Hello,
I’ve ripped most of my Blue Ray movies with the lossless audio track only. Some Blue rays are sold others are lost and I would hate to rip the rest all over again.
What I would like to achieve is convert the DolbyTrueHD audio track to Dolby Digital or DD+ and add that audio track as well to my movie mkv files.
This way I hope my server will avoid most transcoding when someone is watching a movie.
How can I do this most easily?
Is there a software that will transcode audio in this way?
Unknown to me, but Google popped up with this Windows suggestion
PopCorn MKV AudioConverter so maybe?
Also for Windows if you have access is to use a program like eac3to 3.36 / 3.36 with UsEac3to GUI 1.3.3 Free Download - VideoHelp which is command line based but does have GUI’s available. That will allow you to extract the core tracks for DTS-HD and also make a Dolby Digital compatible track for TrueHD.
You would then use either ffmpeg (command line based also but does have GUI’s) or https://mkvtoolnix.download/ (MKVToolNix) to merge those created tracks back together. With multiple audio MKV is a better container then MP4, but if you wanted to do MP4, ffmpeg would probably be the way to go (of my suggestions, I only use MKV so not sure about what’s out their for MP4 other than ffmpeg).
For eac3to, a sample command line would be:
eac3to input.mkv
eac3to input.mkv 2: output.dts -core
The first line above will printout the track listings and their corresponding track number for eac3to (used in 2nd line).
The second line is the command to actually extract the core for (in this example) the DTS-HD MA track. Thinking about it, you might be able to use eac3to to also combine that into the file, but I use MKVToolNix because I am normally doing some other “rearranging” of the tracks.
Also, with eac3to, you can have multiple outputs (not sure about inputs) so if you also wanted to create, for instance, a Dolby Stereo track as well you could do the following:
eac3to input.mkv 2: output.compatible.ac3 -core 2: output.stereo.ac3 -core -downStereo -224
With that command, the first output will create the compatibility track of a TrueHD track and the 2nd output will create a stereo track from the compatibility track (you could also just leave the “-core” option out of the 2nd output and just go from the TrueHD straight to the stereo, but I’m probably weird and don’t like to do that).
After those are created you would then just open MKVToolNix and use the Multiplexer tool to then combine all the files together and create a new mkv file.
-Shark2k
XMedia Recode is one such tool. You can copy existing tracks, such as video, and transcode the desired tracks.
Handbrake is another popular tool. However, it will always transcode the video track. It has no copy/passthrough option.
There is also ffmpeg, which is used by both XMedia Recode and Handbrake “under the covers.” It is CLI based.
However, before you start the process…
Audio transcoding requires very little processing power. Even moderately powered systems can transcode audio.
You will still have audio selection issues if you keep both TrueHD and DD+ audio in the same media file. Plex clients pick the first track that matches their language selections. So, if you have TrueHD first, so you can use it at home, remote clients will default to that track, even if DD+ is available. If the DD+ track is first, all clients will pick it, meaning you will have to manually select the TrueHD audio track at home.
If the TrueHD audio is transcoded, Atmos information is discarded. There are no tools for the home market to transcode TrueHD + Atmos to Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos.
I struggled with a similar situation for some time.
I was running Plex on a DS918+ that can transcode audio, but not strong enough to burn in subtitles if required by remote users.
As a result, I was keeping two copies of each movie - a Blu-ray rip with lossless audio + PGS subtitles for home use, plus a separately transcoded version with DD+ audio and no subtitles for remote users.
The administrative overhead was a PITA.
My eventual solution was to move Plex to an i5 based PC which can easily transcode 1080p video, audio, and burn subtitles if needed. The media stays on the NAS. My prep time for new media is now minimal - rip the disc (MakeMKV), add basic info such as chapter names (MKVToolNix), and load it on the NAS.
I’m happier because my admin overhead is greatly reduced. Friends and family are happier because they now have access to subtitles.
Thank you shark2k,
I’ll look into it but fear that command line format will knock me off… I struggle a lot with those things…
I do have the DS920+ and to me it seems like DTS-HD MA trascodes well or not at all on most clients, but Dolby TrueHD suffers a lot. So my plan was to transcode and add, as suggested by shark2k above, both audio tracks to the MKV file.
I would recommend Avidemux. It has a decent user interface (unlike the command line of ffmpeg). You specify the options for the audio portion separate from the video portion. So you can copy the video and transcode audio into a new mp4 or mkv. You might lose subtitles though - so, if that matters to you, you might need something like MkvToolnix to add them back.
Thank you MovieWiz!
I’ll check it out. I’ve tested XMedia Recode suggested by FordGuy61 tonight and it seems to be working fine so far.
Recode might be better for your purposes anyway. Avidemux is an editor too. I use it regularly to remove commercials from recorded TV as I haven’t had great luck with the automatic commercial removers. When I want to change the format of just the audio though, Recode sounds like a great choice because HandBrake can’t handle that. I’ve already downloaded Recode myself and plan to try it out.
On a sidenote though, can Avidemux rotate movies taken with mobile phones?
Avidemux has a huge number of video filters available and rotate is one of them.
Thank you MovieWiz!
I`ll try that
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