DTS-HD and TrueHD

[sholling]

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.

That's a possibility - thanks.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I can only get TrueHD/DTS-HD MA from ISO files played back on PDVD.

 

[blurayalltheway]

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.

My latest zacate htpc can playback dts-hd, truehd, etc audio codecs with w7 mce fine. You can verify your bd mkv file with this mediainfo to make sure you have proper hd audio codec.

Here is my latest system:
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. Buffalo Technology MiniStation Stealth 1 TB USB 3.0
7. LG Black 10X BD-ROM
8. HP mce remote

If you're running Win7 MCE, here are step by step to pass-through DTS-HD and TrueHD to your AVR via HDMI:

1. Download- Windows 7 codec pack
2. Download- Shark007 32bit. If you're running Win7 64x, you have to download this too- Shark007 64bit
3. Follow this step by step visual instruction after 1&2 downloaded and the settings have to be correct for it to work properly- (DTS-HD/TrueHD pass-through)

You'll see DTS-HD/TrueHD display on your AVR during BD playback!

 

[sholling]

My latest zacate htpc can playback dts-hd, truehd, etc audio codecs with w7 mce fine. You can verify your bd mkv file with this mediainfo to make sure you have proper hd audio codec.

Thanks for the information. It's very much appreciated but at this point I'm done. I've spent weeks trying to get MKVs working and then realized that I'm perfectly happy mounting ISOs and playing them through PowerDVD. I've associated ISO files with SlySoft's Virtual Clone Drive so that when I click on an ISO it mounts and automatically launches the video in PowerDVD just like it was a disc. The whole process takes seconds from click to play. Click on another ISO and it dismounts the first and mounts and launches the second. That'll do.

Just a bit of history I had been happily playing ISOs through a Western Digital TV Live until I decided to use my Oppo as a media player. The Oppo requires MKVs because their !@#$% chipset manufacturer refuses to support ISOs. But the Oppo turned out to be a less than ideal media player and it was pure stubbornness that kept me trying to make MKVs work. Now that my HTPC is working fantastic I'm perfectly happy to be going back to ISOs.

My final configuration (although I may add a 3TB drive someday).

Hardware build list:

• Sapphire Pure Fusion E350 motherboard/CPU combo
• 2x4GB SODIMM DDR3 1333
• 64GB Crucial SATA-3 SSD as the boot drive
• 500GB 2.5" WD Green A/V drive
• Silverstone SDP08 3.5" to 2 X 2.5"-Inch dual drive converter
• Thermaltake ITX HTPC case
• Scythe 120mm 9db fan.
• Logitech DiNovo keyboard (in transit)
• Gigabit Ethernet to the server in my office

Software List:

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
• Boxee for the online content
• Foobar 2000 for audio because of 24bit and multichannel flac support
• PowerDVD 11 Ultra for video
• Slysoft Virtual Clone Drive
• Unified Remote remote control client for Android phones - full version (this rocks!)

 

[blurayalltheway]

Thanks for the information. It's very much appreciated but at this point I'm done. I've spent weeks trying to get MKVs working and then realized that I'm perfectly happy mounting ISOs and playing them through PowerDVD. I've associated ISO files with SlySoft's Virtual Clone Drive so that when I click on an ISO it mounts and automatically launches the video in PowerDVD just like it was a disc. The whole process takes seconds from click to play. Click on another ISO and it dismounts the first and mounts and launches the second. That'll do.

Just a bit of history I had been happily playing ISOs through a Western Digital TV Live until I decided to use my Oppo as a media player. The Oppo requires MKVs because their !@#$% chipset manufacturer refuses to support ISOs. But the Oppo turned out to be a less than ideal media player and it was pure stubbornness that kept me trying to make MKVs work. Now that my HTPC is working fantastic I'm perfectly happy to be going back to ISOs.

My final configuration (although I may add a 3TB drive someday).

Hardware build list:

• Sapphire Pure Fusion E350 motherboard/CPU combo
• 2x4GB SODIMM DDR3 1333
• 64GB Crucial SATA-3 SSD as the boot drive
• 500GB 2.5" WD Green A/V drive
• Silverstone SDP08 3.5" to 2 X 2.5"-Inch dual drive converter
• Thermaltake ITX HTPC case
• Scythe 120mm 9db fan.
• Logitech DiNovo keyboard (in transit)
• Gigabit Ethernet to the server in my office

Software List:

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
• Boxee for the online content
• Foobar 2000 for audio because of 24bit and multichannel flac support
• PowerDVD 11 Ultra for video
• Slysoft Virtual Clone Drive
• Unified Remote remote control client for Android phones - full version (this rocks!)

You have all the hardware and software to playback mkv file. I'm not quite sure why you cannot playback it. It is usually the easiest file to playback. If you want to save some disk space, you can use tsmuxer to convert file to smaller m2ts file. You can choose the audio and video codecs to keep. It take less than 10 minutes to do it. Since original m2ts video/audio codec is not decoded, it's as good as playback BD disk without junks (preview/advertise contents). If you have a lot of disk space, ISO file is fine. You can playback m2ts file with MPC-HC with full 1080P and dts-hd/truehd, and it is free.

 

[sholling]

You have all the hardware and software to playback mkv file. I'm not quite sure why you cannot playback it. It is usually the easiest file to playback. If you want to save some disk space, you can use tsmuxer to convert file to smaller m2ts file. You can choose the audio and video codecs to keep. It take less than 10 minutes to do it. Since original m2ts video/audio codec is not decoded, it's as good as playback BD disk without junks (preview/advertise contents). If you have a lot of disk space, ISO file is fine. You can playback m2ts file with MPC-HC with full 1080P and dts-hd/truehd, and it is free.

I can playback MKVs fine but none of the applications that I've tried (licensed copies of PowerDVD Ultra 11, DIVX, MM4 beta, and Nero Ultra 11's player, plus MPC) played the DTS-HD track. I've tried FFDShow codecs and the codec from matroska.org on two completely different PCs. I liked the idea of getting rid of previews and ads but I mostly care about having my concert videos on tap and they don't have much if any of the junk. My main goal for this box was better playback of 24bit HD and multichannel FLACs, better access to online content and playback of DTS-HD content. All of that works. I've got way too many 10s of hours into the secondary goal of trying to get MKVs to work so that I can strip out the junk.

Never fear my innate stubborn drive to troubleshoot and solve any challenge placed before me will eventually force me to learn something about audio and video processing but for now it's over my head and I have a huge learning curve ahead of me. I realized that when a tech/developer started asking me about MakeMKV and b-frames vs p-frames and I'm not ready to get a PhD in Handbrake which stubbornly insists on taking a 25GB video and shrinking it to 2TB. ISOs are working really well and hard disks are cheap.

 

[blurayalltheway]

I can playback MKVs fine but none of the applications that I've tried (licensed copies of PowerDVD Ultra 11, DIVX, MM4 beta, and Nero Ultra 11's player, plus MPC) played the DTS-HD track. I've tried FFDShow codecs and the codec from matroska.org on two completely different PCs. I liked the idea of getting rid of previews and ads but I mostly care about having my concert videos on tap and they don't have much if any of the junk. My main goal for this box was better playback of 24bit HD and multichannel FLACs, better access to online content and playback of DTS-HD content. All of that works. I've got way too many 10s of hours into the secondary goal of trying to get MKVs to work so that I can strip out the junk.

Never fear my innate stubborn drive to troubleshoot and solve any challenge placed before me will eventually force me to learn something about audio and video processing but for now it's over my head and I have a huge learning curve ahead of me. I realized that when a tech/developer started asking me about MakeMKV and b-frames vs p-frames and I'm not ready to get a PhD in Handbrake which stubbornly insists on taking a 25GB video and shrinking it to 2TB. ISOs are working really well and hard disks are cheap.

I'm trying to give you another option, and most of everyting you aready have and are free. It's fully integratable with your Windows 7 MCE. It can playback bd files (m2ts, iso, mkv, etc) and Windows 7 MCE online HD streaming (Netflix, Live TV, YouTube, etc) are included it too. I tried the Boxee, XBMC, etc but I preferred Windows MCE.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have the same issues.

So for the last 5 years (??) I've been mounting blu-ray ISO files on Vitrual Clone Drive as well.

Besides, DVDFab rips straight to ISO files.

 

[blurayalltheway]

I have the same issues.

So for the last 5 years (??) I've been mounting blu-ray ISO files on Vitrual Clone Drive as well.

Besides, DVDFab rips straight to ISO files.

That's very weird. BD MKV file usually is the easiest file to playback of all BD files. It doesn't require mounting to virtual drive either. It's a lot more work to playback BD ISO than m2ts and MKV.

It is very simple to playback MKV file using Windows 7 MCE. MCE is fully integratable with your Windows 7. It can playback bd files (m2ts, iso, mkv, etc), and MCE online HD streaming (Netflix, Live TV, YouTube, etc) is included in it. You do not need to use keyboard to control it either. You can simply turn on/off MCE with MCE remote control, and you can simply playback bd files and online streaming with a remote control too.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Just to throw this out there...

The Dune players should have met your original specifications. I will need to double check this, but the reason I bought one was because it supported full Blu-ray playback with HD audio. Mostly I cared about the full BD playback as I don't have a HDMI receiver in place (yet). I also don't know if I have any .MKV files with HD audio of any type, but this is all supposed to be supported by this player.

I've got about 600 movies on it so far, but they are all ISOs, so I can't really check the MKV format. Let me know if you have a clip that I can download and test with if you would like.

 

[blurayalltheway]

Just to throw this out there...

The Dune players should have met your original specifications. I will need to double check this, but the reason I bought one was because it supported full Blu-ray playback with HD audio. Mostly I cared about the full BD playback as I don't have a HDMI receiver in place (yet). I also don't know if I have any .MKV files with HD audio of any type, but this is all supposed to be supported by this player.

I've got about 600 movies on it so far, but they are all ISOs, so I can't really check the MKV format. Let me know if you have a clip that I can download and test with if you would like.

If you have 600 movies, you can easily and quickly convert one movie to MKV with MakeMKV. You can use MediaInfo to check HD audio codec afterward.

If you're referring to Dune Smart B1, I still preferred a Zacate Mini-HTPC. The HTPC is more flexible, and it can be used as a PC too.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If you have 600 movies, you can easily and quickly convert one movie to MKV

Won't that require a lot of extra HDD splace?

Does it convert ISO to MKV one at a time and delete the ISO afterwards?

It would be nice if DVDFab could just rip the BD disc to MKV file in 1 step.

 

[sholling]

It would be nice if DVDFab could just rip the BD disc to MKV file in 1 step.

MakeMKV goes directly from BD to MKV and they have a 30 day trial. I'm just not sure that it does it without errors - I have my doubts. I don't know for sure because I don't know enough about video encoding to troubleshoot the problems. This is a whole new aspect of the hobby that I may need to learn but right now I don't even know where to start.

 

[blurayalltheway]

Won't that require a lot of extra HDD splace?

yes it is if you are keeping both files.

Does it convert ISO to MKV one at a time and delete the ISO afterwards?

certain video converter have this option, but it is not recommended. it is always safer to convert the file, and verified the converted file first before deleting the original file. it is very convenience to delete the original file with a click of the mouse afterward.

It would be nice if DVDFab could just rip the BD disc to MKV file in 1 step.

yes you can. dvdfab is the most friendly video converter in the market

 

[blurayalltheway]

MakeMKV goes directly from BD to MKV and they have a 30 day trial. I'm just not sure that it does it without errors - I have my doubts. I don't know for sure because I don't know enough about video encoding to troubleshoot the problems. This is a whole new aspect of the hobby that I may need to learn but right now I don't even know where to start.

it is a lot easier than you thought and here is step by step by dvdfab- Convert Blu-ray to MKV

step by step for makemkv- How to make a single MKV from a Blu-ray (and also how to shrink it)

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I could have ripped straight to MKV all this time using DVDFab, and I didn't even know it.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

So much troubles... I wish one could just get ready MKV files from somewhere... and not be in trouble with the law...

 

[blurayalltheway]

So much troubles... I wish one could just get ready MKV files from somewhere... and not be in trouble with the law...

what law? after you bought a bd movie, you can convert to whatever you wish as long as you're not doing it for profit.

 

[BMXTRIX]

what law? after you bought a bd movie, you can convert to whatever you wish as long as you're not doing it for profit.

This is not correct, at least in the USA.

The DMCA prohibits, specifically, any circumvention of DRM on media. This includes VHS macrovision, DVD encryption, and Blu-ray encryption. Blu-ray, being the newest, is one of the primary targets of this, but it also applies to DHCP and encryption put into TV shows which are broadcast for free, and PPV items.

While it would be nice to get both a digital copy and the disc original, your purchase did not include a 1:1 digital copy and you are not legally entitled to one if you must break DRM to get it.

Of course, the ability to easily break DRM is available and for those of us who want our digital copies, we should stand up a give a one finger salute to that poor decision by congress. Not like the studios are giving us 1080p digital copies to put onto our home servers.

On the other hand, as long as we aren't sharing, we certainly aren't likely to run into any issues.

 

[krzywica]

This is not correct, at least in the USA.

The DMCA prohibits, specifically, any circumvention of DRM on media. This includes VHS macrovision, DVD encryption, and Blu-ray encryption. Blu-ray, being the newest, is one of the primary targets of this, but it also applies to DHCP and encryption put into TV shows which are broadcast for free, and PPV items.

While it would be nice to get both a digital copy and the disc original, your purchase did not include a 1:1 digital copy and you are not legally entitled to one if you must break DRM to get it.

Of course, the ability to easily break DRM is available and for those of us who want our digital copies, we should stand up a give a one finger salute to that poor decision by congress. Not like the studios are giving us 1080p digital copies to put onto our home servers.

On the other hand, as long as we aren't sharing, we certainly aren't likely to run into any issues.

This is true, although I have seen the courts strike down a few lawsuits concerning the fair use laws......unfortunately this is on a case by case basis. IMO America is too corporation oriented to change any of the DRM laws anytime soon, all you have to do is look at the money the studios and music companies pull in....