eac3to - audio conversion tool

[torturesauce]

Thank you, it's perfect!

[torturesauce]

One more thing: I'm trying to get eac3to to extract a 6.1 Discrete DTS-ES stream from a DVD (.VOB) into a 7-channel .dts file with no loss in quality. I have installed Arcsoft DTS decoder, but it will only work when I export it to .WAV or .FLAC (it's still lossless, but the exported files are, of course, unnecessarily large). Is there a bit-perfect method to demux the stream to a 7-channel .dts?

[DarkSpace]

One more thing: I'm trying to get eac3to to extract a 6.1 Discrete DTS-ES stream from a DVD (.VOB) into a 7-channel .dts file with no loss in quality. I have installed Arcsoft DTS decoder, but it will only work when I export it to .WAV or .FLAC (it's still lossless, but the exported files are, of course, unnecessarily large). Is there a bit-perfect method to demux the stream to a 7-channel .dts?
This sounds like you want no conversion at all going on. In this case, the command line is
eac3to "VTS_01_1.VOB"+"VTS_01_2.VOB" "output.dts"
(or whatever your input files may be). Assuming that, you probably need only select dts as output codec in the GUI and there should be no conversion (I don't use a GUI myself, so I'm guessing here, but it should work).

[torturesauce]

This sounds like you want no conversion at all going on. In this case, the command line is
eac3to "VTS_01_1.VOB"+"VTS_01_2.VOB" "output.dts"
(or whatever your input files may be). Assuming that, you probably need only select dts as output codec in the GUI and there should be no conversion (I don't use a GUI myself, so I'm guessing here, but it should work).

No such luck. I used this command, both with eac3to and the USeac3to GUI, and the resulting .dts file is 6-channel.

[LigH]

How certain are you that the dts audio stream in the VOBs actually is 6.1 DTS-ES, and that the demultiplexed file is not anymore? Which tools did you use to check their properties?

[tebasuna51]

No such luck. I used this command, both with eac3to and the USeac3to GUI, and the resulting .dts file is 6-channel.

Please put the extraction log file and the info than show UsEac3to when load the extracted dts.

[torturesauce]

Oh, my God! I was wrong. The resulting .dts DOES have the seventh channel as well, according to MediaInfo. Whoops. Thank you for your help, guys!

[Lenmaer]

Anyone can help me how to properly extract this into FLAC?

omplete name : F:\BDMV & DVDISO\Hal\BDMV\STREAM\00007.m2ts
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 176 MiB
Duration : 34s 560ms
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 42.7 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 48.0 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 34s 34ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 39.1 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 38.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.786
Stream size : 158 MiB (90%)

Audio #1
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : TrueHD / AC-3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Muxing mode : Stream extension
Codec ID : 131
Duration : 34s 34ms
Bit rate mode : Variable / Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 672 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: C / Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 1.82 MiB (1%)

Because it seems there's a Front channel too but eac3to always extracts it as 2.0 Stereo FLAC.

[Stereodude]

Because it seems there's a Front channel too but eac3to always extracts it as 2.0 Stereo FLAC.It says it is 2 channel though.

[Lenmaer]

OK, thanks

[Stereodude]

My guess is that the L & R are mono (the same) and the center is different. Those are the two channels. You want a wave file with 3 channels?

[Lenmaer]

well, I wanted a flac file with 3 channels if the original really had 3 channels.

[the_weirdo]

From your posted MediaInfo, I think it says TrueHD track is mono and embeded AC-3 track is stereo, not that the audio track has 3 channels. I may be wrong though. Maybe you should upload a sample.

[pottzman]

Could somebody tell me how you get eac3to to detect sonic audio decoder without installing it? I can get Nero, arcsoft v6, and surcode all detected without installing the entire parent program but I am unable to do the same with sonic audio decoder.

Cheers

[Stereodude]

On the change / improvement request front... It would be nice if eac3to reported durations out to the ms instead of the rounding to the second.

So instead of this:
AC3, 5.1 channels, 0:19:18, 384kbps, 48kHz
Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
Reducing depth from 64 to 24 bits...
Writing W64...

You'd get:
AC3, 5.1 channels, 0:19:17.824, 384kbps, 48kHz
Decoding with libav/ffmpeg...
Reducing depth from 64 to 24 bits...
Writing W64...

[Groucho2004]

On the change / improvement request front... It would be nice if eac3to reported durations out to the ms instead of the rounding to the second.
I second that request.

[Coren]

So. You have an audio-only Blu-ray, or a concert Blu-ray, and you want to rip the audio onto your computer, perhaps into nicely track-separated FLAC files.
Ripping is the easy part. Problem is, eac3to gives you a single audio file and a chapters file, but you still have to chop that big file into bits following the timestamps in the chapters file. How I do it, is I turn the chapters file into a CUE file, which I then feed to foobar2000, which generates individual audio files following that CUE sheet. But making the CUE file is a pain in the backside, so I decided to write a little Python script that does it for me.

https://github.com/frederik-vaassen/audioTools/blob/master/makeCUE.py

All this does, basically, is read in the chapters file, extract the titles (if available) and the timestamps, and pour them back into a properly (I hope) formatted CUE file.
I made this purely for myself, and as such it's basic and probably won't work on everything, but if you run into errors, feel free to DM me and I'll try and have a look.

You will need a recent version of Python 2 (I use 2.7). Place the script in the folder your files are in (you can also specify the full path of each input and output file as arguments) and do this at the command line:

python makeCUE.py <chapter_file> <audio_file> <output_cue_file>

There are some extra options, try makeCUE.py -h to see them.

Hope this is of use to someone!

[Lenmaer]

I merge the m2ts (or the audio file extracted with eac3to) into an MKV or MKA (no need for the video track) with chapters (extracted with Chapter Grabber) for that.
Then open that MKV/MKA into foobar, it'll rip and split everything into separate audio files.

[Lynx_TWO]

Hey guys real quick question: If I decode 5.1/7.1 audio to 2-channel Dolby Pro Logic II using the -downDpl switch, plus the -mixlfe to mix in the LFE channel, am I doubling the .1 bass track, or does EAC3to ignore the -mixlfe switch when using the -downDpl switch? I would not want to mix in LFE if the -downDpl switch already does this...

Thanks!

[LigH]

The result will have 2 channels. There is no more separate LFE channel, low frequencies are mixed into Left and Right.

[DoctorM]

I think he might be asking if the -mixlfe is redundant and already done when using -downDpl.

[LigH]

I think I remember a "no" on this question which was discussed before, somewhere; DPL (II) does not care about LFE without explicitly mixing it in, the downmix matrix only includes full frequency channels.

No guarantee, though.
__

From my previous experience in a DVD production studio (many years ago), I remember:

Movie studio made audio streams with LFE channel should usually not have simply the filtered low frequency part of the whole spectrum which is then probably missing in all other channels. Instead, this channel usually has, as the name describes, additional and optional "Low Frequency Effects", and the full frequency channels would usually still contain low frequencies of movie set recorded audio.

No guarantee, either.

[ndjamena]

I'm just wondering what the generally accepted pronunciation for EAC3TO is, I tend to just shorten it to Ecto in my head but I mentioned the program in a verbal conversation recently and realised I'm not sure what I said was correct.

[Snowknight26]

'E-AC3 to' technically, so probably E A C 3 2 as if you were to pronounce each character separately.

[ndjamena]

That's how I say it when I'm typing it but it's a bit of a mouthful. As far as I'm aware that was the first time I've ever included the program in a conversation, when experts are discussing it do they shorten it to anything in particular or am I a bit of a yokel?

[Guest]

It's better than "visual studio 2013 express" so be happy. :)

[DoctorM]

I think it is overdue for a nickname. I agree with Snowknight26's accepted pronunciation.
I do like Ecto though or treating the 3 like an E we could get something that sounds like Eek-Eee-two or Eck-eh-to.

[ndjamena]

It's better than "visual studio 2013 express" so be happy. :)

Far be it from little old me to argue with you but I'm pretty sure if you had to include VS2013x in an explanation multiple times you'd shorten it to 'Visual Studio', or if multiple versions of VS were mentioned there's 'Express' or '2013 Express'. But to say EAC3TO repeatedly would get kind of wearing, not to mention the fact that Visual Studio kind of flows whereas EAC3TO is full of hard starts and stops and would be completely meaningless to anyone not fully engaged in the audio encoding community. Do people really keep saying E-A-C-3-2 repeatedly or does the program exist in a realm where the name rarely has to pass through human vocal chords?

(by the way, I love the way you really need to know something about video/audio encoding to even be permitted to post on this forum!)

[Guest]

Let's let it go, it's not useful for this thread. Thank you.

[ndjamena]

Agreed.

[tijgert]

Oh my.. hundreds of pages dating back six years or more? How will I ever find what I need?
I hope you'll all excuse me for perhaps asking an already answered question, but the amount of posts here is staggering and just too much to siff through.

My query: I want to convert 7.1 TrueHD to 7.1 DTS-MA or even 5.1 DTS if need be.
I have access to the DTS suite and a bunch of other codec packs (all legit), but am not very knowledgable beyond ye'r basic Handbrake...
Anyone care to take my hand? Pretty please? How about a shove in the right direction, coupled with some strong hints...?

[Chumbo]

You should be able to output to separate WAV files and then import to your DTS suite, e.g.,eac3to source.thd output.wavs

[PowerGamer]

I am trying to demux 2D video track from 3D BluRay disc (that disc contains both 2D and 3D movie versions, i.e. there are options "Play 2D" and "Play 3D" in disc menu when I am running TotalMedia Theater).
This is what I am getting when listing disc info with eac3to:
http://pastebin.com/BbJEWyQP
How do I find out which .mpls file refers to 2D version of the movie?

[Snowknight26]

All of them do due to the nature of the 3D implementation used on that disc (MVC instead of anaglyph).

[73ChargerFan]

If you run eac3to <filename> 1)
it will give you stream numbers for left, right eyes.
I think you're supposed to use the left eye stream, but I might have that backwards.

[Sparktank]

It is the Left-Eye stream that's only 2D. It's presented in AVC/H264 while the Right-Eye (the 3D data; difference) is presented in MVC.

For 3D Blu-ray discs, most MPLS will present everything in 3D fashion. As long as everything is transferred to 3D.
Some discs have all the special features and trailers transferred to 3D (AVC/MVC) while some will only have the main movie in 3D (AVC/MVC).

But, generally, if you're selecting by MPLS, you can just run the .MPLS through eac3to to get the information of how it's read.
Reading from a playlist file (MPLS) is different from reading from an actual file (M2TS/MKV/etc).
Through MPLS, you don't get numbers in front of the stream, instead you just get hyphens ("-") and have to count which stream(s) you want to use.
In case of 3D blu-rays, skip over the "right-eye" data and use only the Left-eye data (AVC/H264).

This will give you 2D data, every time.

I believe the only software that gives you a 3D.mkv file (with AVC/MVC) is MakeMKV.
But, even then, all media players will only decode/play the 2D (Left-eye) data unless they are specifically designed for 3D playback (3dat.tv's StereoScopic Player; Bino; etc).

If you're playing back from a Blu-ray player that has file playback file system, it's very unlikely that it supports MVC at all so it will either A) playback as 2D or B) not play at all.

The best thing to do is grab the smallest file possible (like a trailer) and test it with your playback system.

MPC (and other variations), VLC, and most other media players don't support MVC playback.

[DragonQ]

Can eac3to combine 6 separate mono WAV files into a 5.1 WAV file? I've tried doing it with other software but I haven't found a way to get it working properly. Adobe Audition 3.0 reduces the volume of each track for no apparent reason, Adobe Audition CS6 raises the volume of each track for no reason.

EDIT: Never mind, managed to do with using SoX. :)

[LigH]

BeSweet could do it as well, with a *.mux file; but it doesn't support W64, so it won't be a choice in case the result would exceed 4 GB.

[Nexin]

Trying to convert many audio files in a folder mainly same format to output as wav files. Where any typing needed is minimal than is required now with eac3to such as eac3to "input" "output" "input" "output" "input" "output" "input" "output" etc Ways to make this task easier as like other software's do it.

eac3to converting

using cli by dropping a folder that contains music files only.

eac3to "drive\folder path" "drive\folder path" -wav

Or input as a text.txt file each audio file on a separate line.

"drive:\folder path\A audio file.ext"
"drive:\folder path\An audio file.ext"
"drive:\folder path\Again Another audio file.ext"
"drive:\folder path\Another audio file.ext"

eac3to "drive:\folder path\text file to process.txt" "drive:\folder path\" -wav

All of the above be able to convert many source audio files to wav files.
Where bitrate, kHz, channels etc remain exactly the same as the source.
For eac3to to append source file name to each destination file for each file with a replaced .wav extension

[Nexin]

Audio File/s or other eac3to known format output to filename.txt

I'm also needing a way to generate a report to a filename.txt file. So far I have tried eac3to "drive:\folder path\file name.ext" >"drive:\folder path\file name.txt" where the outputs has non ascii\unicode characters such as many boxes before file details. If could do this using cli for eac3to to parse a folder of many audio files. Need report to have same info as see with eac3to "drive:\folder path\file name.ext"

All of the above stumbles when drop a folder to cli with "HD DVD / Blu-Ray Disc Structure not found" a way to overcome so can work with folder or folders that contain many audio files. eac3to because it is the only software that can clearly see whole dts mlp ma more than any other software's including foobar2000 and mediainfo for audio files. Although sometimes foobar2000 will see 5.1 audio where eac3to will see only 2.0 same again in reverse eac3to will where foobar2000 won't

using latest releases for eac3to and foobar2000 with win xp sp3

[Nexin]

Has this project ended ? Madshi first post of this thread last edited the start of last year ''Last edited by madshi; 20th January 2013 at 17:44''

Anyone have idea how better to do the two above posts. With eac3to or other tools for the same formats as straight conversions

[Sparktank]

Has this project ended ?

No, Madshi said he's focusing his energy on madVR for now (until it reaches a 1.0 version) and then will return to this project.

-------
Have you tried a batch file?

(From an example provided with SoX...)

eac3to_batch.bat
@echo off
%~dp1
CD %~dp1
FOR %%A IN (*.dts) DO "C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe" "%%~nxA" "%%~nA.wav" -log="%%~nA_WAV.txt"

This will convert all files with the extension of ".dts" and will also create individual log files of each ".dts" file and use the same name given for each ".dts" file.

I'm not entirely sure how to do an advanced batch file that includes multiple extensions. Someone more crafty can chime in.

In case of Matroska containers use (*.mkv) and add the stream number after the "%%~nxA" or leave out the stream number if it's the first audio stream you wish to convert.

@echo off
%~dp1
CD %~dp1
FOR %%A IN (*.mkv) DO "C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe" "%%~nxA" 2: "%%~nA.wav" -log="%%~nA_WAV.txt"

You can also add in other functions too like -downStereo or other...

@echo off
%~dp1
CD %~dp1
FOR %%A IN (*.mkv) DO "C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe" "%%~nxA" 2: "%%~nA.wav" -downStereo -log="%%~nA_WAV.txt"

I'm too lazy to look up multiple extensions so I just repeat the conversion line but change the extension....
@echo off
%~dp1
CD %~dp1
FOR %%A IN (*.mkv) DO "C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe" "%%~nxA" 2: "%%~nA.wav" -log="%%~nA_WAV.txt"
FOR %%A IN (*.dts) DO "C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe" "%%~nxA" "%%~nA.wav" -log="%%~nA_WAV.txt"
FOR %%A IN (*.ac3) DO "C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe" "%%~nxA" "%%~nA.wav" -log="%%~nA_WAV.txt"

and that usually works for me (I remember doing a small batch back when I had WinXP.)

[Nexin]

Maybe Madshi when returns to the project may make it better with more options. Maybe things like use surcode as decoder if better than ffmpeg for mlp etc. Ability to see AOB as files and disc with AOB files parse from .ifo or .bup for chapters. DVD parsing, folder parsing for any audio format file that eac3to can work with. As you say using sox maybe eac3to could work with that more, I didn't think of sox until you mentioned it.

Thanks Sparktank your solution on reading seems it may work for any multiple files from folders and otherwise. Also be able to pipe the source file names to destination files which is needed and again for making log files. Sure if someone has other scripts to improve or better yours then I'm ready to try those also :)

[ndjamena]

@if "%EMode%"=="" Set EMode=OFF
@ECHO %EMode%
if "!"=="" (
SETLOCAL DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
Set "DISLOC=1"
)

Set "EXTLIST=*.mkv *.dts *.ac3 *.mka"
goto :Skip

:Process_File

"d:\eac3to\eac3to.exe" "%~nx1" "%~n1.wav" -log="%~n1_WAV.txt"

goto :eof

:Skip

if [%1]==[] (
Set "Pattern=%EXTLIST%"
CALL :START
)

:ARGS

if [%1]==[] (
Set "Pattern="
Set "EXTLIST="
if NOT "%DISLOC%"=="" (
Set "DISLOC="
ENDLOCAL
)
pause
goto :eof
)
if NOT EXIST %1 (
SHIFT
goto :ARGS
)
if /I "%~f1"=="%CD%" (
Set "Pattern=%EXTLIST%"
CALL :START
SHIFT
goto :ARGS
)
Type NUL
pushd "%~f1" 2> nul
if NOT "%errorlevel%"=="0" (
if /I NOT "%CD%\"=="%~dp1" (
pushd "%~dp1"
Set "DoPop=1"
)
Set Pattern="%~nx1"
) else (
Set "Pattern=%EXTLIST%"
)
CALL :START
if "%DoPop%"=="1" (
popd
Set "DoPop="
)
SHIFT

goto :ARGS

:START

for %%y in (%Pattern%) do (
CALL :Process_File "%%~fy"
)

goto :eof

[Nico8583]

Hi,
Is it necessary to use an external decoder to convert DTS to AC3 ? Is a better quality with an external decoder ?
I would like to extract DTS core from DTS-HD MA or HR in order to have a DTS stream and convert it to AC3.
Thanks !

[Snowknight26]

No, eac3to can do that using internal functions.

[Nico8583]

Ok thanks, so Arcsoft decoder or other are only to convert HD stream (DTS-HD MA or HR or Dolby TrueHD) to AC3 ?
And does eac3to support 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 audio track with internal function ?

[tebasuna51]

AC3 don't support 6.1 or 7.1

[Nico8583]

OK thanks, but does DTS (not HD) support 6.1 or 7.1 ? And does eac3to support DTS 6.1 or 7.1 decoding with internal function ?

[nevcairiel]

Core DTS can support 6.1 with the DTS-ES extension, although its usually only used if you have no DTS-HD, and eac3to should be able to decode it as 6.1 as well.
I have never seen 7.1 in core DTS.