how to extract separate DTS-HD audio channels from Blu-ray?

[nemo2002]

hey guys.
I have a project I want to start on that will take several months to finish. the first step is to extract some audio streams from a Blu-ray movie I own. the movie audio is DTS-HD, which I believe is 7.1?

anyways, I read on here that the best software to use would be dvdfab hd decrypter. Im purchasing the Blu-ray burner tomorrow, didn't even own one until now.

here are my questions. with DVDFab HD Decrypter, will I be able to:

1) rip the DTS-HD audio channel (Blu-ray has others) from specific chapters? I don't need the whole movie, don't need any of the video
2) have the audio in 1:1 quality in a format that Audacity or SoundForge will recognize?
3) rip the 7.1/5.1(?) audio into separate channels?

in the end my audio will end up in a downmixed stereo but for the duration of the project I really want the audio in the best quality possible and in as many isolated channels as possible.


i'm pretty handy with video/audio editing, but hadn't done any ripping until now (and hopefully no more after this project). so I will be getting my hands dirty tomorrow. just doing some advance research.

thanks.

p.s. I googled my way to this forum. was going to join when I was told I had an account...apparently I've been a member since 2002?!? wow...time flies.

[Kerry56]

I don't use DVDFab HD Decrypter, but I'm sure you won't be able to separate the audio and video with it, nor rip by chapters. You can rip the entire thing to the hard drive and work with it from there.

I use AnyDVD HD as my decryption program, and if I need to separate the audio stream, I do so with ClownBD. The output options in ClownBD will allow you to keep the audio unconverted, but it will be in the form of a .ts, or .m2ts file, or a complete blu ray structure. I just save the audio as a .ts file and rename it using the appropriate extension, in your case .dts.

Audacity accepts the DTS-HD MA file if you have the ffmpeg plug-in installed.

There is usually more than one way of doing these things, and someone else may have a better method for you, so check back in for more information from others around here.

[nemo2002]

I was thinking of purchasing DVDFab's Blu-ray Ripper, which claims to do everything I need, including decrypting and extracting 7.1 audio.

from Clown_BD's forum page it seems to only extract the DTS core and not the extra channels:

Audio

• Extract True-HD

• Extract LPCM

• Extract AC3 core (from True-HD) or DTS Core (From DTS-MA)

or am I misunderstanding this?

[poisondeathray]

Unless something has changed, ffmpeg, libav cannot decode DTS-MA in 7.1, only the core . AnyDVDHD + Arcsoft Decoder was required with eac3to for the full meal deal

eac3to input.dtshd output.wavs

the wavs (with an "s") will give you mono wavs

[Kerry56]

You have the option in ClownBD to extract just the core, but you can also get the entire audio stream.

Looking at the audio stream in the original blu ray, and the one I extracted with ClownBD, MediaInfo shows the exact same specifications.


General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : D:\AVS Output\AVS output.dts
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 5.08 GiB
Duration : 2h 41mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 4 502 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : MA / Core
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Muxing mode : Stream extension
Codec ID : 134
Duration : 2h 41mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : Unknown / 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless / Lossy

[Kerry56]

This particular audio file is only 6 channel. It opened in Audacity just fine. But I certainly don't know enough about 7.1 audio in Audacity to comment. Poisondeathray's advice will be better informed.

[poisondeathray]

BTW clown bd is a GUI for eac3to and tsmuxer

You can use it with anydvd to extract the stream, but you still need eac3to + arcsoft decoder to get your 8 mono wavs

[poisondeathray]

This particular audio file is only 6 channel. It opened in Audacity just fine.

I think ffmpeg/libav is ok for 6 channel, it's only 8 channel that is the problem (where arcsoft req'd to decode more than just the core)

This thread was pretty current (a few weeks ago) , and it's still the case
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/352153-DTS-HD-MA-7-1-to-WAVS-%288-channels%29

nemo2002 - There are some links to a doom9 thread in that link above that will help get you started with the proper dlls

[nemo2002]

my wife pokes fun at me because I join so many forums (like I said in the OP, came to join this one and I already was a member!) but this is why I love the forums. helpful people.

I definitely am interested in getting as many channels isolated as possible, so i'm going to read into the link now. I just bought the burner but got one more class before heading home to start trying this stuff.


pardon my lack of knowledge in this area...but here's a stupid question. 7.1 means 8 mono tracks (what the above conversation leads me to believe) and not 7 stereo channels plus the discrete bass channel? in a 7.1 sound system each speaker has a left and right channel, so that's why I assumed each "channel" would have left and right stereo tracks.

[nemo2002]

update: got everything installed and the 8 mono wavs extracted.

however, it is not what I was hoping for.

the movie has a karaoke mode where it disables vocals. the remaining audio sounds like the full song. so I assumed the center channel would have isolated vocals. it does not. it has the lead vocals there, for sure, but also has bits of the instruments as well.

but as far as extracting the audio streams go, this thread was very helpful. thanks guys. now to try my hand at separating the lead vocals from the bits and pieces of the instruments mixed in...ahhh.

[Island_Dweller]

the movie has a karaoke mode where it disables vocals. the remaining audio sounds like the full song. so I assumed the center channel would have isolated vocals. it does not.

Maybe the karaoke mode uses a separate audio track? Inspect your blu-ray again and see if it's there.

[nemo2002]

unless it's in another folder other than STREAM, then it's not there. I just finished splitting the whole movie into the separate songs I needed. if I remove the center channel, lead vocals are completely removed. that leaves some songs with no vocals and some with backing vocals. so that's not bad. some of the channels even have separate instruments on them. what I was hoping, and that definitely didn't happen, was the center channel would be a discrete vocal channel. it's not, it has some of the instrumentation. the karaoke effect is still there just fine without the center, so I misinterpreted what I was hearing.

i'm still hoping I might be able to isolate the vocals out of that center channel.

thanks for all the help. this completes this part of the project. from now on it's a lot of audio editing unrelated to the bluray itself.

thanks!

[nemo2002]

so...I spent a long time cutting each song out and then started cleaning random movie sounds out of the audio. then I put the instruments (i.e. every channel except center) together and guess what? that's not the sound from the karaoke mode. it has sort of a "ghost" vocals that you very faint in the background but definitely present. I checked it second by second against the in-disc karaoke mode...and the karaoke mode has no vocals whatsoever. so then I thought of checking what other audio streams were embedded into those m2ts files. there's a 7.1 dts channel, a 2.0 channel, a then a 5.1 channel, then two 2.0 channels. turns out the first 2.0 channel is the full version of the audio. another of the 2.0 channels is the commentary track, and the third 2.0 channel is...the karaoke mode. now, this presents a problem. because the whole point for doing this process was to get at the 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. but that's turning out to be useless...and this karaoke track is just a standard audio quality 2.0 track. what's worse, is that NONE of the audio tracks match in waveform, so I can't do the phase cancellation. the 2.0 full sound file looks louder than the 2.0 karaoke file, and it doesn't cancel after inverting. same thing with the 5.1 and about to test the 7.1 but i'm getting the feeling it will be the same. any possibility at this stage to get what I need?

[nemo2002]

so...I spent a long time cutting each song out and then started cleaning random movie sounds out of the audio. then I put the instruments (i.e. every channel except center) together and guess what? that's not the sound from the karaoke mode. it has sort of a "ghost" vocals that you very faint in the background but definitely present.

I checked it second by second against the in-disc karaoke mode...and the karaoke mode has no vocals whatsoever. so then I thought of checking what other audio streams were embedded into those m2ts files.

there's a 7.1 dts channel, a 2.0 channel, a then a 5.1 channel, then two 2.0 channels.

turns out the first 2.0 channel is the full version of the audio. another of the 2.0 channels is the commentary track, and the third 2.0 channel is...the karaoke mode.

now, this presents a problem. because the whole point for doing this process was to get at the 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. but that's turning out to be useless...and this karaoke track is just a standard audio quality 2.0 track.

what's worse, is that NONE of the audio tracks match in waveform, so I can't do the phase cancellation. the 2.0 full sound file looks louder than the 2.0 karaoke file, and it doesn't cancel after inverting. same thing with the 5.1 and about to test the 7.1 but i'm getting the feeling it will be the same.

any possibility at this stage to get what I need?