Question regarding MP4 container

General Discussions
1

I just noticed that the 4K movie of Alien is DTS-HD MA 5.1…but its showing in plex as DTS 3.0?? I have the movie as a MP4 since, from what I read, that container is the only way to get Plex to direct play the movie. So does MP4 not support certain audio codecs??

Want to be able to direct play all my movies regardless of the resolution and audio without any compromising. All of my files are MKV except for a few 4k ones that are MP4.

Thanks for the help!

2

That’s incorrect and/or outdated information.
Direct Play doesn’t depend so much on the file container, but rather on the abilities of the used Plex client.
if you used e.g. a nVidia Shield as your client, you could use the straight Bluray rip (usually called a “remux”) in MKV format and be direct playing.

MP4 gained support for the high res audio codec relatively recently. So many tools might still reduce the audio quality when you recompress your rip to mp4.

3

Thanks for the reply! So when I ripped the Alien 4K movie, I used DVDFab and instead of using MKV I selected MP4 passthrough (to ensure no loss in picture/audio quality). I did it twice to ensure I didn’t make a mistake in selecting a 3.0 channel mix…then confirmed I DID select the correct DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. But the weird thing is, when its scrapped by Plex, it reads it as DTS 3.0.

So is it DVDFab that is changing it from 5.1 to 3.0??

I’m also noticing that if the 4K movie file is a MKV, Plex transcodes it when using my iPad to play the movie. If its a MP4 it direct plays it. In my home theater room, I’m using the latest Nvidea Shield TV Pro, so in there its not an issue.

4

I assume so.
(I am not using that software, so I cannot know for sure what it does and what it doesn’t.)

There is no ideal solution to accompany both of your devices.
Here is a way though, but it is a little bit more laborious:

  1. rip losslessly with MakeMKV
  2. compress the video track as desired with Handbrake, but keep the audio as-is
  3. use either ffmpeg or XMedia Recode to process the audio track of the ripped file to AAC, stereo, 256 kbps
    Apply loudness normalization to 89dB, while you’re at it.
  4. use MKVtoolnixGUI to mux in this stereo track to your ripped file as an additional audio track.
    I’d also change it to be the first audio track, so that it is automatically selected by default.

With a file in this style, it plays directly on almost any device.
If you are watching in your home cinema, select the DTS-HD MA track manually.

5

Just really weird cause “passthrough” regardless of MKV or MP4 I would assume means just that…passthrough! I typically use MakeMKV for everything but trying DVDFab UHD Ripper on my 4K movies to see which is better.
Since DVDFab gives you an option of M2TS passthrough, MKV passthrough or MP4 passthrough…which do you suggest for 1 to 1 copy without any compression, changing etc?

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