eac3to - audio conversion tool

[ramicio]

This was discussed already in this thread.

Until XP SP2, if I remember well, only the channel mask 0x0000003F was defined by M$ like standard 5.1 (Surround channels -> Back channels BL-BR), but after XP SP2 the channel mask 0x0000060F was the preferred to 5.1 (Surround channels -> Side channels SL-SR), maintaining the old mask like valid 5.1

Then new soft, M$ compliant, must accept both mask like equivalent for 5.1, and old soft maybe can reject 0x0000060F.
I recommended to madshi use always 0x0000003F, but ...


It's weird. Eac3to writes 0x0000060F, but madFLAC ignores that and sends 0x0000003F to the audio renderer. As long as madFLAC gives me 0x0000003F, I'm happy.


If you use, for a 6 chan, 16 bits, 48 KHz:

-override -little -6 -16 -48000

the channel order is assumed like WAV

-override -big -6 -16 -48000

the channel order is assumed like PCM

Thank you :)

[Furiousflea]

Hi there, getting a problem with two RAW\PCM 2.0 24bit 96khz tracks on "Beatles - Yellow Submarine" Bluray...

[07:31:59] Retrieving features
[07:31:59] Arguments: "C:\Users\Rob\Desktop\YELLOW SUBMARINE"
[07:31:59] Feature Retrieval Completed
[07:32:00] Retrieving streams
[07:32:00] Arguments: "C:\Users\Rob\Desktop\YELLOW SUBMARINE" 1) -progressnumbers
[07:32:01] Stream Retrieval Completed
[07:33:08] Extracting streams
[07:33:08] Arguments: "C:\Users\Rob\Desktop\YELLOW SUBMARINE" 1) (HAVE CHOPPED THIS OFF TO STOP MESSING UP FORUM FORMATTING - JUST COMPRESSING AUDIO TO FLAC AND EXTRACTING SUBTITLES\VIDEO)
[07:33:09] Creating file "D:\source\yellow submarine\1_1_chapter.txt"...
[07:33:09] s09 Extracting subtitle track number 9...
[07:33:09] a04 Extracting audio track number 4...
[07:33:09] v02 Extracting video track number 2...
[07:33:09] v02 Muxing video to Matroska...
[07:33:09] a05 Extracting audio track number 5...
[07:33:09] a05 Reading RAW/PCM...
[07:33:09] a05 Swapping endian...
[07:33:09] a05 Encoding FLAC with libFlac...
[07:33:09] a08 Extracting audio track number 8...
[07:33:09] a03 Extracting audio track number 3...
[07:33:09] a03 Decoding with ArcSoft DTS Decoder...
[07:33:09] a03 Encoding FLAC with libFlac...
[07:33:09] s10 Extracting subtitle track number 10...
[07:33:09] a04 Reading RAW/PCM...
[07:33:09] a04 Swapping endian...
[07:33:09] a04 Encoding FLAC with libFlac...
[07:33:12] a04 The ts pcm reader received a PCM block in an unexpected format.
[07:33:12] a05 The ts pcm reader received a PCM block in an unexpected format.
[07:33:13] a03 Creating file "D:\source\yellow submarine\1_3_audio.flac"...
[07:33:14] a08 Creating file "D:\source\yellow submarine\1_8_audio.ac3"...
[07:34:36] s10 Creating file "D:\source\yellow submarine\1_10_subtitle.sup"...
[07:35:52] s09 Creating file "D:\source\yellow submarine\1_9_subtitle.sup"...


Any ideas, thanks.

EDIT - Did a bit of investigating, looks like there were 3 m2ts in the mpls, the first one had didn't have PCM streams in it and the last one was just black for a few seconds.

Just loaded the m2ts directly and seems to have resolved the problem except no chapters hope I can get those out another way but I guess this is RESOLVED.

[ramicio]

That Blu-ray is an absolute mess to work with. The tracks are 24/48, even though they report as 24/96.

[jpsdr]

I've encouter cases where chapters are not on the m2ts file but only on the .mpls file. You have to get them from it.

[mastrandrea]

I need to convert a 7-channels dts to ac3 5.1.
The channels are mapped as this:
Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: C, LFE / Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE (from MediaInfo).

I do not own any commercial DTS encoder, are there any other tools I can use with eac3to to process this file?

Thanks

[ramicio]

eac3to <input> <output> -down6 -640 (ac3 bit rate, can be any standard bit rate number)

[the_weirdo]

I need to convert a 7-channels dts to ac3 5.1.
The channels are mapped as this:
Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: C, LFE / Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE (from MediaInfo).

I do not own any commercial DTS encoder, are there any other tools I can use with eac3to to process this file?

Thanks
eac3to <input> <output> -down6 -640 (ac3 bit rate, can be any standard bit rate number)

I like to add that according this post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1524791&post1524791) and this post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1524301#post1524301) you'll need to remap channels when downmix 6.1 to 5.1 with eac3to.

Also, if you mean you don't have any commercial DTS decoder (like ArcSoft or Sonic) then eac3to will using libav to decode and it can only output 5.1 anyway. Not sure in this case you'll need to remap or not.

[tebasuna51]

The ramicio solution must work always.

- The source is 7.1 then not needed remap (only 6.1 need)
- If a decoder like ArcSoft is not installed (Sonic don't decode 7.1, I think) the -down6 is ignored.

BTW, there are demo versions of ArcSoft decoder than work with eac3to. Use the search.

[the_weirdo]

...a 7-channels dts to ac3 5.1.
The channels are mapped as this:
Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: C, LFE / Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE (from MediaInfo)...

Well, from what he states in his post and information from MediaInfo, I guess his DTS is 6.1, not 7.1.

[tebasuna51]

Well, from what he states in his post and information from MediaInfo, I guess his DTS is 6.1, not 7.1.

Sorry, you are rigth. My mistake.

Then, if you have ArcSoft/Sonic decoder the remap is necesary:

eac3to <input> <output> -down6 -0,1,2,3,5,6,4

[mastrandrea]

Thank you guys, I've tried with the Arcsoft Decoder (1.1.0.7) and your options, but it always seems that the ouput is very compressed and with no low frequencies...

[tebasuna51]

... but it always seems that the ouput is very compressed and with no low frequencies...

Then there are two options:

- Or you have a very expensive high quality audio system and very good ears (Please say your player, amplifier/receiver and speakers).

- Or your audio system have a different calibration for DTS and AC3.

BTW, the low frequencies are very easy to code, and have no sense to ear differences, maybe at high frequencies...

[Azal]

I just came across to this phenomenon that a LPCM track extracted off of a .M2TS with eac3to was about 50% smaller than what I got when I demuxed the same audio track with tsMuxeR. You can find a screenshot in a link below.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8383/extractedlpcmtrackshrun.png
(audio.wav is extracted with eac3to and 00000.track_4352.wav with tsMuxeR from same source - on the side you can see both WAV's opened in MPC with property pages opened)

I started suspecting something was wrong when I noticed that the extracted WAV had changed in attributes from 24bit to 16bit and was noticeably small in size. Also the bitrate had dropped from stated original 2304 to 1536kbps. I tried tsMuxeR and got a WAV corresponging the original track. This worries me alot, because this is the first time I noticed this and I've been extracting LPCM tracks with eac3to a long time, because MKVtoolnix cannot read them directly from the M2TS files. It seems like only the "core" track of the LPCM was extracted with eac3to with a loss of quality. It makes me wonder how many LPCM tracks I've downgraded and remux back into MKV unnoticed? I should say I've never really familiarized myself with the advanced settings of eac3to and I might just be doing something wrong command-wise. Can you please shed light into this - why am I getting smaller WAV tracks with eac3to and is it at an expense of quality, not by some redundant overhead data?

[sneaker_ger]

No quality is lost. As the log says:
http://www.abload.de/img/extractedlpcmtrackshr3cppx.png

Of each 24 bits, 8 bits are simply zeros, which can be safely removed. This saves a lot of space and results in correct 16 bit depth instead of the misleading "24 bits" it is supposed to have.

[Azal]

No quality is lost. As the log says:
http://www.abload.de/img/extractedlpcmtrackshr3cppx.png

Of each 24 bits, 8 bits are simply zeros, which can be safely removed. This saves a lot of space and results in correct 16 bit depth instead of the misleading "24 bits" it is supposed to have.

This sounds like great news. Also a lot like misleading advertising as this is from a retail Michael Bublé concert Blu-Ray (notice the audio details in a link below).
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Michael-Buble-Caught-in-the-Act-Blu-ray/4643/
Apologizes if I make you repeat yourself but I've never really got about to get into and read what is the difference of 16 or 24bit compared to simple kbps and is it that the kbps drop is also result of the bits "downgrade"? Nothing is really lost in that regards either?

[sneaker_ger]

48 kHz * 24 Bit * 2 (Channels) = 2304 kbps
48 kHz * 16 Bit * 2 (Channels) = 1536 kbps

Hope that helps.

[Azal]

48 kHz * 24 Bit * 2 (Channels) = 2304 kbps
48 kHz * 16 Bit * 2 (Channels) = 1536 kbps

Hope that helps.

Thank you sir!

[Keiyakusha]

By the way about this stripping of zeroes. It works with any input or only LPCM and THD (maybe others)? I mean if I converted audio to flac using different software, if I will run it through eac3to it will still be able to detect zero bytes?
Edit: Never mind. Tried myself. Yes it will.

[Joniii]

Anyone know why eac3to gives this error about Surcode 1.0.29 on Win7/8 64-bit. I remember it working fine on 32-bit, but haven't been able to use it on 64-bit OS.


G:\eac3to>eac3to D:\Test 1) 3: e:\test.dts
M2TS, 1 video track, 6 audio tracks, 12 subtitle tracks, 2:30:40, 24p /1.001
1: Chapters, 28 chapters
2: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
3: RAW/PCM, English, 5.1 channels, 16 bits, 48kHz
4: AC3, English, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48kHz
5: DTS, French, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1509kbps, 48kHz
6: AC3, French, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48kHz
7: DTS, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1509kbps, 48kHz
8: AC3, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48kHz
9: Subtitle (PGS), English
10: Subtitle (PGS), English
11: Subtitle (PGS), French
12: Subtitle (PGS), Spanish
13: Subtitle (PGS), Norwegian
14: Subtitle (PGS), Danish
15: Subtitle (PGS), Swedish
16: Subtitle (PGS), Finnish
17: Subtitle (PGS), Icelandic
18: Subtitle (PGS), Dutch
19: Subtitle (PGS), French
20: Subtitle (PGS), Spanish
a03 Extracting audio track number 3...
a03 Reading RAW/PCM...
a03 Swapping endian...
a03 Remapping channels...
a03 Writing WAVs...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.R.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.SL.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.C.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.LFE.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.L.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.SR.wav"...
a03 The original audio track has a constant bit depth of 16 bits.
Encoding DTS <1536kbps> with Surcode...
Found Surcode DTS Encoder version 1.0.29.0.
Pressing the Surcode "Encode" button didn't seem to work...
Closing Surcode...

G:\eac3to>

[ramicio]

Why not just stop messing around with old archaic garbage and just compress that PCM track to FLAC and see what the resulting bit rate is? 16-bit 5.1 tracks tend to be around the same or much much lower than 1,536 kbps, and it's lossless instead of lossy.

[Joniii]

Why not just stop messing around with old archaic garbage and just compress that PCM track to FLAC and see what the resulting bit rate is? 16-bit 5.1 tracks tend to be around the same or much much lower than 1,536 kbps, and it's lossless instead of lossy.

Can I pass it to my amplifier as 5.1 surrond?

[ramicio]

There's no excuse to have a surround system and still not have HDMI.

[Shevek]

There's no excuse to have a surround system and still not have HDMI.

Sorry, but I have a c.2001 Pioneer 5.1 surround system which doesn't have HDMI and only has 2 optical audio inputs.

It still behaves flawlessly and I have no intention of upgrading until it stops working.

[ramicio]

Cheap... Why even bother with an HD picture then if an old CRT still functions? Why pursue anything better, ever?

[Shevek]

Cheap... Why even bother with an HD picture then if an old CRT still functions? Why pursue anything better, ever?

Not cheap at all!!! Your comparison doesn't hold water.

CRT vs HDTV is a HUGE difference.

All my devices connect video to my 2008 HDTV via HDMI

Audio where required is optical to the Amp for 5.1

The only thing I don't in my setup is 7.1 audio.

5.1 vs 7.1 is not such a big difference to me.

[ramicio]

The same argument could be had for the worthless old DVD lossy formats and the new lossless formats brought on by Blu-ray...

[Shevek]

The same argument could be had for the worthless old DVD lossy formats and the new lossless formats brought on by Blu-ray...

My point is, that updating my CRT to HDTV was worth doing regardless of the state of my old CRT.

Upgrading my 5.1 non HDMI amp purely to allow me to have 7.1 lossless audio is only going to be worth it once the amp dies.

There's nothing "cheap" about that.

[ramicio]

Sure there is. It's also not an amp, it's a receiver. They do more than just amplify or decode a signal, and newer receivers do more with other devices than just take HDMI audio from a computer or STB. It's cheapness. It's '90s technology.

[Shevek]

Sure there is. It's also not an amp, it's a receiver. They do more than just amplify or decode a signal, and newer receivers do more with other devices than just take HDMI audio from a computer or STB. It's cheapness. It's '90s technology.

Well, if NASA had said similar then the Shuttle would have stopped flying many years before :)

YOU may not be happy with 5.1 audio

I however am, no point in arguing any further.

Potaytoes, potahtoes, tomaytoes, tomahtoes :)

[ramicio]

What are you talking about? Cheapness is why the Soviet space program never went anywhere. The antithesis of cheapness is why the US went to the moon. Space programs that are visible to the public are just pure entertainment. Hidden technology is centuries ahead of what the public has knowledge of. The shuttle was 1930s technology.

When did I say anything about 5.1 not being enough? My comments were about lossy garbage, not 5.1 versus 7.1. If you are still a cheapass and need 5.1 to go over TOSLINK there are things that encode on the fly.

[Brazil2]

Cheapness is why the Soviet space program never went anywhere.
That's why the only way to actually send people and supply to the I.S.S. and to bring people back to Earth from the I.S.S. is the cheap but solid as a rock good old Soviet Soyuz :p

[ramicio]

A space station isn't the moon...

[e-t172]

The same argument could be had for the worthless old DVD lossy formats and the new lossless formats brought on by Blu-ray...

No it can't. The difference between SD and HD is obvious to anyone. Hearing the difference between AC3/DTS and lossless is much, much more difficult.

[tebasuna51]

Please guys stop this off topic discussion.

[Joniii]

Cheap... Why even bother with an HD picture then if an old CRT still functions? Why pursue anything better, ever?

Cheap? My TV was 5500 € when I bought it, however I don't really see why I should upgrade my receiver yet even though it would only be around 600 €. As long as it works I'm happy with DTS.

[Joniii]

Anyone know why eac3to gives this error about Surcode 1.0.29 on Win7/8 64-bit. I remember it working fine on 32-bit, but haven't been able to use it on 64-bit OS.


G:\eac3to>eac3to D:\Test 1) 3: e:\test.dts
M2TS, 1 video track, 6 audio tracks, 12 subtitle tracks, 2:30:40, 24p /1.001
1: Chapters, 28 chapters
2: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
3: RAW/PCM, English, 5.1 channels, 16 bits, 48kHz
4: AC3, English, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48kHz
5: DTS, French, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1509kbps, 48kHz
6: AC3, French, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48kHz
7: DTS, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 1509kbps, 48kHz
8: AC3, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 640kbps, 48kHz
9: Subtitle (PGS), English
10: Subtitle (PGS), English
11: Subtitle (PGS), French
12: Subtitle (PGS), Spanish
13: Subtitle (PGS), Norwegian
14: Subtitle (PGS), Danish
15: Subtitle (PGS), Swedish
16: Subtitle (PGS), Finnish
17: Subtitle (PGS), Icelandic
18: Subtitle (PGS), Dutch
19: Subtitle (PGS), French
20: Subtitle (PGS), Spanish
a03 Extracting audio track number 3...
a03 Reading RAW/PCM...
a03 Swapping endian...
a03 Remapping channels...
a03 Writing WAVs...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.R.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.SL.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.C.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.LFE.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.L.wav"...
a03 Creating file "e:\test.SR.wav"...
a03 The original audio track has a constant bit depth of 16 bits.
Encoding DTS <1536kbps> with Surcode...
Found Surcode DTS Encoder version 1.0.29.0.
Pressing the Surcode "Encode" button didn't seem to work...
Closing Surcode...

G:\eac3to>

Launching Surcode and manually adding the wav files then pressing encode it gives error that "sample rates differ from source samplerate" it's weird as the source is 48 kHz and so is the setting on Surcode.

[ramicio]

Yeah, cheap.

[LigH]

Which ArcSoft software is suitable to get a version of the DTS decoder which works with eac3to? Are trial versions acceptable?

Sometimes the ArcSoft DTS decoder doesn't work even after you've installed the full retail software. This can usually be fixed by manually adding the ArcSoft "Bin" folder (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Common Files\ArcSoft\Bin") to your environment path. If you don't know how to do this, google "environment path".

I installed the trial of TotalMedia Theatre 5. But there is no path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\ArcSoft\Bin". Instead, there is a "C:\Program Files\Common Files\ArcSoft\esinter\Bin" (which doesn't seem to contain DLLs eac3to may need). Files which seem to be interesting (e.g. DtsDec.dll or dtsdecoderdll.dll) are in "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\Codec"; but adding that to the PATH doesn't help. So which DLL or AX is eac3to looking for?

[sneaker_ger]

Should be dtsdecoderdll.dll. Try copying to SysWOW64 or to the eac3to folder. Did you restart the system after adding the folder to PATH?

[LigH]

Yes, I restarted.

I copied dtsdecoderdll.dll to the eac3to folder, but that didn't work either.

[Groucho2004]

Yes, I restarted.

I copied dtsdecoderdll.dll to the eac3to folder, but that didn't work either.

I copied these files to my eac3to directory:
ASAudioHD.ax (don't forget regsvr32)
DtsDec.dll
dtsdecoderdll.dll
checkactivate.dll
MagCore.dll
MagPCMac.dll
MagUIEngine.dll
MagUIImage.dll
MagUIInter.dll

[tebasuna51]

Try with:

ASAudioHD.ax
checkactivate.dll
DtsDec.dll
dtsdecoderdll.dll
MagCore.dll
MagPCMac.dll
MagUIEngine.dll
MagUIInter.dll

Maybe checkactivate.dll is not present in last's TMT versions, but eac3to need this file and work with the same file from first's versions.

ASAudioHD.ax must be registered in your DirectShow system.

[LigH]

Maybe checkactivate.dll is not present in last's TMT versions, but eac3to need this file and work with the same file from first's versions.

So it seems that the most recent version 5.3.1.146 is not compatible anymore. I will have to try to find an older version of TMT5.

[sneaker_ger]

My last post was indeed wrong, I just re-checked and I needed all files listed by tebasuna51 (except dtsdec.dll, it seems) and have the .ax registered.

[LigH]

Even an older installer I found (5.0.1.x) does not contain a "checkactivation.dll"; I hope you will be able to find a way to support newer versions of the software... or maybe another ArcSoft software (besides TMT5) is usable?

[sneaker_ger]

Since LAV works using only dtsdecoderdll.dll it probably means that madshi tried to avoid legal issues by checking for that file, too. We'll have to wait for him to start working on eac3to again.

[tebasuna51]

So it seems that the most recent version 5.3.1.146 is not compatible anymore. I will have to try to find an older version of TMT5.

Try add the needed file from here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1392750#post1392750)

[LigH]

Interesting collection. The added stub of "checkactivation.dll" was certainly useful...

[phate89]

hi, i have nero 6 installed with nero ac3 decoder, but i discover that with some audio track do something strange and make me loose sync of the track, is it possible to set a different encoder by default (without have to set everytime manually with "-libav) for ac3?

[tebasuna51]

Sorry, but I think is not possible override the default decoder.