Remove Dolby Digital audio from video file

[cottage]

I have a video file with two audio tracks:
-Dolby Digital AC-3
-Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos

My media player is probably not the top of the line but it will play Dolby Atmos. However, it defaults to the Dolby Digital file for this video and I don't have the ability to switch to the Atmos audio.

I tried to demux this file to remove the Dolby Digital track using tsMuxerGUI (v 2.6.12) but the program doesn't recognize the Atmos track.

I searched but can't find a program that will allow me to remove the DD track and retain the Atmos track.

In case my Atmos track is the issue, I've attached a description of that track:

Can anyone give me a recommendation?

[ProWo]

Try clever Ffmpeg-GUI, multiplex section. Deselect the ac3 track and click multiplex.

[netmask56]

Is the file MP4 or MKV? Either way if you load it into MKVToolNix to make a new MKV file, you will see the elements of the file in the bottom window. Simply untick what you don't need or mark the audio you do want as the default and unmark the AC3 as the default. Probably best to simply remove. Remux and although the new file will be MKV unless your player only does MP4 shouldn't be a problem. No re-encoding involved. MKV supports Dolby Vision and Atmos etc etc etc

[cottage]

Thank you for the suggestions. After using both clever Ffmpeg-GUI and MKVToolNix, they proved that I have a different issue.

clever Ffmpeg-GUI loaded the video file and allowed me to remux with only the Atmos audio track. However, my media setup will not recognize or play the audio.

Both MKVToolNix and tsMuxerGUI do not recognize and will not load the Atmos audio track. The error message from MKVToolNix is attached.

I have other videos with Atmos audio and they play correctly. I've attached audio descriptions from MediaInfo of the file that will not play and another file that plays correctly. There are differences in the descriptions but I don't understand the significance of the differences. I'm wondering if the issue is a codec problem.

I'm still trying alternatives with the video that will not play. I'm wondering if Handbrake will recode the Atmos audio to a different format of Atmos that will work.

Any thoughts?

[ProWo]

Retry with the newest beta of clever Ffmpeg-GUI, because the last release has a bug in muxing mapping.

[netmask56]

I have many MKV files produced with MKVToolNix with Dolby Atmos. Absolutely no issues.
Do you have the latest version of MKVToolNix? This program doesn't alter either the audio or video in anyway, no re-encoding or compression etc. Quality In = Quality Out
In your application it's basic a switch to turn off or add tracks. No processing.
Older versions of MKVToolNix did not support Dolby Vision but that was fixed early last year.

Re MediaInfo reports, you do know you can simply copy and paste the info. No need to do a screen capture and load a jpg. Makes it easier to read and identify any problems.

[Cornucopia]

Let us know what media player you are using. It could be that it actually does NOT support Atmos objects, and is only playing the eac3 or truehd compatibility layer (the "bed"). Or that it works only on Atmos with an Eac3 layer and not truehd, or vice-versa.


Scott

[cottage]

Thank you again for the replies.

- I tried the beta version of clever Ffmpeg-GUI with the same results.
- I believe that I have the latest version of MKVToolNix (v66.0.0 64 bit)

I actually use two media players:
1. WDTV Live - this unit plays Dolby Atmos using the HDMI pass thru option to my Denon 7.1. A/V receiver.
2. Hard drive attached to my Samsung 4K TV. HDMI is connected to the TV for video. Optical is connected to my Denon 7.1 A/V receive for audio.

The WDTV will pass Atmos to the Denon receiver and will play. However, it can not play 4K video. (my video file was 4K Dolby Atmos)

The Hard Drive connected to the TV and Denon A/V receiver will play 4K video and Dolby Atmos (i.e. other video files work). Since Atmos in the video in question, would not play, I now suspect that there is something in this Atmos stream that is incompatible.

As part of my testing, I have a Dolby Atmos demonstration video that includes both an Atmos stream and an E-AC-3 JOC stream. When played in a compatible device the video plays excellent Atmos. When played in a non compatible device, it plays the E-AV-3 JOC audio. In this case, the audio plays a message telling how to connect it to play Atmos. When I play this file on the Hard Drive/TV combination, I hear the E-AV-3 JOC audio. When I play it on the WDTV, I hear the Atmos file. I'm now looking that the audio settings on the TV to see if there is some setting that I need to change.

[netmask56]

On the TV has the enhanced mode for HDMI been turned on? Had to do that on my SONY so not sure about Samsung. I ruled them out as Samsung don’t support Dolby Vision, as of early last year when I replaced my TV.

[netmask56]

here is the complete MediaInfo file of my rip from my UHD disc of Valerian.
UHD player Archgon
MakeMKV
Cleaned up and made a copy of the resulting MKV from MakeMKV with MKVToolNix

Complete name                            : Q:\Movies\Valerian And The City of a Thousand Planets\Valerian And The City of a Thousand 

Planets.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 2
File size                                : 54.7 GiB
Duration                                 : 2 h 17 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 57.1 Mb/s
Movie name                               : Valerian And The City of a Thousand Planets
Encoded date                             : UTC 2021-11-19 01:33:05
Writing application                      : MakeMKV v1.16.5 win(x64-release)
Writing library                          : libmakemkv v1.16.5 (1.3.10/1.5.2) win(x64-release)

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 

compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 2 h 17 min
Bit rate                                 : 52.6 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.265
Stream size                              : 50.4 GiB (92%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries        : Display P3
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 632 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level        : 298 cd/m2
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : MLP FBA 16-ch
Format/Info                              : Meridian Lossless Packing FBA with 16-channel presentation
Commercial name                          : Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                                 : A_TRUEHD
Duration                                 : 2 h 17 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 4 424 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 7 089 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 4.24 GiB (8%)
Title                                    : Surround 7.1
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray
Number of dynamic objects                : 15
Bed channel count                        : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration                : LFE

Text #1
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4768 (0x12A0)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 2 h 13 min
Bit rate                                 : 43.6 kb/s
Count of elements                        : 3802
Stream size                              : 41.7 MiB (0%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #2
ID                                       : 6
ID in the original source medium         : 4770 (0x12A2)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 1 h 30 min
Bit rate                                 : 352 b/s
Count of elements                        : 28
Stream size                              : 234 KiB (0%)
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #3
ID                                       : 7
ID in the original source medium         : 4771 (0x12A3)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 2 h 8 min
Bit rate                                 : 525 b/s
Count of elements                        : 50
Stream size                              : 494 KiB (0%)
Language                                 : Spanish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:12:36.714                             : en:Chapter 02
00:17:30.466                             : en:Chapter 03
00:23:36.456                             : en:Chapter 04
00:32:46.756                             : en:Chapter 05
00:41:20.060                             : en:Chapter 06
00:47:16.667                             : en:Chapter 07
00:56:13.411                             : en:Chapter 08
01:04:26.571                             : en:Chapter 09
01:11:28.909                             : en:Chapter 10
01:20:26.071                             : en:Chapter 11
01:28:14.706                             : en:Chapter 12
01:35:54.623                             : en:Chapter 13
01:41:36.048                             : en:Chapter 14
01:53:38.853                             : en:Chapter 15
02:02:23.586                             : en:Chapter 16

Report created by                        : MediaInfoLib - v21.09
Report created on                        : UTC 2022-03-21 20:42:59

[netmask56]

Thank you again for the replies.

- I tried the beta version of clever Ffmpeg-GUI with the same results.
- I believe that I have the latest version of MKVToolNix (v66.0.0 64 bit)

I actually use two media players:
1. WDTV Live - this unit plays Dolby Atmos using the HDMI pass thru option to my Denon 7.1. A/V receiver.
2. Hard drive attached to my Samsung 4K TV. HDMI is connected to the TV for video. Optical is connected to my Denon 7.1 A/V receive for audio.

The WDTV will pass Atmos to the Denon receiver and will play. However, it can not play 4K video. (my video file was 4K Dolby Atmos)

The Hard Drive connected to the TV and Denon A/V receiver will play 4K video and Dolby Atmos (i.e. other video files work). Since Atmos in the video in question, would not play, I now suspect that there is something in this Atmos stream that is incompatible.

As part of my testing, I have a Dolby Atmos demonstration video that includes both an Atmos stream and an E-AC-3 JOC stream. When played in a compatible device the video plays excellent Atmos. When played in a non compatible device, it plays the E-AV-3 JOC audio. In this case, the audio plays a message telling how to connect it to play Atmos. When I play this file on the Hard Drive/TV combination, I hear the E-AV-3 JOC audio. When I play it on the WDTV, I hear the Atmos file. I'm now looking that the audio settings on the TV to see if there is some setting that I need to change.

Optical audio does not pass Dolby Atmos. https://downhomedigital.net/blog/can-optical-cable-carry-dolby-atmos/

[cottage]

Optical audio does not pass Dolby Atmos. https://downhomedigital.net/blog/can-optical-cable-carry-dolby-atmos/

Thank you! I wasn't aware of that and it's the key to my problem.

My Denon receiver has a USB port but it will not play video from that port (only music & pictures).

So I'm now looking for some type of media server that can play both 4K and Atmos.

It's sad that the WDTV is no longer manufactured and updated for this technology. It is very easy to move files to and from the WDTV since it can be connected to the network and managed with Windows File Explorer. Every other media server that I have seen so far requires either the old "sneaker net" or a more awkward process like "ES file manager" to move files.

Thank you again netmask56!

[netmask56]

My Zidoo appears as a network drive on my pc. I happen to have one of the upmarket models but the whole range operate in a similar way, along with Zappiti and many more. When I first plugged it in to my network it appeared immediately. The only downside is it doesn’t have a standby position that leaves access to the network like most others including the Popcorn A500.

[cottage]

My Zidoo appears as a network drive on my pc. I happen to have one of the upmarket models but the whole range operate in a similar way, along with Zappiti and many more. When I first plugged it in to my network it appeared immediately. The only downside is it doesn’t have a standby position that leaves access to the network like most others including the Popcorn A500.

netmask56,
I was about to buy the NVIDIA Shield but continued to research and am now leaning toward the Zidoo.

I've looked and found basic manuals for the Zidoo and played several YouTube videos but none of them seem to address a couple of my questions. Since you have the Zidoo, can you help me with the questions?

1. You mentioned that the Zidoo appears as a network drive. The specs indicate that it is using an Android OS. I have an older crappy Android unit and it doesn't automatically appear as a network drive. It was necessary to install ES file explorer and then add a shortcut on my PC to the IP address of the Andriod unit. So my question... Does your Zidoo appear as a network device exactly as another PC would appear on the network or was it necessary to install ES Flile Explorer and create a PC shortcut?
   
2. Most reviews of the Zidoo indicate that it is best playing local media but not as good as a streaming device. Have you installed Netflix, Amazon Prime or other streaming service? If so, how is it working.

Thank you in advance.

[netmask56]

Answers
1. Yes appears as a couple of mapped drives and appears in the network folder. Does not require additional software.

2. It's designed principally as a local media player either internal or attached or NAS etc and not as a streaming device for Netflix or Amazon Prime etc. I use my iPad for that streaming to the TV via the built in Chromecast.

[cottage]

Answers
1. Yes appears as a couple of mapped drives and appears in the network folder. Does not require additional software.

2. It's designed principally as a local media player either internal or attached or NAS etc and not as a streaming device for Netflix or Amazon Prime etc. I use my iPad for that streaming to the TV via the built in Chromecast.

Thank you. Your information has been very helpful.