eac3to - audio conversion tool

[LessThanJake]

If you want the timestamps of the mkv to be rewritten with for example 25fps, then you just have to add the option -speedup behind the filename of the mkv and eac3to takes care of the rest. Using this method you don't have to mux the mkv a second time with mkvmerge and a timecode-file, at least when you only want to adjust the timestamps of the mkv to another framerate.

No, I don´t want to do any framerate conversations. I just want to feel confident that there are timecode-stamps at 23.976 fps, when using eac3to. After using dsmux there are no timestamps at all. Everything is looking good now. Thank you, nautilus7 / azad.

greets
LTJ

[madshi]

Now I have a .ts file that gives me some trouble.
Damaged source files are not really supported by eac3to at all. Of course I could spend time on making them work more or less well. But I prefer spending my time on improving support for clean sources. Personally, I'm trashing any damaged source, anyway.

I note that with TrueHD audio, you process as 24 bit and then later go back and determine whether it is actually 24 or 16 bit.

Could you do something similar for these changing AC3 files: that is, assume 6 channel and decode both DD2.0 and DD5.1 to 6 channel, then go back and check if the extra 4 channels are empty?
That would be possible, but it would slow down performance. Now the same is true for the TrueHD logic you're mentioning. But for TrueHD eac3to cannot know the bitdepth. So the logic is useful for every single TrueHD track. While with AC3 files the great majority of files doesn't change channel number in the midst of the stream. So slowing down performance just to make one out of a hundred AC3 files work better is not really a good option IMO.

I might make the already existing option "-6" work for AC3 streams sooner or later, if a stereo AC3 file is detected by eac3to to force eac3to to handle the whole file as 5.1. That might do the trick for your situation. But honestly there are more important things I have on my to do list which have a much higher priority for me right now.

are chapters supported in the current build of eac3to?
Not yet.

I just want to feel confident that there are timecode-stamps at 23.976 fps, when using eac3to.
eac3to writes very exact 23.976 timecodes (if the source is 23.976). So no need to rewrite the timestamps with mkvtoolnix.

[deathlord]

But I prefer spending my time on improving support for clean sources.
I agree. Never mind.

[Wunlow]

Would it be possible to include DPL-1 or DPL-2 decoding from AC-3 2.0 surround sources? If that would be a huge burden to consider, please disregard. ..I was just thinking it would be nice to have "one stop shopping" for all of my AC-3 needs. ;)

[madshi]

Would it be possible to include DPL-1 or DPL-2 decoding from AC-3 2.0 surround sources?
I don't know how to do that.

[killa_kid]

Unfortunately that's not possible without fully parsing every single EVO file which would cost a lot of time. eac3to prints out every bit of information about the audio/video tracks it can gather from the XPL and VTI files. But if the bitrate is not contained in these files (theoretically it could, but practically it rarely is) eac3to simply doesn't know the bitrate. But if the bitrate is contained in the XPL and/or VTI file then eac3to does print it out.

I was wondering if that was the case. Thanks for letting me know. I guess I'll just have to deal with a 2 step process in most cases them :p

[deathlord]

It appears file extensions matter for delaycut:eek:
Now it worked in eac3to.
Sorry for troubling you.

I don't know how to do that.
You could probably use cyberlink audio decoder, it works in graphedit. But this decoder is very picky in accepting input (worse than eac3to;-)), so it might not be easy.

[nautilus7]

I get the error message below with this (http://www.sendspace.com/file/3wuy3t) m2ts file.

eac3to v2.35
command line: eac3to 00000.m2ts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This track is not clean. Processing aborted.
Please clean the track with delaycut and then retry eac3to.
M2TS, 1 video track
1: h264/AVC, 1080i60 /1.001 (16:9)


Since it's .m2ts, i don't think delaycut can do anything... :p

[madshi]

eac3to seems to read out the wrong audiotrack using m2ts files.

Take a look at this:

C:\HD Assets>C:\eac3to\eac3to.exe E:\BDMV\STREAM\00001.m2ts 1: "F:\filename.mkv" 4: "F:\filename.dts" -768 -speedup
M2TS, 1 video track, 4 audio tracks
1: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
2: DTS Master Audio, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
3: DTS, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 768kbit/s, 48khz
4: DTS, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 768kbit/s, 48khz
5: AC3, 2.0 channels, 224kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
Extracting primary video track...
Extracting audio track number 4...
Decoding with DirectShow (Sonic Audio Decoder)...
Muxing video to Matroska...
Find sync word: 7ffe8001
Find sync extension: 3f
DirectShow reports 2.0 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
Applying PAL speedup...
The channel modder was started with incorrect parameters.
The channel modder didn't receive the format information.
The channel modder didn't receive the format information.
The channel modder didn't receive the format information.

As you can see, actually I wanted to extract track 4, DTS 5.1. But eac3to extracted track 5
I've tested this with the sample you uploaded. It works for me!! eac3to does extract the right track. I think that the Sonic decoder doesn't work properly on your PC. It outputs 2.0 only although the DTS track is 5.1. This is the cause of the problem. Please try "eac3to -test". What does that say?

[madshi]

I get the error message below with this (http://www.sendspace.com/file/3wuy3t) m2ts file.

eac3to v2.35
command line: eac3to 00000.m2ts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This track is not clean. Processing aborted.
Please clean the track with delaycut and then retry eac3to.
M2TS, 1 video track
1: h264/AVC, 1080i60 /1.001 (16:9)


Since it's .m2ts, i don't think delaycut can do anything... :p
Maybe I could add support for demuxing damaged streams without doing any other processing on them besides demuxing. But that's not high on priority list. The source file seems to be damaged. And my main concern are clean source files.

[Greif]

What are the planned features for eac3to? Any bugs that we should be aware of?

This tool is a godsend :thanks:

[nautilus7]

Maybe I could add support for demuxing damaged streams without doing any other processing on them besides demuxing. But that's not high on priority list. The source file seems to be damaged. And my main concern are clean source files.

Madshi, i wouldn't doubt you otherwise, but this file is from Dolby The Sound of High Definition Blu-ray Disc and i have 2 more files from that BD that show the same behavior with eac3to, while all others are recognized fine. The "not clean" ones are supposed to have DD+ sound, while the others TrueHD.

I also noticed that eac3to throws the "not clean" message in all 3 of them, after it has determine the video stream and is going to (i suppose) determine the audio stream.

I can't really tell whether that files are actually damaged (and re-ripping isn't possible :cool: ), so i wonder if if they contain something different from all other .m2ts files that make eac3to see them as "not clean".

I uploaded the other 2 files here (http://www.sendspace.com/file/i9ipk8). I will send the link to the e-ac3 libav developer also, in case they worth anything.

[Beastie Boy]

I have come across a problem with the latest version of eac3to, 2.34. I loaded up a pair of EVOs using 'eac3to & more GUI', and when the files were read, the output was something like 'Input file not recognised' (I apologise for being vague but I'm typing this from work and having to do it from memory).

I tried on 2 pairs of source EVOs and got the same result. I then dropped back to an older ver of eac3to, 2.31 which is the only other one I had, and both sets of files were read without problems.

Is anyone else having problems reading EVOs with the latest version or is it something at my end?

Cheers, Beastie.

[nautilus7]

Latest isn't 2.34, because evo support was broken there. Get 2.35.

[Beastie Boy]

Latest isn't 2.34, because evo support was broken there. Get 2.35.

Ah, thanks for that. I looked at the first post and assumed 2.34 was the latest. I'll re-download and try again.

Cheers, Beastie.

[deathlord]

nautilus7, you could try the following:
demux using xport, then run delaycut, it will tell you wether the tracks are indeed "not clean". Afterwards you can process these files with eac3to, it might work, even if there were no errors.

[madshi]

What are the planned features for eac3to?
- m2ts file joining
- chapter export
- subtitle demuxing

Any bugs that we should be aware of?
No hidden bugs that I would be aware of. There are some things that simply won't work - but with a proper error message.

Madshi, i wouldn't doubt you otherwise, but this file is from Dolby The Sound of High Definition Blu-ray Disc and i have 2 more files from that BD that show the same behavior with eac3to, while all others are recognized fine. The "not clean" ones are supposed to have DD+ sound, while the others TrueHD.

I also noticed that eac3to throws the "not clean" message in all 3 of them, after it has determine the video stream and is going to (i suppose) determine the audio stream.

I can't really tell whether that files are actually damaged (and re-ripping isn't possible :cool: ), so i wonder if if they contain something different from all other .m2ts files that make eac3to see them as "not clean".

I uploaded the other 2 files here (http://www.sendspace.com/file/i9ipk8). I will send the link to the e-ac3 libav developer also, in case they worth anything.
Had another look at them. eac3to stumbles over them because they're the first Blu-Ray DD+ samples I've ever seen. For whatever reason I missed this fact when I checked this out first time!! :eek:

The tracks contain an AC3 core. eac3to doesn't like this. eac3to wants a stream to always be either AC3 or E-AC3, but not a mixture of those two. I'll fix this in a future build, but not this week.

[madshi]

eac3to v2.36 released

http://madshi.net/eac3to.zip

* TS/M2TS: discontinuity is only checked for tracks which are de- or remuxed
* TS/M2TS: "-demux" creates both a "thd" and an "ac3" file for "thd/ac3" tracks
* TS/M2TS: "eac3to source.m2ts movie.mkv" transcodes "thd/ac3" tracks to FLAC
* M2TS: track language is displayed (if the file "xxxxx.clpi" is available)
* TS: track language is displayed (if the source file contains this info)
* video gaps/overlaps in the last 5 seconds of the movie are ignored now

[azad]

I've tested this with the sample you uploaded. It works for me!! eac3to does extract the right track. I think that the Sonic decoder doesn't work properly on your PC. It outputs 2.0 only although the DTS track is 5.1. This is the cause of the problem. Please try "eac3to -test". What does that say?

The Sonic decoder works fine, "eac3to -test" says that everything is alright.
After checking the Sonic decoder , I tested eac3to with the m2ts file I uploaded for you. Guess what, it works. ;-)
But it only seem to work because I cut the original Blu-ray m2ts to a 20MB packet and remuxed it with tsmuxer back into the m2ts structure. That seems to solve the problem. With the original m2ts the problem still exist.

How can I cut the original m2ts into a nice 20MB packet without having to remux it with tsremux? Can you help me?

[madshi]

How can I cut the original m2ts into a nice 20MB packet without having to remux it with tsremux? Can you help me?
Sure. Just copy the whole file. Then open the copy with a hexeditor and cut the file after the first 20MB. It doesn't matter where you cut it, just roughly at 20MB. But this time please test whether you can reproduce the problem with the sample before you upload it! Thanks...

[calmike79]

Sorry if this has been covered but I'm trying to transcode from E-AC3 to AAC (256k HQ NDAAC via megui or such) on my HD DVD backups.

I've been trying to use eac3to to convert to .WAV and using neroenc / megui to go to aac. Well two problems: 1), the resulting AAC file is clearly at least 5x too small and the sound is unlistenable, and 2) i can't seem to open the WAV file to test it. (indeed I get an error along th elines of "the following pin(s) failed to find a connectible filter: [ACM Wrapper::Output]. Corrupted headers or something w/a >8gb WAV?

I have a lot of movies to back up and would rather save the space by going to 256k AAC instead of 448+ AC3, especially since I'm only using a 2.1 speaker setup. So far I've been forced to encode to 640k AC3 and then to 256k AAC using megui but I'd imagine this is not the best way quality wise to get there!

ffmpeg maybe? (couldn't figure out how to locate the AAC decoder through the command line).

Any plans to integrate support for CT-AAC or Nero AAC into eac3to? =)

[nurbs]

Any plans to integrate support for CT-AAC or Nero AAC into eac3to? =)
You can use the nero aac encoder with eac3to via command line.
For example:
eac3to video.evo 2:stdout.wav | neroaacenc -ignorelength -br 240000 -if - -of output.mp4

stdout.wav as output name and -if - are necessary. -ignorelength probably too.

[Thunderbolt8]

thanks for the new version!

[azad]

Sure. Just copy the whole file. Then open the copy with a hexeditor and cut the file after the first 20MB. It doesn't matter where you cut it, just roughly at 20MB. But this time please test whether you can reproduce the problem with the sample before you upload it! Thanks...

Thanks for the "how to".
But I think we dont't need it anymore, just tried the m2ts with eac3to after reinstalling my system and it worked fine. No wrong tracknumber or anything else. I can't repdroduce the problem and I'm sorry you wasted your time. Anyway thanks for your support again!

[nautilus7]

Had another look at them. eac3to stumbles over them because they're the first Blu-Ray DD+ samples I've ever seen. For whatever reason I missed this fact when I checked this out first time!! :eek:

The tracks contain an AC3 core. eac3to doesn't like this. eac3to wants a stream to always be either AC3 or E-AC3, but not a mixture of those two. I'll fix this in a future build, but not this week.Oh, really? Nice to hear that! :D
jruggle describes that AC3/EAC3 mixture here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1119297#post1119297).

Big thanks for new version, once again. :)

[bmnot]

* TS/M2TS: "eac3to source.m2ts movie.mkv" transcodes "thd/ac3" tracks to FLAC

What's the point of transcoding ac3 tracks, shouldn't they just be demuxed/extracted?

[calmike79]

You can use the nero aac encoder with eac3to via command line.
For example:
eac3to video.evo 2:stdout.wav | neroaacenc -ignorelength -br 240000 -if - -of output.mp4

stdout.wav as output name and -if - are necessary. -ignorelength probably too.

nurbs, thanks, but something's getting messed up with my WAV files using eac3to as i'd mentioned. does starting neroaacenc in the same command line make it run any smoother than creating the WAV with eac3to first separately and then running nero as a command or using megui?

[madshi]

What's the point of transcoding ac3 tracks, shouldn't they just be demuxed/extracted?
I'm using the term "thd/ac3" for Blu-Ray TrueHD tracks cause they have a lossy AC3 stream embedded in them. Of course eac3to is not transcoding AC3 to FLAC. Instead eac3to is transcoding the TrueHD part of the combined "thd/ac3" tracks to FLAC.

nurbs, thanks, but something's getting messed up with my WAV files using eac3to as i'd mentioned. does starting neroaacenc in the same command line make it run any smoother than creating the WAV with eac3to first separately and then running nero as a command or using megui?
I think the "-ignorelength" parameter probably takes care of the WAV problem.

[scarbrtj]

Edward Scissorhands Blu-ray: 3.1 DTS-HD track is its only English language track

"eac3to audio.dtshd audio.ac3"

error: "The AC3 encoder received a non-supported data format"

Problem is the somewhat unusual 3.1 DTS-HD track?

[bmnot]

^Edward Scissorhands is DTS-HD MA 4.0

[madshi]

Ouch, 4.0? Don't know if Aften even supports that. Will have to check.

[Warrex]

- m2ts file joining
- chapter export
- subtitle demuxing


Excellent list! :thanks: in advance!

[tebasuna51]

Ouch, 4.0? Don't know if Aften even supports that. Will have to check.
Using command line aften I can't do.

This is my bug report in Aften-devel mail list:
Testing NicAudio decoder I found some bugs with channelmapping in Aften:

aften -acmod 4 -lfe 1 211.wav 211.ac3
aften -acmod 6 -lfe 0 220.wav 220.ac3
aften -acmod 6 -lfe 1 221.wav 221.ac3

2/1.1 produce L, R, S, LFE (LFE <-> S)
2/2.0 produce L, R, SR, empty_channel
2/2.1 produce L, R, SR, LFE, SL (instead L, R, LFE, SL, SR)

All other acmod/lfe combinations work fine.

The 4.0 is the 2/2.0 (-acmod 6 -lfe 0)

Using WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE headers with correct channelmask the behaviour is different:
aften 211_WFE.wav 211_WFE.ac3
aften 220_WFE.wav 220_WFE.ac3
aften 221_WFE.wav 221_WFE.ac3

2/1.1 produce acmod=5, lfe=0 (3/1.0)
2/2.0 produce acmod=5, lfe=0 (3/1.0)
2/2.1 produce acmod=7, lfe=0 (3/2.0)

[madshi]

Thanks!

[scarbrtj]

FWIW, eac3to is reporting "3/1 channels" for the DTS-HD MA track, and "3/1" channels" for the DTS core... the DTS core is extracted well & seemingly properly by eac3to.

[madshi]

Well, it's "3/1" and not "3.1". That's a difference... ;)

[nurbs]

nurbs, thanks, but something's getting messed up with my WAV files using eac3to as i'd mentioned.
I could't open my wavs in megui either. I guess the filesize is too big. Or megui doesn't use the -ignorelength switch.

does starting neroaacenc in the same command line make it run any smoother than creating the WAV with eac3to first separately and then running nero as a command or using megui?
I don't think it is faster, but it is more conveniant to enter only one command.

[Rectal Prolapse]

TS/M2TS: "eac3to source.m2ts movie.mkv" transcodes "thd/ac3" tracks to FLAC

madshi, dumb question for you - does this also transcode DTS HD MA to FLAC within an MKV?

[madshi]

madshi, dumb question for you - does this also transcode DTS HD MA to FLAC within an MKV?
"within an MKV"? Not sure what you mean with that. eac3to can transcode DTS-HD MA to FLAC - and it does if you do "eac3to some.ts some.mkv" or "eac3to some.evo some.mkv". Does that answer your question?

[Rectal Prolapse]

madhi, I mean, if it will transcode to flac and output to mkv - which of course you explained, thanks!

[Bluestraw]

madhi, I mean, if it will transcode to flac and output to mkv - which of course you explained, thanks!To be 100% clear, the FLAC output won't be in an MKV container (AFAIK). The commands suggested above, e.g. "eac3to some.ts output.mkv" will produce a single MKV file with the video and a separate FLAC audio file. You can then use MKVMerge to combine these 2 into an MKV.

Someone asked earlier if madshi planned to include MKV muxing, and it's not on the current planned list. So you need to do the extra part to get the final MKV. MKVMerge is pretty quick though - effectively another file copy operation, limited by HDD speed.

[Rectal Prolapse]

Ah thanks Bluestraw.

[scarbrtj]

Edward Scissorhands Blu-ray: 3.1 DTS-HD track is its only English language track

"eac3to audio.dtshd audio.ac3"

error: "The AC3 encoder received a non-supported data format"

Problem is the somewhat unusual 3.1 DTS-HD track?

Also, as you might imagine, "eac3to 00002.m2ts movie.mkv" gives this FLAC error:

M2TS, 1 video track, 5 audio tracks
1: MPEG2, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
2: DTS Master Audio, 3/1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
3: AC3, 2.0 channels, 224kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
4: AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: AC3, 2.0 channels, 224kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
6: AC3, 2.0 channels, 224kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
Extracting primary video track...
Extracting audio track number 2...
Extracting audio track number 3...
Extracting audio track number 4...
Extracting audio track number 5...
Extracting audio track number 6...
Muxing video to Matroska...
Decoding with DirectShow (Sonic Audio Decoder)...
Removing dialog normalization...
Removing dialog normalization...
Removing dialog normalization...
Removing dialog normalization...
DirectShow reports 4 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
Encoding FLAC...
Creating file "movie - 2 - DTS Master Audio, 3/1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz.flac".
..
The destination file "movie - 2 - DTS Master Audio, 3/1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
.flac" could not be created.
Writing the destination file failed.
One of the FLAC encoder's callbacks returned a fatal error.
Creating file "movie - 3 - AC3, 2.0 channels, 224kbps, 48khz.ac3"...
Creating file "movie - 6 - AC3, 2.0 channels, 224kbps, 48khz.ac3"...
Creating file "movie - 5 - AC3, 2.0 channels, 224kbps, 48khz.ac3"...
Creating file "movie - 4 - AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz.ac3"...
-------------

[scarbrtj]

hmmm... "eac3to 00002.m2ts movie.mkv" makes a movie.mkv file during decoding which grows in size, but at the end of decoding the file is deleted, along with all the AC3 tracks... so eac3to is sort of not working all around on this except for DTS core extraction...

[Snowknight26]

Can't have "/"s in the file name for your first problem.

[scarbrtj]

Can't have "/"s in the file name for your first problem.

my problem, madshi's problem, or both? 'cause I don't know what switches to apply to the command line "eac3to 00002.m2ts movie.mkv" to get a non-"/" file name...

[madshi]

My fault. I need to get rid of that "/" in the file name. You can solve the problem manually by specifying the file names yourself:

eac3to 00002.m2ts 1: movie.mkv 2: movie.flac 3: 3.ac3 4: 4.ac3 5: 5.ac3 6: 6.ac3

[kmitalian]

What kind of commands do i need to transcode a DolbyTrueHD track into LPCM Multichannel so its compliant for Scenarist to accept that file as a multi-channel PCM so I can make a Blu-Ray disc out of it?

[madshi]

What kind of commands do i need to transcode a DolbyTrueHD track into LPCM Multichannel so its compliant for Scenarist to accept that file as a multi-channel PCM so I can make a Blu-Ray disc out of it?
I don't know what Scenarist accepts or what it not accepts. I'm not a Scenarist expert. Can you tell me what format Scenarist wants to have exactly?

[tebasuna51]

Also, as you might imagine, "eac3to 00002.m2ts movie.mkv" gives this FLAC error:

M2TS, 1 video track, 5 audio tracks
1: MPEG2, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
2: DTS Master Audio, 3/1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
...

Decoding with DirectShow (Sonic Audio Decoder)...
Removing dialog normalization...
DirectShow reports 4 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
Encoding FLAC...
Creating file "movie - 2 - DTS Master Audio, 3/1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz.flac".
..
The destination file "movie - 2 - DTS Master Audio, 3/1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz.flac" could not be created.
Writing the destination file failed.
One of the FLAC encoder's callbacks returned a fatal error.
...

Maybe not only the '/' in the name is the problem.

The 3/1.0 channel configuration is not supported by flac encoder, for 4 channels only 2/2.0 is allowed.

You can force flac to encode a wav 3/1.0 using:
--channel-map=none
But when you decode the flac, a 2/2.0 channelmask can be send to the player and listen the center channel in left surround speaker.

EDIT: To use flac with 3/1.0 channels maybe we need split the surround channel in:
BL = 0.707 x S
BR = 0.707 x S
and use a 3/2.0 configuration supported by flac.