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  1. I use VidCoder, and posted this scenario on their forum but was told that the guys who make handbrake have no intentions on making a video passthrough option like they do for audio.

    What I'm after is... sometimes I have a video that has 5.1 audio, and since I don't have a 5.1 audio system only stereo, sometimes I have incredibly loud sound fx and music, and barley audible dialog. What I've been doing, and seems to help in most cases is, I run it through VidCoder... I try to set the video to reencode to the same size as it currently is, I set the 5.1 audio to passthrough, AND I also make a 2nd audio track that converts the 5.1 audio to AAC Stereo.


    That... or I don't worry about the video at all, so long as a stereo track is created, then use MKVMerge, load the original file in, then the new file and essentially remux the file with the original video/audio and the audio from the new file only.


    It works... I retain the 5.1 in case I get a nicer setup some day, and I can hear the dialog better using the stereo track.


    What I would like to do however, is skip a lot of the steps.


    Is there a user friendly GUI based program, like VidCoder, that I can passthrough the video, 5.1 audio, and have a new audio track created? VidCoder is great, but no video passthrough makes for a lot of extra steps and time waiting for encoding. :S

    That, or a quick/easy way to convert the audio track only, then I can just remux it with MKVMerge afterwards.
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  2. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    I haven't seen anything like that. Maybe could popcorn mkv audio converter or mkv2ac3 could implement something like that.
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  3. Ya, I doubt many apps have the option, since I'm probably one of the very few people with a need for it.

    But, for those with stereo only systems, it does fix the problem without losing the original 5.1 track.
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  4. remux the file with the original video/audio and the audio from the new file only
    Still using Vidcoder and re-encoding the video instead of using an encoder that allow you to copy or skip the video?

    That would save you time if not steps.
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  5. Originally Posted by THRobinson View Post
    What I'm after is... sometimes I have a video that has 5.1 audio, and since I don't have a 5.1 audio system only stereo, sometimes I have incredibly loud sound fx and music, and barley audible dialog. What I've been doing, and seems to help in most cases is, I run it through VidCoder... I try to set the video to reencode to the same size as it currently is, I set the 5.1 audio to passthrough, AND I also make a 2nd audio track that converts the 5.1 audio to AAC Stereo.
    I'd wonder why that is. I generally keep the 5.1ch audio, but mostly it only gets played using a stereo system. I use my PC with stereo speakers for playback, or the encodes are played using a TV's built in media player or a Bluray player etc. I've downmixed audio to stereo and compared the stereo version to the original with the 5.1ch audio being downmixed on playback and the dialogue level sounds pretty much the same.

    MeGUI's OneClick encoder should do what you want. You can set it up and save the configuration as a OneClick preset. There's an option to copy the video. It's easy to add a second audio stream and load the same stream twice. Each audio stream can be configured independently in respect to whether it's re-encoded or not. If it's re-encoded you can select one of the audio encoder presets or create your own (audio type, whether it's downmixed to stereo or not, or normalized etc).

    I'd be inclined to add the video file to MeGUI's audio encoding section and just re-encode the audio directly that way (it works for many file types without needing to demux the audio stream first). When it's done I'd use MKVMergeGUI to add the new audio and remux it as a new MKV.
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  6. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    I have tried add same audio stream twice in megui but I always get
    Code:
    [Information] [2014-01-07 12:51:16] Job commandline: "F:\downloads\MeGUI_2418_x86\tools\mkvmerge\mkvextract.exe" tracks "F:\Filmer\video.mkv" --ui-language en 1:"F:\Filmer\oouaih14.enw\video - [0] English.ac3" 1:"F:\Filmer\oouaih14.enw\video - [0] English.ac3"
    [Error] [2014-01-07 12:51:16] Error: The ID '1' has already been used for another output file.
    It tries to extract the ac3 to same names...
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  7. Yes, you're correct. The same thing happened when I tried it. I'll file a bug report to see if that's expected behaviour. I'd assume it's not, given the OnceClick encoder lets you add the same audio stream twice. In fact by automatically adding it to the streams list when selecting the input for the second stream, MeGUI makes it nice and easy to add the same audio stream twice.

    I also expected the configuration for the OneClick encoder, which lets you specify more than one audio stream while telling it to use the the first audio track each time, would allow you to add a video file and the first audio stream would automatically be duplicated along with the pre-configured settings regarding whether to copy it or encode it, but that doesn't seem to work. The second audio stream needs to be added manually. I'll ask about that too.
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  8. I haven't found anything to allow for skipping the video in VidCoder, though that would be equally as helpful as pass through.

    The 5.1 issue, not an all the time issue, but, it does come up often enough that I'd get some use out of the function. I play my stuff through my TV and usually the results are fine, but once in a while I get something where I have to sit there with the volume control in my hand an constantly adjust up/down when it switches from an action sequence back to dialog.


    I use to try and find a file with a stereo track and MKVMerge that track over, which was a pain because occasionally came across sync issues. Using the software to convert the 6 channels down to 2 usually worked and no sync issues.


    I'll grab MeGUI and give it a try.
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  9. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    did you try mediacoder? it has a "copy video" option that passes it through.

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  10. I too would use MediaCoder. I would choose to disable the video alltogther which gives you an AC3 (stereo) audio file as output (untick Enabled on the Video Tab) and then mux that with your source. (Use Stereo on the Sound Tab)

    However, if you find it an "userfriendly GUI" is up to you to decide.
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  11. Member Evil_Burrito's Avatar
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    It sounds to me like you do not have your sound properly configured. Verify your system is configured for stereo (control panel -> hardware and sound -> manage audio devices -> select your audio device from the list -> configure).

    Then make sure your players audio (like VLC) is configured [to properly downmix]. In VLC try the different audio options for dolby surround (tools -> preferences -> audio -> dolby surround -> on. Test a video. If you don't like how it sounds change dolby to off.

    If that doesn't fix it, open VLC's all/advanced preferences (tools -> preferences -> show all (radio box, at the bottom left) -> audio (drop down tree) -> stereo audio output module -> dolby. Test a video. If you don't like how it sounds change dolby to stereo.


    If it really isn't a player problem (I bet it is), there are many programs to do what you asked. The easiest is rebox.NET. You could also use a more slightly complex eac gui, such as popcorn or eac3to. You could use Avidemux to copy the video stream and re-encode audio only.
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  12. Originally Posted by THRobinson View Post
    What I'm after is... sometimes I have a video that has 5.1 audio, and since I don't have a 5.1 audio system only stereo, sometimes I have incredibly loud sound fx and music, and barley audible dialog. What I've been doing, and seems to help in most cases is, I run it through VidCoder... I try to set the video to reencode to the same size as it currently is, I set the 5.1 audio to passthrough, AND I also make a 2nd audio track that converts the 5.1 audio to AAC Stereo.
    There's a much simpler solution, it will only take a minute, and you only have to do it once: Fix the audio setup on your system. It's set to route the center channel (where most of the dialog is) to a non-existent center speaker. Change the speaker setup to stereo. Or in some cases, the media player setup needs to be fixed. Set it to downmix to stereo on-the-fly.
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  13. Originally Posted by Baldrick View Post
    I have tried add same audio stream twice in megui but I always get
    Code:
    [Information] [2014-01-07 12:51:16] Job commandline: "F:\downloads\MeGUI_2418_x86\tools\mkvmerge\mkvextract.exe" tracks "F:\Filmer\video.mkv" --ui-language en 1:"F:\Filmer\oouaih14.enw\video - [0] English.ac3" 1:"F:\Filmer\oouaih14.enw\video - [0] English.ac3"
    [Error] [2014-01-07 12:51:16] Error: The ID '1' has already been used for another output file.
    It tries to extract the ac3 to same names...
    I'll give Zathor credit for being on the ball (for those who don't know, he's the guy who does most of the work maintaining MeGUI). The extraction error has now been fixed. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1661054#post1661054
    I imagine it'll be included in the next MeGUI version on the development update server (at the moment it's version 2457 which doesn't include the fix).

    Going by what he said when posting a link to the fixed version, the OneClick encoder isn't designed to automatically duplicate tracks, so it would appear there's no way to create a OneClick preset which automatically does it for you. However now the error has been fixed it's possible to open a video with a OneClick profile which is configured not to re-encode the audio and manually add the audio stream a second time while electing to re-encode it (or the other way around). You can still configure the OneClick preset not to re-encode the video.

    I tested it using an MKV and an AVI as the input file and it worked both times (MKV as output).
    But..... I have found another bug which I'll report. If MP4 or AVI is selected as the output container (I only tested AVI, MP4 and MKV), the OneClick encoder seems to ignore the setting telling it not to re-encode the video. I thought that'd been fixed recently (at least for MP4 output) but it would appear at the moment the "don't encode video" setting is ignored unless the output is MKV. For MKV it works fine.
    I'll report the problem shortly and await Zathor's reply.

    Edit: Zathor replied describing the inability to copy the video unless the output is MKV as a "missing feature". I'm not sure if that means it'll be added in the near future, but currently the ability to copy the video does work unless the output is MKV. He also explained what the "only use first track" setting does.
    http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1661097#post1661097
    Had I been clever enough to check MeGUI's log file I would have found this entry:
    --[Information] [08/01/14 4:06:53 PM] "Don't encode video" has been disabled as at the moment only the target container MKV is supported
    Last edited by hello_hello; 8th Jan 2014 at 08:18.
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  14. Originally Posted by THRobinson View Post
    I'll grab MeGUI and give it a try.
    As per my previous post, MeGUI's OneClick encoder has been fixed in respect to duplicating audio streams (copying the audio and re-encoding it etc), but it'll only copy the video if the output is MKV (otherwise at the moment it'll re-encode it even if you tell it not to).
    The stable version of MeGUI probably won't be updated for a while, but if you go into MeGUI's settings and switch to the development update server, then restart MeGUI to get it to update itself, you'll probably update to a "fixed" version much faster. Chances are any version more recent than 2457 will include the fix.

    There's probably lots of software which will take an input video file, re-encode just the audio, and output an audio file for you to manually remux (ffcoder and Video To Video Converter come to mind). But outputting a video file containing two audio streams while electing not to re-encode the video might be another story.
    Last edited by hello_hello; 8th Jan 2014 at 04:32.
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  15. Originally Posted by THRobinson View Post
    The 5.1 issue, not an all the time issue, but, it does come up often enough that I'd get some use out of the function. I play my stuff through my TV and usually the results are fine, but once in a while I get something where I have to sit there with the volume control in my hand an constantly adjust up/down when it switches from an action sequence back to dialog.
    It still seems "odd" as downmixing to stereo when converting, and downmixing to stereo on playback, should happen the same way..... mostly.
    Given it's a "not all the time" issue..... does downmixing to stereo when converting always fix it?

    It sounds to me like maybe the audio in question has a lot of dynamic range. Much of it does, and probably too much for average "home viewing" conditions. Most newer TVs have compression settings for audio such as "normal" or "night viewing" or something similar, which compresses the audio on playback. Some types of audio (AC3) can also contain dynamic range compression information for the player to use (DVD and Bluray players at least), which can usually be enabled/disabled in the player's settings. If there's dynamic range compression information in the original audio stream, some software can use it when re-encoding. MeGUI lets you choose whether to use it or not (although it might only work when demuxing the audio stream before re-encoding it). Whether Handbrake uses it or not I don't know. If it doesn't have a setting, it's log file may tell you. If I'm re-encoding, I prefer to do so without dynamic range compression myself (because you can't undo it without re-encoding the original).

    As far as I know most software players ignore the dynamic range compression information by default. MPC-HC lets you enable/disable it via it's LAV audio decoder configuration (seems only to apply to AC3 or EAC3 audio). By default it doesn't downmix to stereo either (so I assume that'd rely on your soundcard doing it if need be) but it can be configured to downmix.

    Most software players have a "normalise" option which works by automatically adjusting the volume, but as a general rule I don't like it as often you can hear it at work (it tends to be slow). As I mainly use a PC for playback (and often at night while everyone else is asleep), I compress the audio by using MPC-HC for playback with ffdshow decoding. I use ffdshow's Mixer filter to downmix to stereo followed by the Winamp filter to run a Winamp compressor plugin. It can be configured to work quite well for soundtrack audio. http://www.winamp.com/plugin/rocksteady-2-1/1099
    This one's easier to use (all it has is a single slider for setting the compression) but from the limited time I've spent playing with it, it does seem to do a very good job (it doesn't mess with the audio quality or produce undesirable "pumping" effects unless you compress the audio quite a lot). http://www.winamp.com/plugin/loudmax-1-13/221811
    I think VLC has some sort of compressor built-in.

    PS. I refer to those plugins as compressors, although they increase the volume of the quiet parts rather than reduce the volume of the loud bits. The end result is effectively the same.
    Last edited by hello_hello; 8th Jan 2014 at 03:25.
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  16. I am using hardware MPEG4 decoder, the input.m4v data is converted into output.yuv file. I am assuming the YUV file as a raw data without header information. while playing YUV data using VLC Player it is playing without asking width and height of the video file, how does the vlc player got informartion regarding width and height from the planar yuv data
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  17. either the yuv video has a header (might be inside a y4m wrapper) or VLC is doing some educated guessing.
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  18. Member
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    I don't use XmediaRecode very often. However, I do use it for the purpose you mentioned. It has video pass thru as well as audio conversion. Additionally it has the ability to add and or modify chapters.

    Tony
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  19. I notice a lot of movies and TV shows have way too loud background music and I turn the volume up to hear the dialog and then get blasted when the music or FX stuff happens.
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  20. Weird, since my last message I received no more email notifications... didn't know there were a dozen more replies.

    About to give MediaCoder a try right now actually... hopefully does the trick.
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