DTS-HD MA 5.1 ES to 6.1 FLAC?

[deado]

Is it possible to convert DTS-HD MA 5.1 ES tracks, like those found on Harry Potter Ultimate, and Terminator 2, to 6.1 FLAC?

Or is it impossible to extract that ES matrixed channel to FLAC or any other audio format for that matter?

[specise_8472]

Is it possible to convert DTS-HD MA 5.1 ES tracks, like those found on Harry Potter Ultimate, and Terminator 2, to 6.1 FLAC?

Or is it impossible to extract that ES matrixed channel to FLAC or any other audio format for that matter?

If you have the moneys, you can purchase the DTS MA Stream Player (Now sold seperately).It can decode DTS MA to individual Wavs.

[deado]

If you have the moneys, you can purchase the DTS MA Stream Player (Now sold seperately).It can decode DTS MA to individual Wavs.

Do I need the older SoundCode DTS-HD StreamPlayer, which is a plugin to Pro Tools, or is the newer standalone DTS-HD StreamPlayer (the official DTS one, not the old SoundCode one) ok as well?

I've got the new one running, I don't see how I can save to .wav? All it seems to do is play .dtshd files.

[Skelsgard]

Do I need the older SoundCode DTS-HD StreamPlayer, which is a plugin to Pro Tools, or is the newer standalone DTS-HD StreamPlayer (the official DTS one, not the old SoundCode one) ok as well?

I've got the new one running, I don't see how I can save to .wav? All it seems to do is play .dtshd files.

The standalone DTS-HD Streamplayer can decode a DTS-HD 6.1 ES Matrix file into 7 mono wavs including the Cs channel, but it won't recognize DTS-HD files without the proper header, which is what happens when a the DTS-HD track is muxed into BluRay/MKV/M2TS/etc.
A DTS-HD track demuxed from these sources won't be valid for the Streamplayer, only files that were not modified after being encoded with the DTS-HD MA suite will work.
But it can be decoded by eac3to. It would be a matter of using something like CenterCutGui to get the matrixed Cs channel from the Ls-Rs pair.

(To decode a DTS-HD track with proper header, load it into the Streamplayer, click "Playlist" on the right upper corner, then you'll see the "Decode to PCM" button. Select the track you want to decode and click the button)

Still, as far as I've tested, 6.1 is not supported by FLAC encoders and/or decoders.
The FLAC CLI encoder (1.2.1) doesn't recognize 6.1 mapping nor in WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE neither in WAVE_PCM (with raw input commands). Using raw input, the result is a bogus file the same size as the source WAV.

As an alternative, WavPack does allow for 6.1 mapping so you might wanna try it. MKV supports WavPack lossless files so H.264 + WV in MKV could be a good choice for HD ripping.
From my testing with a 6.1ch 96kHz 24bit WavPack track (BL-BR-BC mapping), FB2K only outputs 5.1 (BL-BC) but BSPlayer, MPC-HC and Winamp play the file without a problem.

*1: Bsplayer/MPC-HC require "System Default" as audio output and the ffdshow audio decoder with "Uncompressed: all supported" in the Codecs section, and they map BL-BR-BC to SL-BC-SR. Custom mapping thru the same ffdshow_audio_decoder window can fix that.
*2: Winamp maps properly with the in_wv plugin. If playing MKV thru Nullsoft Directshow plugin than rules for *1 apply.

The ALAC codec (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) is the only one (aside from DTS-HD) that can encode to a wider range of mappings. You can encode to ALAC with the Quicktime Player 7 in Pro version, but it can't be muxed inside MKV or MP4, so it's useful only if you want an audio-only MOV file (or you have a Mac).

Good luck!!

[deado]

Ok thanks for the info, this is what I've done so-far, the disc is LOTR Fellowship of the Ring Blu-ray, with DTS-HD MA 5.1 ES track. The objective is to end up with an 8-channel FLAC.

1) Used eac3to to rip to individual .wav files (6 channels).
2) Merged the Ls and Rs into a stereo .wav.
3) Used CenterCutGUI to extract a center channel from that.

So now I have 7 mono WAVs... what would be the best method of getting that back to a 6.1 channel FLAC? I have extracted discrete 6.1 DTS-HD tracks from Blu-ray discs to 6.1 FLAC fine (ie. X-Men 3), then used eac3to with -double7 command to make it 7.1 FLAC. So I know 6.1 FLAC is possible.

[Skelsgard]

I have extracted discrete 6.1 DTS-HD tracks from Blu-ray discs to 6.1 FLAC fine (ie. X-Men 3), then used eac3to with -double7 command to make it 7.1 FLAC. So I know 6.1 FLAC is possible.

I originally tested 96kHz 24bit files, and the 24bit resolution seems to be the problem. 96kHz and 48kHz at 24bit sources become garbage but 96kHz and 48kHz 16bit files are encoded, although the channel mappings are all mixed up.

Could you post a sample of any of your 6.1 flacs for comparison? (short, less than 30 seconds)
Which encoder did you use?

[deado]

I originally tested 96kHz 24bit files, and the 24bit resolution seems to be the problem. 96kHz and 48kHz at 24bit sources become garbage but 96kHz and 48kHz 16bit files are encoded, although the channel mappings are all mixed up.

Could you post a sample of any of your 6.1 flacs for comparison? (short, less than 30 seconds)
Which encoder did you use?

How do I make a sample from the file? My X-Men 3 6.1 FLAC file is 5GB.

Oh and I used Arcsoft DTS Decoder, version 1.1.0.7, when I ripped using eac3to.

[Skelsgard]

Start mkvmerge GUI, import the FLAC, go to the Global tab, Splitting, check Enable splitting ...after timecodes and type 30s. Then hit the "Start muxing" button.
The output willl be a first MKV with 30 seconds of FLAC in it and a second MKV file with the rest of the FLAC.
After the first MKV is created you can cancel the creation of the next MKV.
Upload that first MKV to something like rapidshare, mediafire or megaupload.

[tebasuna51]

Ok thanks for the info, this is what I've done so-far, the disc is LOTR Fellowship of the Ring Blu-ray, with DTS-HD MA 5.1 ES track. The objective is to end up with an 8-channel FLAC.

1) Used eac3to to rip to individual .wav files (6 channels).
2) Merged the Ls and Rs into a stereo .wav.
3) Used CenterCutGUI to extract a center channel from that.
...

If the objective is a 8ch FLAC you can:

3) Used CenterCutGUI to extract a center channel and side channels (Both) (the center channel is -3dB, the side channels don't contain the center channel anymore)

4) Copy the audio-C.wav to audio-C2.wav

5) Now you have 6 monochannels + 1 stereo (audio-S). Merge the channels with WaveWizard (http://www.rarewares.org/wavewiz/wavewizardv0.54b.zip) (for instance) with this order:
audio.L.wav
audio.R.wav
audio.C.wav
audio.LFE.wav
audio-C.wav
audio-C2.wav
audio-S.wav (stereo)

6) Encode to FLAC 7.1

[deado]

Start mkvmerge GUI, import the FLAC, go to the Global tab, Splitting, check Enable splitting ...after timecodes and type 30s. Then hit the "Start muxing" button.
The output willl be a first MKV with 30 seconds of FLAC in it and a second MKV file with the rest of the FLAC.
After the first MKV is created you can cancel the creation of the next MKV.
Upload that first MKV to something like rapidshare, mediafire or megaupload.

Ok thanks for the info, but I think you're right... my 6.1 FLAC files, played as they are, is no good :(

It's only once I convert it into 7.1 FLAC that it plays fine in the resulting full MKV. I never actually tested playing the 6.1 FLAC file by itself to see if it played properly or not, because the result of doubling the back center channel to make the 7.1 FLAC worked perfectly, so I assumed 6.1 FLAC also worked fine.

I've uploaded the sample, and yes it's garbled like you say, let me know if it's outputting the same type of garbage as your 6.1 FLACs:

http://rapidshare.com/files/368387217/1_4_audio-001.mkv.html

Other than sounding really metallic and garbled (can hardly hear it), it also sounds slowed down too :confused:

[Skelsgard]

@deado
Yes, that's what I was afraid. When you double the Back Center, the 8 channel layout is accepted by the FLAC encoder.

The sample does sound metallic, garbled and slowed down (like 1/3).
I was hoping you were getting working 6.1 FLACs at 24bit, that way all the problems I was having would have been fixable.
Use tebasuna's method posted above.
That would be my exact recommendation too to get a 7ch FLAC + 1ch WAV = 8ch FLAC