DTS-HD and TrueHD

[blurayalltheway]

What HD media player do you use to playback BD iso/m2ts with DTS-HD and TrueHD? I tried several HD media players (Boxee Box, Xtreamer, etc), and none can playback DTS-HD and TrueHD well. It has all kind of flaws in it. It is over promises by its makers for these options.

I have a desktop HTPC that can playback DTS-HD and TrueHD, but it is too big for my home entertainment center.

I'm building a smaller mini-htpc instead:


1. APEX MI-008 Black Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply
2. ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU
3. Kingston SSDNow V Series
4. Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7K2/4G
5. SilenX IXP-74-09 120mm Case Fan.
6. Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3-User) I needed it to upgrade my Vista desktop and laptop too.
7. LG Black 10X BD-ROM
8. ProMini 2.4GHz Tiny Wireless Keyboard
9. XBMC

With blu-ray player and everything included, it's still less $400. It'll be better than any pre-built mini-htps (Asrock, Zotac, Xtreamer, etc) on the market at this price range.

 

[GlocksRock]

PowerDVD 10 plays the lossless audio best for me, even plays it on .mkv files.

 

[blurayalltheway]

PowerDVD 10 plays the lossless audio best for me, even plays it on .mkv files.

If you have proper hardware to support it, PowerDVD should work fine especially their latest PowerDVD 11.

I'm concentrating on freeware, and it work as good as paidware. With proper hardware to support DTS-HD and TrueHD audio codecs, below is what I usually use to playback BD m2ts/iso/mkv with DTS-HD and TrueHD:

1. MakeMKV. If I want to reduce the file size, I use HandBrake to convert BD file to MKV. Since HandBrake still have issue with HD audio passthru, I use TsMuxer to mux DTS-HD and TrueHD audio codec to decoded MKV file.
2. Realtek
3. FFDShow
4. MPC-HC

It take some work to make freeware work. For me, I have fun doing it. When I see these settings below, it is HD sounds to my ears!

 

[GlocksRock]

I use all those things to, not for the same stuff as you, but they do work well. I just prefer not to have to go through all the hassle. Didn't know powerdvd 11 was out, gonna check that out.

 

[blurayalltheway]

It's built!

Here what I end up with:

1. APEX MI-008 Black Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply
2. ASRock E350M1/USB3
3. Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
4. Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7K2/4G
5. SilenX IXP-74-09 120mm Case Fan
6. Rii Mini Keyboard
7. LG Black 10X BD-ROM

BD PQ/AQ are superb with MPC-HC and FFDSHOW. It blast the 56" HDTV and 7.1 surround sound at full force with DTS-HD and TrueHD sounds. I have not have time to install XBMC. I stick with Windows 7 Media Center and MPC-HC for now. MPC-HC playback everything perfect. I haven't find way to get Media Center to playback DTS, DTS-HD and TrueHD sounds. The video is playback perfect, but no HD sounds on WMC The The lower version sounds from Netflix and decoded MKV playback fine on it.

The hardware installation is very simple (it is as easy at buying the pre-built) and very quick. The hardware for mini-htpc Zacate options fits in Apex box very well. The case is very good quality too, and I didn't have to modify anything. I spent less 1/3 of time when I built the desktop HTPC.

Here are some photos:

 

[sholling]

I've been doing a bit of research on the subject and here is an interesting Cyberlink forum discussion on MKVs and DTS-HD.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/17423.page;jsessionid=315052C2268154362D1FCB2AC500363D

Has anybody tried the DIVX Plus player?

 

[krzywica]

As far as I know (and I can try when I get home) Boxee now supports HD audio codecs. It would also offer you a MUCH better front end than the Windows Desktop.

 

[sholling]

Here is the latest Boxee forum discussion that I've found. It's from April of this year.

http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=33733

 

[blurayalltheway]

I've been doing a bit of research on the subject and here is an interesting Cyberlink forum discussion on MKVs and DTS-HD.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/17423.page;jsessionid=315052C2268154362D1FCB2AC500363D

Has anybody tried the DIVX Plus player?

Boxee Box has all kind of problems playback DTS-HD and TrueHD. I returned my Boxee Box after a month.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Does it really matter?
DTS soundtrack is barely different from lossless HD codecs

 

[krzywica]

Boxee Box has all kind of problems playback DTS-HD and TrueHD. I returned my Boxee Box after a month.

I'm not talking about the boxee box, I'm talking about the actual Boxee software package for HTPC's.

Does it really matter?
DTS soundtrack is barely different from lossless HD codecs

Blasphemy!!!!

No but really they are quite a bit different.

 

[blurayalltheway]

It's different, and after you go DTS-HD, you'll never go back to DTS. You can read more on it here: DTS-HD Master Audio

 

[blurayalltheway]

I'm not talking about the boxee box, I'm talking about the actual Boxee software package for HTPC's.

It is bizarre for Boxee to playback DTS-HD/TrueHD fine on other hardware, but not on their Boxee Box. It should be the other way around!

 

[krzywica]

It is bizarre for Boxee to playback DTS-HD/TrueHD fine on other hardware, but not on their Boxee Box. It should be the other way around!

I'm not sure if it plays it back fine or not.....I haven't tried it yet as I use XBMC. I will try to remember to report back if this works or not....

 

[blurayalltheway]

I'm not sure if it plays it back fine or not.....I haven't tried it yet as I use XBMC. I will try to remember to report back if this works or not....

Yes, please let us know how it turn out!

 

[audit13]

What HD media player do you use to playback BD iso/m2ts with DTS-HD and TrueHD? I tried several HD media players (Boxee Box, Xtreamer, etc), and none can playback DTS-HD and TrueHD well. It has all kind of flaws in it. It is over promises by its makers for these options.

I have a desktop HTPC that can playback DTS-HD and TrueHD, but it is too big for my home entertainment center.

I'm building a smaller mini-htpc instead:


1. APEX MI-008 Black Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply
2. ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU
3. Kingston SSDNow V Series
4. Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7K2/4G
5. SilenX IXP-74-09 120mm Case Fan.
6. Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3-User) I needed it to upgrade my Vista desktop and laptop too.
7. LG Black 10X BD-ROM
8. ProMini 2.4GHz Tiny Wireless Keyboard
9. XBMC

With blu-ray player and everything included, it's still less $400. It'll be better than any pre-built mini-htps (Asrock, Zotac, Xtreamer, etc) on the market at this price range.

I have an htpc that bitstreams HD audio with an Asus HDAV 1.3 soundcard over hdmi. I discovered a much simpler solution for my needs and that is a Patriot Box Office with a Realtek 1073DD C+ chip. It bitstreams TrueHD and DTS-HD perfectly from BDs in an avchd format.

 

[sholling]

I'm curious what others are finding about DTS-HD playback on HTPCs and media players. I have yet to find a product, hardware or software, that plays the DTS-HD audio track in an MKV. They find the DTS 5.1 track but can't play DTS-HD. On the other hand you can mount an ISO file as a virtual drive and play that just like it was the original disc - including DTS-HD audio.

 

[krzywica]

I'm curious what others are finding about DTS-HD playback on HTPCs and media players. I have yet to find a product, hardware or software, that plays the DTS-HD audio track in an MKV. They find the DTS 5.1 track but can't play DTS-HD. On the other hand you can mount an ISO file as a virtual drive and play that just like it was the original disc - including DTS-HD audio.

I tested this with my HTPC and it worked with Boxee to bitstream HD audio over HDMI with my ATI 5770. This worked with m2ts files and mkv's.

 

[sholling]

Okay thanks. So far the only thing that will do it for me is PowerDVD and only when playing ISOs mounted as virtual drives. That's good enough for me but I was curious what others found.

On my system Boxee and PowerDVD play the non-HD DTS 5.1 tracks from an MKV but not the DTS-HD MA tracks. As an experiment I ripped (with MakeMKV) two videos with only the DTS-HD tracks and both Boxee and Media Monkey 4 (beta) hung. With a normal MKV rip PowerDVD only sees the 2.0 and DTS 5.1 but not the DTS-HD tracks. With mounted ISOs PowerDVD sees DTS-HD MA and plays it fine with a nice DTS-HD Master Audio banner showing on my receiver. The experimentation continues.

 

[krzywica]

Okay thanks. So far the only thing that will do it for me is PowerDVD and only when playing ISOs mounted as virtual drives. That's good enough for me but I was curious what others found.

On my system Boxee and PowerDVD play the non-HD DTS 5.1 tracks from an MKV but not the DTS-HD MA tracks. As an experiment I ripped (with MakeMKV) two videos with only the DTS-HD tracks and both Boxee and Media Monkey 4 (beta) hung. With a normal MKV rip PowerDVD only sees the 2.0 and DTS 5.1 but not the DTS-HD tracks. With mounted ISOs PowerDVD sees DTS-HD MA and plays it fine with a nice DTS-HD Master Audio banner showing on my receiver. The experimentation continues.

Sounds like it could be a makemkv issue. I will test this with different muxing methods when I get home. I usually demux the bluray, encode the video and then remux the encoded video and untouched audio into an mkv or m2ts file.