Remux to MPG

[LeChuck]

Hello folks,

Here's my issue:

Let's say I have an mkv file with x264 video and a DTS soundtrack, and would like to play it in PowerDVD 9 (ultra).

I know that it won't play an MKV, but that's not my end goal. My end goal is to have that file with a container where I can have both the video and the DTS track and play it in PowerDVD (it plays x264 extremely well on my machine and has Dolby Headphone mode).

- if I rename the mkv extension to .mpg it decodes and plays DTS but video is black (I have Haali splitter)
- if I rename to .mp4, .avi, .m2ts, it shows the video but no sound (info window shows no sound track)
- if I remux to .m2ts using tsmuxer with same soundtrack, same result as above
- if I remux that file into .m2ts with tsmuxer after converting the audio to AC3, it plays fine both video and sound in AC3
- same as above if I use mkv2vob to remux to mpg with DTS to AC3 conversion
- if I use mkv2vob to remux to mpg without DTS to AC3 conversion, it still "patches" the DTS audio and PowerDVD shows video but no audio
- a DVD disc with a DTS soundtrack plays fine

It seems that PowerDVD 9 will decode and play DTS from a file only with an .mpg container and when the DTS track is untouched (by mkv2vob), won't play it from an .m2ts container. Of course, simply muxing to .m2ts and trying to fool PowerDVD by renaming it to .mpg does not work. It's still a .m2ts file.

The issue is I don't know a tool that will simply remux the mkv file into .mpg and leave the DTS track alone. tsMuxer outputs only to .m2ts or .ts

Is there a tool that can do that?

Thanks!

[El Heggunte]

The "simple" MPG containers (.mpg, .vob and .aob) do not support
other types of video than MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, and do not support
other types of audio than MP1/2/3, LPCM, AC3, DTS and MLP.

You could try the weird remuxers of ffmpeg and Mencoder, but except
in the case of AVI output, the remuxed files often can be played back
only by ffplay and Mplayer.

I think you'd better find other software than the picky overbloated PowerDVD.

[LeChuck]

I didn't know that about the mpg container. I guess I'll continue to convert to AC3 for now.

I don't really see how PowerDVD is "bloated". In any case I don't have another one that plays 1080p this smoothly, has Dolby Headphone mode, as well as Avivo HD, so that is moot.

Thanks.

[El Heggunte]

I don't really see how PowerDVD is "bloated".

www.videohelp.com/tools/PowerDVD says:

Download from author site (128MB)

After decompressed onto a HDD, the total filesize will be much greater than 128MB.

On the other hand, MPC and MPC Homecinema are efficiently-coded applications, and
can use fast and clean H264 codecs such as CoreAVC and the DivX H264 Decoder.

[LeChuck]

Given how much space most programs and games take today (the software for my Auzentech sound card is bigger than that), I couldn't care less about the size of PowerDVD. Aside from not wanting to decode DTS from a file it does what it does very well and it's way easier and quicker for me to remux a few files and then use a modern interface than muck around with codecs and that type of software, which I did try before going for PowerDVD, including CoreAVC (which does not use hardware acceleration). And they still can't do Dolby Headphone without using the PowerDVD codec, and leads to the same issue that I described above, unless you're ready to do even more mucking around. If some day I can afford to replace my audio card for one that does Dolby Headphone by itself, I'll reassess that, but today I'm not looking for new playback software.

[El Heggunte]

OK.

[jagabo]

MPCHC has built in file splitters and decoders for all common video files. It support DXVA for hardware accelerated h.264 and VC-1 decoding. No Dolby Headphone though. Actually, if the Dolby Headphone driver is a DirectShow filter you can just tell MPCHC to use that instead of it's internal decoder.

[LeChuck]

It seems that the PowerDVD 9 filters do not register as DirectShow filters anymore and so they can't be used. For the heck of it, I just tried setting up MPC-HC to do DXVA using a guide I found. It worked, except for the fact that picture is too bright/washed out for DXVA enabled movies. I thought I would see if I could use the PDVD9 decoder instead to see if there's a difference but that's when I found out it can't be done anymore (unless there's a workaround). If the audio decoder could be used that would make a difference, but Dobly Headphone is a must for me.

[jagabo]

I just tried setting up MPC-HC to do DXVA using a guide I found. It worked, except for the fact that picture is too bright/washed out for DXVA enabled movies.

Adjust your graphics card's video proc amp settings.

Dolby Headphone wrapper? http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t39404.html

[LeChuck]

It's not the graphics card since the picture is fine in PowerDVD. That said, I found out about using the 16-235 to 0-255 shader and it's fixed the washed out issue (don't know if there are any drawbacks to it).

Correction: found some tips about registry settings for the ATI that might fix this issue. Nothing in the settings.

[jagabo]

Yeah, the shader fix shouldn't be necessary. That's normally done by the renderer (graphics card driver).

[LeChuck]

OK, after spending way too much time searching the web and figuring this out instead of working, it looks like the culprit is the "EVR Custom" that has some known problem (in the output configuration) with black levels, no matter which external renderer is used. Instead I selected "EVR" and the blacks are back to a normal level and match PowerDVD. It seems that EVR custom is for subtitles use.

Something to note, there is now a Microsoft video decoder that can be selected and does DXVA as well. I don't know if it's better or worse than the MPC-HC internal decoder or PDVD9.

[jagabo]

EVR and EVR custom both have the wrong black levels on my HTPC. I use Overlay Mixer or VMR9 renderless. XP SP3, Nvidia 8600 GT.

I've been playing around with this a little more. I think I've narrowed it down on my system. Looking at only h.264 and Xvid decoding: MPCHC's internal software h.264 and Xvid decoders show the wrong levels when using EVR or EVR Custom. All other combination of internal and external decoders and output renderers show the correct levels.

[LeChuck]

I think I've read EVR has been fixd at some point in time, either new version of the software/decoder, or graphics card drivers. It seems to work fine on my system but I'll do more testing eventually. Yesterday as I had installed new ATI Catalyst software I discovered my DXVA playback was also pretty bad and I believe that was due to some Avivo options like noise reduction or dynamic contrast. I didn't use CCC before. So I'll have to go back to MPC-HC and test again.

[LeChuck]

Posting again for anyone who might be interested: the inability to use the Cyberlink audio decoder from PDVD9 in order to get Dolby Headphone in MPC-HC was only due to the fact that I was using the x64 version of MPC-HC, and the Cyberlink decoder is 32 bits.

With the 32 bits version of MPC-HC, it works perfectly and I'm now able to have Dolby Headphone with a DTS track from a file, which PDVD9 doesn't want to do. I still like to remux the mkv into m2ts, which the O/S deals with better, but no more audio conversion is needed from DTS to AC3. I guess my PS3 Media Server will have to work more to do some on-the-fly DTS to AC3 conversion though for when we do family movies on the TV through the PS3...