Options for dealing with TrueHD tracks

[Blue_MiSfit]

Hey folks,

So I picked up Top Gun on HD-DVD today and was very impressed with both the video and audio quality! The TrueHD track (the first one I've heard) is remarkable.

I want to back this title up (of course), and I'm trying to decide how to handle the audio track. I can't just remux it, since mkvtoolnix doesn't appear to be able to handle TrueHD audio yet. So I've got to re-encode it. As I see it - my options are as follows:

1) Re-encode to FLAC. Lossless, should sound the same. Could be bigger due to the whole 24 bit issue

2) Re-encode to AC3 with Aften at 640kbit. Should be very good, but its not lossless ;)

3) Re-encode to DTS with Surcode at 1.5 mbit. Should also be very good. Surcode is very old compared to Aften, so I wonder if the extra bitrate would really matter?

4) Other? I don't need the low data rate offered by AAC or Vorbis.

I like the idea of keeping it lossless, but I also like the idea of S/PDIF compatibility - since building an HD media center PC is in my future within the next few months. I could theoretically transcode the FLAC track to AC3 / DTS on the fly via DD Live / DTS Connect, and worst case re-encode the FLAC if I decide it's not ideal. <3 lossless.

I'm FLACing for now, but haven't really solidified on what to do yet!

All these things being said, how have people handled TrueHD? I welcome any and all input!

Thanks,

~MiSfit

[madshi]

1) Re-encode to FLAC. Lossless, should sound the same. Could be bigger due to the whole 24 bit issue
There's no 24bit issue, anymore. It's been fixed for ages. All FLAC transcodings I've seen were always (slightly) smaller than the TrueHD original encoding.

I like the idea of keeping it lossless, but I also like the idea of S/PDIF compatibility
You could either use on the fly encoding. I think both Ac3Filter and ffdshow can do that. But I think the quality is not as good as using e.g. Aften. So if you really need SPDIF compatibility, I'd suggest adding a 640kbps Aften track to the FLAC track. Overall the size of both tracks should be slightly bigger than the original TrueHD track, but not that much. Or if you're talking about a Blu-Ray TrueHD track which usually has an interleaved AC3 track in it, then actually going FLAC + AC3 will even save a bit of size.