 and the size remained the same for the ac3 track. I did the same with the 2.0 eac3 commentary track, but the ac3 size doubled in that case. is this a normal procedure? afaik the eac3 track had 192kbps, but the ac3 file now has 384kbps :S (made with eac3to)
File size depends only on bitrate and movie duration. You can tell eac3to which bitrates to use. If you don't do that eac3to decides for its own.

[Thunderbolt8]

hm since the program made it right with the 640kbps for the 5.1 track I assume it could somehow autodetect the right bitrate. guess I have to convert again then and enter 192kbps manually

[madshi]

hm since the program made it right with the 640kbps for the 5.1 track I assume it could somehow autodetect the right bitrate. guess I have to convert again then and enter 192kbps manually
Well, what is "right" and what is "wrong"? Reencoding with a lossy encoder always hurts audio quality. eac3to has *intentionally* chosen a higher bitrate than the original bitrate in order to keep the audio quality loss as small as possible. For 5.1 tracks eac3to is generally using 640kbps. For stereo tracks eac3to is generally using 384kbps, IIRC. These are default values I've chosen. If you don't like them, you have the freedom to tell eac3to to use other values. But I'm not going to lower the defaults. I don't agree that matching the original bitrates is "right".

[Taktaal]

The problem is that both Nero and Sonic are really bugged. Nero is a 1.4GB program just to burn some CDs and play movies, which would be funny by itself if it wasn't so pathetic, is just about impossible to configure properly for HD-DVD playback and hoses your Windows install after a few tries of getting it to work.
And Sonic just dumps a few uncaught exceptions right onto the command line in a stunning display of programmer incompetence if you want to use it to decode E-AC3.

[honai]

The problem is that both Nero and Sonic are really bugged.

If you have found bugs you can always report them to Nero or Sonic.

Nero is a 1.4GB program

What? My installation folder weighs less than 200 MB.

which would be funny by itself if it wasn't so pathetic

What is so pathetic about it?

is just about impossible to configure properly for HD-DVD playback

Impossible as in not possible? How come that it works for others?

and hoses your Windows install after a few tries of getting it to work.

No, it doesn't. The problem most likely exists between keyboard and chair.

And Sonic just dumps a few uncaught exceptions right onto the command line in a stunning display of programmer incompetence if you want to use it to decode E-AC3.

The Nero filters are working fine.

And looking back at your post from 24th September 2007, 23:56:

Has anyone kept an old version of eac3to? It used to work very well but the versions in the last 2 months added only bloat and more dependancies.

and considering that you don't offer any specific bug reports at all it seems that your major intention in this thread is to badmouth software that - gasp! - seems to work just fine for many other users.

I find it especially rich that you claim that the latest versions of madshi's work "added only bloat". He's working on this for free, and you get even the full source code. I don't think you're in a position to discard his work in such a way.

[Taktaal]

It was perhaps not said in a very nice way, I'm sorry. But I did specify that the issues aren't with the eac3to code itself, but with the dependencies.

[honai]

So what are the issues exactly? Perhaps readers can help you out.

[madshi]

I did specify that the issues aren't with the eac3to code itself, but with the dependencies.
I'm still not sure which dependencies you're talking about. There have been no dependencies added at all in recent versions. Actually I've been *reducing* dependencies over time.

[madshi]

The problem is that both Nero and Sonic are really bugged. Nero is a 1.4GB program just to burn some CDs and play movies, which would be funny by itself if it wasn't so pathetic, is just about impossible to configure properly for HD-DVD playback
Fortunately all we need from the Nero package in this thread is the Nero Audio Decoder and that one is relatively small and works quite well.

[Thunderbolt8]

I read somewhere that with sonic audio decoder can I can actually use the DD+ track, it is able to decode it. is this right and can I benefit from this track with this decoder already fully, meaning hes able to decode & output 'everything there is' additionally compared to an ac3 only track?

[madshi]

I read somewhere that with sonic audio decoder can I can actually use the DD+ track, it is able to decode it. is this right and can I benefit from this track with this decoder already fully, meaning hes able to decode & output 'everything there is' additionally compared to an ac3 only track?
Read the first post of this thread to learn about disadvantages of the Sonic decoder.

[madshi]

eac3to v1.16 released

http://madshi.net/eac3to.zip

This version can now fully decode demuxed TrueHD files from both HD DVD and Blu-Ray!!

That means: Sony TrueHD tracks can now be decoded bit perfectly because Sony doesn't use Dialog Normalization. Sadly, for other studios TrueHD decoding still isn't bit perfect because the Nero Audio Decoder does post processing (Dialog Normalization).

Here are test results with "The Fifth Element (Remastered)":

(1) Original 20bit TrueHD track in m2ts container: 4.12GB.
(2) Demuxed TrueHD track: 3.36GB.
(3) TrueHD after removal of interweaved AC3 frames: 2.81GB.
(4) 20bit TrueHD reencoded to FLAC: 2.54GB.
(5) 16bit LPCM track reencoded to FLAC: 1.55GB.

From the numbers it seems that TrueHD decoding is perfect for Sony Blu-Ray tracks. Now if only I knew how to remove Dialog Normalization for Blu-Ray tracks of other studios... :(

[HD-DVD±RW]

@madshi just wanted to thank you greatly for providing a super useful application. I've used it on many occasions with great success. Keep up the good work.

[Thunderbolt8]

^^completely agree. well done.

[nmeli15]

When trying to convert ddp to ac3 with eac3to with Sonic-orbitlee error message.............gettin dts/ac3/dd+ source instances failed............what does that mean........

[madshi]

@madshi just wanted to thank you greatly for providing a super useful application. I've used it on many occasions with great success. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the feedback!

[madshi]

When trying to convert ddp to ac3 with eac3to with Sonic-orbitlee error message.............gettin dts/ac3/dd+ source instances failed............what does that mean........
It probably means that the orbitlee filter is not properly registered.

[Thunderbolt8]

whats the difference between orbitlees's DD+ source filters and the ones that are applied otherwise, when those are not applied?

[homerpez]

I've hit a serious snag while trying to back up the Cantonese audio from "Kung Fu Hustle" on Blu-Ray. The goal is a standard, ordinary 5.1 AC3 file, since it's just for backup.

The "Lossless PCM" track is 5.1 audio, and Power DVD info tells me it's LPCM.

I Demux this track with TSremux, and call it "Kung Fu Hustle.pcm".

Using Eac3to (the latest as of this date), this is what it gives me:

C:\temp\TEST>"C:\VIDEO\Rippak\EAC3TO\eac3to.exe" "C:\temp\TEST\Kung Fu Hustle.pc
m" "C:\temp\TEST\Kung Fu Hustle.ac3" -448 -orbitlee -16 -big
RAW, 5.1 channels, 1:39:04, 16 bits, 48khz
Converting the raw file to wav. Please wait...
Converting the wav file to ac3. Please wait...

Aften: A/52 audio encoder
Version 0.0.8
(c) 2006-2007 Justin Ruggles, Prakash Punnoor, et al.

Warning, unsupported file size.
input format: WAVE Signed 16-bit little-endian 48000 Hz 5.1-channel
output format: 48000 Hz 3/2 + LFE

SIMD usage: MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3
Threads: 2

progress: 0% | q: 188.4 | bw: 34.0 | bitrate: 448.0 kbps

Done.

I know the LPCM stream works, when I play the movie off the hard drive in PowerDVD,it sounds fine.

When I play back the RAW PCM file, and it's garbled digital sound (I think it's supposed to at this stage). I play back the resulting AC3 file from running Eac3to, and it's still garbled, though I can hear the sound some in the background (but it is still digital noise). On the AC3, it turns into an audible BUZZZZZZ sound.

I am fairly sure that it is 16-bit instead of 24 bit, because when I select that, the timecode becomes correct in Eac3to's status, and the resulting AC3 matches the movie (on 24-bit, it doesn't). This does no good, when the sound is digital mish-mash. :P

I have tried both 24-bit and 16-bit, big endian, little endian, as well as forcing either the nero filter or the orbitlee filter. The result is the same: the AC3 has an audible BUZZZZZZ and is digitally garbled.

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Hopefully the copied info above may be able to help? Thanks in advance...

[madshi]

@homerpez, try using xport instead of TsRemux. I've had trouble with TsRemuxed LPCM tracks before while xport has never failed me yet.

[Sephiroth0000]

Can anyone help at all??
I know most of you are far ahead with regards to HD and making it WMV and what not with the 5.1 audio but im finding myself having serious problems here. I am following a persons tutorial on converting HD-DVDs to WMV HD with 5.1 audio channels http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123010&page=5 thread no. 87. Now I have got to the very last stage of the tutorial but when I attempt to transcode I get this error...

C:\HD>eac3to.exe "C:\hd\PEVOB_1_MERGED.DD+.stream.00.ddp" "C:\hd\output.wav"
E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 2:16:18, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
Remove Dialog Normalization information. Please wait...
Muxing eac3 file to raw. Please wait...
Getting "Nero Audio Decoder 2" instance failed.

C:\HD>tranzcode.exe "C:\hd\output.wav"
Error: Unable to open file: C:\hd\output.wav

C:\HD>wavavimux -o audio.avi -iwav 6 output-FL.wav output-FR.wav output-C.wav ou
tput-LFE.wav output-SL.wav output-SR.wav -mask 63
'wavavimux' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\HD>cscript.exe "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\wmcmd.vbs"
-input "C:\hd\Video_Only.avs" -a_input "C:\hd\audio.avi" -output "C:\hd\output.w
mv" -v_bframedist 1 -v_bdeltaqp 1 -v_mslevel 1 -v_codec wvc1 -v_keydist 3 -v_mod
e 2 -v_quality 96 -v_mmatch 0 -v_msrange 0 -v_performance 20 -v_loopfilter 1 -a_
codec wmapro -a_setting 384_48_6_16

I have tried looking up these errors but with no success. If anyone could give me any input with this I would really appreciate it because to be honest im all out of idea's.

[Taktaal]

Your first command already failed so there's no use in continuing with the others.
The error code seems to indicate that you don't have Nero installed on your system. Once you install it you should get to a point where it says something like "expected 4GB file, but got 0 byte". And that's about as far as you're gonna get!

[Sephiroth0000]

Your first command already failed so there's no use in continuing with the others.
The error code seems to indicate that you don't have Nero installed on your system. Once you install it you should get to a point where it says something like "expected 4GB file, but got 0 byte". And that's about as far as you're gonna get!

But I do have Nero installed and I also have the Blu-Ray HD DVD plugin also. You seem to know what you are talking about so do you have any suggestions at all please? Where is that I have gone wrong? I understand that it is trying to load up Nero to continue the process of the audio but what I do not understand is why the error?

[TheSof]

I just used eac3to on a demuxed truehd .mpa (superman returns) and it worked fine. However, it produced a 24bit flac. If the thd is 16 bit, should I be using the -16 switch? Or do the nero decoders only output 24bit?

[Thunderbolt8]

good question, I was wondering in a similar way, whether I should use 16 or 24 bit for FLAC for a 24-bit LPCM lossless track. madshi told somewhere above that the compression works better for 16-bit, but I cant judge how much the loss would be compared to 'real lossless' then with 24-bit or something like that. at least most people I know restrict flac to 16-bit.

[tebasuna51]

I've hit a serious snag while trying to back up the Cantonese audio from "Kung Fu Hustle" on Blu-Ray. The goal is a standard, ordinary 5.1 AC3 file, since it's just for backup.

The "Lossless PCM" track is 5.1 audio, and Power DVD info tells me it's LPCM.
...

If your file is really LPCM and you are a BeHappy user maybe you can try open this avs file in BeHappy:
NicLPCMSource("C:\temp\TEST\Kung Fu Hustle.pcm", 48000, 16, 6)

Maybe you need the last NicAudio_20070821 (http://avisynth2.sourceforge.net/NicAudio_20070821.zip)

[homerpez]

@homerpez, try using xport instead of TsRemux. I've had trouble with TsRemuxed LPCM tracks before while xport has never failed me yet.

Thanks! That worked!

It was a little effort getting xport to do what I wanted (I hate command line programs...) but it did eventually work for me. You saved the day.

[madshi]

But I do have Nero installed and I also have the Blu-Ray HD DVD plugin also. You seem to know what you are talking about so do you have any suggestions at all please? Where is that I have gone wrong? I understand that it is trying to load up Nero to continue the process of the audio but what I do not understand is why the error?
Do you have Nero 7 or Nero 8 installed? Try the latest Nero 7 version. The error eac3to is reporting simply means that the Nero Audio Decoder could not be loaded successfully. I don't know why that happened. You could try (just as a check) renaming GraphEdit.exe to Recode.exe and check if GraphEdit can successfully load the Nero Audio Decoder.

[madshi]

I just used eac3to on a demuxed truehd .mpa (superman returns) and it worked fine. However, it produced a 24bit flac. If the thd is 16 bit, should I be using the -16 switch? Or do the nero decoders only output 24bit?
The Nero Audio Decoder always outputs 24bit for TrueHD regardless of which bitdepth the TrueHD file really has. And it gets even worse: Because of dialog normalization post processing all 24bits do have valid audio data in them. The "-16" switch will not help. This switch is only there for situations where the raw audio data is really 16bit. But in your case the audio data is output by the Nero Audio Decoder is 24bit. So using the "-16" switch would result in garbled audio. You could use the "-down16" switch to downconvert the 24bit data to 16bit, but you'd lose a bit of audio quality this way. What we really need is a way to turn dialog normalization post processing off. If we do that, the Nero Audio Decoder will still output 24bit, but the lower 8 bits will be all zero. FLAC will then encode that as a 24bit FLAC file, but the final FLAC file size will be similar to a 16bit FLAC.

[Sephiroth0000]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with regards to the problems im having? (problem on page 44). I know that the command prompt has failed because it cannot find Nero Audio Decoder 2 but I do have Nero installed and I even installed the BluRay HD DVD plugin but still with no success. I have tried looking for this Nero Audio Decoder 2 on my system but cannot find it but my Nero install is complete and it is uptodate aswell.

[SvT]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with regards to the problems im having? (problem on page 44). I know that the command prompt has failed because it cannot find Nero Audio Decoder 2 but I do have Nero installed and I even installed the BluRay HD DVD plugin but still with no success. I have tried looking for this Nero Audio Decoder 2 on my system but cannot find it but my Nero install is complete and it is uptodate aswell.

Check your product setup in NERO. The serial for the plugin should show in this list ! If not ... your plugin is not fully registered. (there must be at least 2 serials 1 for Nero and 1 for the plugin)
If the serial is there, I can see no reason why eac3to can't find it.
Did you try Madshi's suggestion ? (renaming GraphEdit.exe......)

Greets.

[Sephiroth0000]

Check your product setup in NERO. The serial for the plugin should show in this list ! If not ... your plugin is not fully registered. (there must be at least 2 serials 1 for Nero and 1 for the plugin)
If the serial is there, I can see no reason why eac3to can't find it.
Did you try Madshi's suggestion ? (renaming GraphEdit.exe......)

Greets.

At last :) Thankyou! I do have the serials for both Nero and the BluRay HD plugin. Renaming Graphedit!? I know its a pain but could you go more into detail please?

[SvT]

@Sephiroth0000 See Madshi's reply to your question (post #884)

[Sephiroth0000]

Do you have Nero 7 or Nero 8 installed? Try the latest Nero 7 version. The error eac3to is reporting simply means that the Nero Audio Decoder could not be loaded successfully. I don't know why that happened. You could try (just as a check) renaming GraphEdit.exe to Recode.exe and check if GraphEdit can successfully load the Nero Audio Decoder.

I have Nero 8 and the Blu-Ray HD plugin.

[Sephiroth0000]

SVT Graphedit can load up Nero Audio Decoder 2. Im sorry everyone but this is very new to me.

[Rectal Prolapse]

Nero 8 will not work - if I read what a Nero deveoper said to someone correctly, Nero 8 blocks access to their filters outside of Nero Showtime and other Nero software.

You are out of luck - you will have to downgrade to Nero 7 in the above case.

[Rectal Prolapse]

Despite the bad news - it could be possible to defeat Nero's protection by monitoring the calls - perhaps the techniques used to make a codecave could be used...

[Sephiroth0000]

I thankyou everyone for the input they have given me and im very thankful! I have downgraded to Nero 7 and now the audio decoder is picked up and it moves on to the next step which is where I encounter another error... (you were right by the way Taktaal)

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\HD>"C:\HD\eac3to.exe" "C:\HD\PEVOB_1_MERGED.DD.stream.00.ddp" "C:\HD\output.
wav" -nero
E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 2:16:18, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
Remove Dialog Normalization information. Please wait...
Muxing eac3 file to raw. Please wait...
Disabling DRC for Nero E-AC3 decoding...
The file size of the raw file doesn't seem to fit.
The expected file size for 16 bit is 4.38 GB.
The expected file size for 24 bit is 6.58 GB.
The real file size is 0 Bytes.

Any suggestions at all? I do appreciate this everyone and at the end I will be putting all my notes together to make my own tutorial on converting HD DVD to EVO to WMV HD with 5.1

[madshi]

The real file size is 0 Bytes.
This usually happens when the audio decoder refuses to work. I'd suggest that you try uninstalling Nero and reinstalling it. Also make sure that you have really bought the HD DVD plugin. Pirated serial numbers are known to make problems with the HD DVD plugin.

[madshi]

eac3to v1.17 released

http://madshi.net/eac3to.zip

BIG NEWS.

The TrueHD decoding is now perfect for all HD DVD and Blu-Ray 5.1 TrueHD tracks when using the latest eac3to version and Nero 7 !!

Here's a quick test:

(1) TrueHD test file: 22.8 MB.
(2) Converted to FLAC with old eac3to version: 52.6 MB.
(3) Converted to FLAC with new eac3to version: 20.3 MB.

The size problem in (2) was caused by dialog normalization post processing which I've finally gotten rid of now. Please note that TrueHD files are always 24bit, even if the source was 16bit. But as you can see in the quick test above, this doesn't harm the file size, as long as no post processing is applied by the audio decoder.

TrueHD tracks with 2.0 and 7.1 channels are not supported yet. If you have such tracks, please send me a small sample (5MB should be enough) of the demuxed TrueHD audio track.

[Taktaal]

By the way make sure you take an Acronis image before trying to get Nero to work. After the second or third try I had to reinstall Windows from scratch.

[Thunderbolt8]

Great Job, Madshi, Well Done :)


edit: I understand it right, that the less space consumed by the flac track now is only restricted to 'real' 16-bit trueHD tracks? (because I made a test with a 24-bit file (at least evodemux says its 24-bit) and the size stayed the same with the new version, without using any additional option). so what basically happened to that track, size still the same, but dialog normalization removed now?

[Sephiroth0000]

I really appreciate the answers and suggestions I am getting from people.Thankyou :) and I will let you know what happens when I do as you have all suggested.

[hristoff2]

Nice one! :)