Creating a video file from a DTS file with blank/still image video

[vdgg]

Hi Guys,

I've been breaking my head on this one for a while now. I have DTS files in 5.1 surround that i want to be playable in my car stereo.
For operational reasons, the best container for these would be AVI (i've got many such files, and it works perfectly).

The problem is that i cannot "wrap" the DTS soundtrack in an AVI container without a video. And i really don't want to manually create blank/still image videos for each file, because it will be way too much work.

I tried using Avisynth (it has the AudioLength parameter), but each time i try to use it, it crashes whatever program tries to open the AVS file (MPC, VDUB, etc...).

Any ideas? I'm at a loss here...
And if Avisynth is indeed the way to go, can you give an example so that i won't fail on syntax?

I know what i'm trying to do is unorthodox to say the least, which makes it even harder to find clues as to how i can make it work.

Thanks in advance!

[El Heggunte]

Hmmm, I've found two methods of storing DTS in AVI without a video stream, and/but
I don't know if the target hardware accepts "videoless" AVI files...

1a) ffmbc -i input.dts -acodec copy intermed.avi

1b) ffmpeg -i intermed.avi -acodec copy output.avi

"intermed.avi" shows incorrect duration for the audio stream, and remuxing it with ffmpeg fixes the problem.
ffmpeg cannot be used for the first step, because its AVI muxer has some weird kind of bug

2) Assuming the target hardware understands DTSWAV,

2a) spdifer input.dts intermed.wav -wav

2b) ffmpeg -i intermed.wav -acodec copy output.avi

HTH

[jman98]

The most obvious answer is that you get the software to create DTS audio CDs. My personal experience is that cars aren't great places to experience surround sound, but it's your decision here. By the way, the software to create DTS audio CDs is not free, but perhaps a clever person could think of a way to get an "evaluation copy" that doesn't expire just to see if it works or not before making a purchase.

[nifedipin]

Hi
First you have to try if your car sistem plays AVI dts....and Dvd dts
Second;See if your dts files are made at 44.1[red book standard]...if YES simply rename xyz.dts to xyz.wav and make a cd audio with Nero or Roxio.Hopefully your sistem CAN play cds AND has the dts decoder "buildt in"=so it can decode dts wavs.
If your dts files are made at 48[dvd standard] simply make a dvd[no video] using Audiomuxer[surroundbyus group].
If u can use ONLY avi dts load your dts in multiAVCHD and make[save as...] avi slideshow using your dts and one or a few jpgs.
Have fun!
M

[vdgg]

Thank you all for your replies, i appreciate it.

El Heggunte - thanks for the flow!
I got it working. The output files are not playing in VLC ("No suitable decoder module: VLC does not support the audio or video format "undf". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this.), but surprisingly they are playing in WMP (with external codec). I'll give them a spin in the car, and if it works there, it's more than enough (although i play the files at home too, so i'll use WMP for them).
Do you know if there's a way to fix the VLC issue? not critical, just curious. Also - have you used this flow before?

nifedipin - I tried using multiAVCHD - i can't find my way through the GUI, and it seems the DTS file isn't parsed correctly, as i'm asked to manually feed the length of each file. Is there any way to avoid it?

In general - i'm looking only for a pass-through. I haven't tried playing DTS-WAV in the car (should be interesting to try), but i want to avoid it since it requires transcoding from 48KHz to 44.1KHz which will cause quality loss and will not enable me to listen to more than one "album" per disc.
For that matter, i could have compiled a DVD with one title per disc (works), but then again, i want to have more than one "album" per DVD disc.

I'll update on my experiment soon

Thanks again!

[vdgg]

Unfortunately, the car DVD player rejected the files generated by ffmpeg

So, i'll ask a different question - is there any way to generate a blank video clip or image-based video clip based on the length of the DTS file?
If i'll have that i'll be able to join them with AVIMUXGUI.

Theoretically, my avisynth script should have done that, but as i said, it crashes any software i try to load it to.
This is my script - can you find anything wrong with it?

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\NicAudio.dll")

# Use a still-frame image with audio:
audio = NicDTSSource("C:\MyDVD\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_CHAPTER_01_1 - 0x88 - Audio - DTS - 6ch - Unknown (1)kHz - DRC - English - DELAY 0ms.DTS", channels=6)
video = ImageSource("C:\MyDVD\VIDEO_TS\vlcsnap-2012-10-21-21h50m45s197.png", fps=25, start=1, end=ceil(25*AudioLengthF(audio)/AudioRate(audio)))
return AudioDub(video, audio)

[nifedipin]

@ vdgg

As I understand,your sistem can play dts DVD...if true,forget about making dts avi....
As I said...make your Dts dvds[no video] using Audiomuxer.If you want multiple titles one ONE dvd use Dvdremake pro[press "tools"] ..You'll get kinda menu:disk1,disk2.......disk4.Sellect "disk1 and VOILA!!... your first dvd starts with his own menu....

Have fun!
M
P.S.If you still want to know the length of your dts file,and maybe correct it, you can use an old little free piece of softw. namedTSparser.If you want to cut or join dts files use another old free piece of softw. named DTStrimmer!
As i said:
Have fun!!
I had my fun long ago...now it's your turn...ENJOY!

[El Heggunte]

@ vdgg:

1) As you could see, VLC is not a panacea, and WMP is not so bad as Microsoft wants it to be

2)

Theoretically, my avisynth script should have done that, but as i said, it crashes any software i try to load it to.

First of all --- if an AVS plugin already is in the default plugin folder, there is no need to use "LoadPlugin"

BTW, it's a bad idea to store many files in that folder, they can conflict with each other:

http://doom10.org/index.php?topic=1253.msg6348#msg6348

The less the quantity of plugins you let Avisynth autoload, the better:

[vdgg]

Yesterday's computer time was mostly devoted to the newly "released" pink floyd at pompeii Quad transfer from the original film. Well worth the time, highly recommended (look it up!)

@ nifedipin:

My car can play DTS DVDs, and that's how i started, but it's a nightmare to compile these disc and then it's hard to navigate between albums.
So i can either have one title per album (but can't go to the next album without using the remote), or put all the albums in one title and then manually search for where the next album starts.
The folder structure is much more convenient for me (although i'm paying in some response time of 2-3 seconds when the head unit parses each file).
I got used to it

@ El Heggunte:
1. It really got me by surprise!
2. I tried removing the LoadPlugin from the script, but it still crashes.
In my plugins folder there are only those which were pre-installed plus the NicAudio DLL that i added. I haven't really used Avisynth, i just tried to.

So i'm somewhat at a dead end again.
Any other ideas on how to generate a blank/still image video using the length of the DTS file?
Maybe do it in another format (DVD / MPEG, MKV, MP4 or whatever) and then i'll try to find a way to convert it back to AVI?

Thanks again!