MKV with DTS-HD to PS3

[tge101]

i've looked around for a while and can't find a definitive answer to this. I have a ".mkv" file that has DTS-HD audio. Now, most of what i've read says that PS3 supports DTS, so I'd imagine DTS-HD too since it's on Blu-Rays as well. So, I'm new to converting these files and actually this is only the 2nd I've done, and i noticed when I started converting, the first thing MKV2VOB does is convert the DTS to AC3 and there's no option to keep the DTS (that I see anyways). I can't seem to find any guides with MKV2VOB or GOTsent (haven't used it yet, but have it and read good things) that let you keep the DTS. There might be a 20 step or so method involving more than one program but I haven't found that either. If anyone can chime in and help me out with this, I'd HIGHLY appreciate it. Thanks.

[Baldrick]

Make an AVCHD/Blu-ray using multiavchd?

[tge101]

what type of file will it produce? i'm not going to be burning the output, just putting it on my external HDD and play from there. and is there any quality loss? its 1080p resolution and like i said DTS-HD audio

[jman98]

iNow, most of what i've read says that PS3 supports DTS, so I'd imagine DTS-HD too since it's on Blu-Rays as well.

That's not a safe assumption. That may indeed be true, but I wouldn't just assume it is true without testing. There may be restrictions on what type of audio the PS3 supports in an MKV container.

[tge101]

well i did read that there was the update to decode DTS a while ago and checked the audio settings on PS3 and DTS is there, i guess the DTS-HD wasn't a safe assumption. still though, i can't find anything that doesn't involve converting the MKV's audio to AC3.

[guns1inger]

DTS-HD works fine from bluray or AVCHD. It will not play from an m2ts file on the HDD. I can't speak for the VOBs created by MKV2VOB, but I would not be surprised if it didn't work. I convert all my MKVs to AVCHD discs, burn them with Imgburn, and have no playback issues.

[tge101]

So, here's what i've tried so far and the results:
MKV2VOB - M2TS, tried twice and there was some error each time; USB AVCHD - tried twice, adding it as a folder because there are subs, and doing just the file, both times there was audio and picture but the bottom third of the screen was either green or black. TSMUXER - M2TS, had video and no audio, AVCHD, audio and no video.

My last thing i can think of is taking the files out of the MKV file, manually convert the audio, and then mux it back together. I found one tool that will extract them all as separate files, i just don't know what to do after i get them out. I dunno.

BTW, the file i have is 17GB, a rip of the movie 2012, and there are 5 tracks in it, the video, audio, english subs for just the chinese speaking parts, english subs for the whole movie, and spanish subs for the whole movie (The last 3 are labeled VOBSUBxxxx). There is also a .SRT file in the folder but i don't know which of the 3 subs it is for. But, when I load the MKV into TSMUXER an error comes up saying it can't open the whole file and only shows the video and audio track.

If that helps anyone out anymore and gives someone a better idea of what i'm doing wrong or why it won't work please let me know asap. Thanks

[guns1inger]

Your AVCHD on USB had green because the resolution is non-compliant. The only way around it is to re-encode with black bars to get to a compliant resolution. Multi-AVCHD can do this for you, or you can use UncropMKV (which is basically Multi-ACVHD's transcoder as a standalone program), then use TSMuxer on the results.

[tge101]

it's non-compliant even though it's 1080p and i was trying it on a 1080i tv?

[guns1inger]

Post a mediainfo tree view of the file. If you downloaded the mkv then there is a good chance that it has been cropped during re-encoding, and now does not have a true, 1080p compliant resolution.

[Zetski210]

So, here's what i've tried so far and the results:
MKV2VOB - M2TS, tried twice and there was some error each time; USB AVCHD - tried twice, adding it as a folder because there are subs, and doing just the file, both times there was audio and picture but the bottom third of the screen was either green or black. TSMUXER - M2TS, had video and no audio, AVCHD, audio and no video.

My last thing i can think of is taking the files out of the MKV file, manually convert the audio, and then mux it back together. I found one tool that will extract them all as separate files, i just don't know what to do after i get them out. I dunno.

BTW, the file i have is 17GB, a rip of the movie 2012, and there are 5 tracks in it, the video, audio, english subs for just the chinese speaking parts, english subs for the whole movie, and spanish subs for the whole movie (The last 3 are labeled VOBSUBxxxx). There is also a .SRT file in the folder but i don't know which of the 3 subs it is for. But, when I load the MKV into TSMUXER an error comes up saying it can't open the whole file and only shows the video and audio track.

If that helps anyone out anymore and gives someone a better idea of what i'm doing wrong or why it won't work please let me know asap. Thanks

The PS3 only supports DTS audio when playback is via the optical drive (either DVD or Blu-Ray).

When mkv2vob creates a video file and the DTS audio is transcoded, it is converted to LPCM and passed-through directly to a digital receiver (via optical or HDMI) where it is detected as DTS. In this situation, the PS3 does not see the audio as DTS.

There is no way to play an MKV file with DTS-HD audio on the PS3 without some form of audio conversion.
The way I do it is to extract the DTS audio from within the MKV container using mkvExtractGUI and convert to 640 kbps AC3 using eAC3to. Then, load the original MKV into tsMuxeR along with the newly created AC3 file. Make sure you only select the original video track and the new AC3 track (deselect all the other audio tracks, subs, etc...) and set the output to create an M2TS file.

The resultant M2TS file will contain the highest quality AC3 audio (which sounds "extremely" similar to DTS-HD) and will play natively on the PS3.

[Spdngblt56]

What about this... I have an MKV file which contains a 6 channel DTS audio file in it. I want to make this file compliant with my Sony receiver, so that when I plug my external HDD into the PS3 and play the movie, it passes along the DTS audio correctly to my 5.1 channel Sony receiver. However, like Zetski210 said,

The PS3 only supports DTS audio when playback is via the optical drive (either DVD or Blu-Ray)

.
So I too attempted to use MKV2VOB to convert the file to a VOB, such that it retains this 6 channel audio file, but simply converts it into a different type (which it did!!) -->however, when the conversion was over with the result was a .mpg file rather than a VOB file.... AND.... the audio had been changed to a 2 channel PCM type!?

Where did I go wrong? It said the whole time it was converting that the DTS audio was not being transcoded, so how is it, that was changed to a 2 channel PCM audio???

I could understand if the 6 channel DTS had simply been changed into a 6 channel PCM audio, but that was not the case --> rather, its now only a 2 channel audio file... and i REALLY want to watch this movie in surround sound!!!!

If any of you guys can help me with this, I would appreciate it soo much.

Thanks for any responses in advance

[Zetski210]

What I do is extract the DTS audio from the MKV container using MKVExtractGUI, convert the DTS to 640K AC3 with eAC3to, then re-pack with the existing h.264 video track into an M2TS container with tsMuxeR.

This will play from a external USB drive (as long as the file length is under 4 GB)

[Spdngblt56]

Thanks for the advice Zetski... I'm definitely going to give that a try!

And I appreciate you responding to my question. It really makes forums like this one worth-while, when everybody helps each other out rather than just looking at your question and never giving any advice!

I'll post back soon and let you know how it turns out

[HaZZaD]

PS3 Media Server anyone? Should be able to stream any MKV with DTS/AC3 to your PS3 with no issues. Now when it comes to DTS-HD MA and TrueHD things can be a little difficult. I find that DTS HD MA causes the PS3 to drop audio about 1 minute into playback. TrueHD seems to just play the AC3 audio stream. The workaround to this. Simply remux the MKV using MKV MERGE and downconvert the HD audio to DTS. Should fix your issues. Hopefully the creator of PS3 Media Server releases an update to this great software to support HD audio pass thru.

[srizvi1]

How about using MKVtools and changing the dts 6ch audio to AAC 5.1? Would a PS3 receiver connected to a receiver/home theater system be able to interpret that?

[yoda313]

How about using MKVtools and changing the dts 6ch audio to AAC 5.1? Would a PS3 receiver connected to a receiver/home theater system be able to interpret that?

Only if its a newer receiver. I could not get movies rented from the playstation store with aac 5.1 to play in 5.1 over fiberoptic only stereo. My amp is an older non hdmi amp.

If your amp says it can play aac than yes it should work.

But what do you have against ac3? ac3 5.1 at 448kpbs should be more than adequate. Especially if this is sd audio. If its hd audio you could try 640kpbs ac3. It may or may not work.

[themediaman]

Unless the PS3 is the newer model it will not decode the HD audio I believe. And if it is the slim version it could only be decoded off a disc as you would need an HD cable to get the audio from your PC or NAS to the PS3.

So, just run it through mkv2vob as suggested, keeping trans-code DTS unchecked. The program will do all the tinkering with the audio and give you an M2TS file which you can copy over USB or network....