DTS-HD to LPCM and PS3 - How I Did It

[decker12]

Hi everyone,

Thanks in advance for the support I've seen on this forum. After culling through many threads I think I have finally figured out a workflow for playing my ripped BDs on my PS3 with LPCM audio transferred from a DTS-HD / TrueHD source.

Unless I read wrong, I don't think I can use my PS3 to play .m2ts files that include DTS-HD or TrueHD tracks. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this as it obviously would save me these steps.

Therefore, my goal was to convert the audio to something of the highest audio quality that the PS3 can output, namely LPCM. I have a new Yamaha RX-V565 receiver that happily plays the output from the PS3's BD player (set to PCM).

The overarching goal with this project is to archive my collection so each movie only contains the video track + the movie's highest quality audio. Since my HT setup will always include a 7.1 LPCM capable AVR there's no need for me to include any of the DD 5.1 (or lesser) audio tracks. But before I continue with the project, I would like some expert advice with "checking my math" sort to speak.

Is this LPCM track identical in all ways to the original DTS-HD track? From what I understand it is possible to convert to LPCM and accidentally "throw away" any special encoding that DTS-HD offers. From listening on my speaker setup, it sounds about the same as the original BD (played in DTS-HD). However I am second guessing my ears so I'm asking you experts if the conversion should be perfect. I am also second guessing because for my sample clip, the extracted .dts file is 117MB, and the converted PCM file used for remuxing is 178MB.

The steps are:
Rip the source with AnyDVD HD.
Use txMuxeR to extract the video and the DTS-HD master track.
Use eac3to to convert the DTS-HD to PCM (yes, I have Arcsoft as well)
Use pcm2tsmu to convert the PCM file from "bad" (that doesn't work with tsMuxeR) to "good"
Use txMuxeR to remux the video file and the PCM file into a fresh new .m2ts file.

Thanks in advance!!

[yoda313]

Unless I read wrong, I don't think I can use my PS3 to play .m2ts files that include DTS-HD or TrueHD tracks. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this as it obviously would save me these steps.

I haven't tried lately but i dont' see why you can't. The ps3 is fully bluray compatible obviously and the hd audio tracks are well within the bluray specs.

I'd have to try it this weekend.

EDIT - let me say this with an edit - are you playing this over fiber optic to a non hdmi regular 5.1/6.1 type receiver that doesn't support hd audio? Then in that instance there may be a need to convert. However at least on my ps3 and old 5.1 sony amp that does just plain 5.1 dd and dts I can play any bluray movie and it converts down to play in 5.1 over my amp via fiber optic.

If that is the issue you are dealing with that might be something else.

[decker12]

My AVR is connected to my PS3 via HDMI. When playing a BD, the PS3 decodes the DTS-HD / TrueHD audio and sends it successfully to my AVR via PCM.

I am talking about playing .m2ts files from a streaming media server or a USB drive plugged into the PS3. I was under the impression that if that .m2ts file that only has a video track and a DTS-HD track, I won't hear audio when I play it back on the PS3. That is why I have gone through the steps of converting the DTS-HD track to LPCM.

[decker12]

Actually, it turns out I spoke too soon. My DTS-HD audio is all static when I use eac3to to convert to PCM. When I use eac3to to convert to .wav, the audio is there, with a track of static in there somewhere, so that doesn't work either.

Anyone have any ideas why eac3to is messing up the audio during the conversion process?

[yoda313]

I guess my question is why haven't you tried it with the dtshd audio? You are your own best diagnosticator. If it works then it works.

[decker12]

Sorry if I wasn't clear on the DTS-HD problem.

I have a sample video that has a DTS-HD MA track on it (along with several other tracks, ie AC3, lossless, etc). As a test, I used tsMuxer to demux the file into the .h264 video and the .dts DTS-HD MA track. Then, I remuxed this video and the DTS-HD MA track back into a .ts file.

When I try to play this file on my PS3, I have no audio.

If I use eac3to to convert the .dts to a .pcm file, and then remux it, all I hear is static.

If I use eac3to to convert the .dts to a .wav file, and then remux it, I hear some of the audio, with an underlying static-y hiss somewhere in the mix.

It doesn't seem to matter if I use the .m2ts or the .ts container, either. I guess I would summarize and say the core of my problem is that eac3to is not converting the .dts file into anything that sounds right. It's not the remuxing process to blame, because if I use a standard media player to play the .wav file (before I remux it), it sounds just as bad as if I remuxed it.

[Alex_ander]

I used tsMuxer to demux the file into the .h264 video and the .dts DTS-HD MA track. Then, I remuxed this video and the DTS-HD MA track back into a .ts file.

When I try to play this file on my PS3, I have no audio.

The author of TSMuxer told in Russian forum that such a bug (audio not found by a hardware player after muxing with DTS-HD), had been fixed in the newer version 1.9.9 and it was even possible to remux the wrongly muxed file to repair it.

[decker12]

Unfortunately, I've tried 1.9.9 as well as a beta of 1.10.1 that I found, and neither gave me audio on my PS3 when the M2TS file only contained the video track and the DTS-HD track. When playing the file on the PS3, I see the video but hear nothing. When I push the Audio button on the PS3 remote it tells me that the track contains no audio.

Opening the resulting M2TS file in tsMuxer reports that it indeed was successfully remuxed and that it contains the DTS-HD track.

The only other factor in this is that I am splitting the main 20GB file into 1GB chunks for easier testing via a USB key drive. Perhaps the splitting is messing up the DTS-HD track somehow?

[AjzRide]

The problem you are having with static in the DTS-HD audio tracks could be related to the pcm2tsmu, if you do not correctly specify the -i parameter, you will get a bunch of static.

[decker12]

Thanks - I eventually gave up on the project as I just couldn't get any combination of settings to provide me with the output I was looking for. I purchased a Popcorn Hour A-110 (and stopped trying to use the PS3 to play these files) which solved the problem anyway, as it was able to play those files without any static issues.

[FireWire2]

One thing that most of end user does not clear - that is to play DTS-HD-MA
You neeed the HDMI1.3A supported, therefore you can DO TWO things

Convert DTS-HD-MA to DTS core with tsMuxeR, then play throught SPDIF or Digital Coax.

Buy a DTS-HD recv. It's not expensive as you think, it's less than $400.00 for a truly 1080p steamming player, there is NO player better than M6500A. i have both NMT and DVICO, M6500A if a far better then the cheap PCH

[jman98]

Buy a DTS-HD recv. It's not expensive as you think, it's less than $400.00 for a truly 1080p steamming player, there is NO player better than M6500A. i have both NMT and DVICO, M6500A if a far better then the cheap PCH

After reading that, I just have to say the following.

DYAUATAKOTY?

(Do you always use abbreviations that are known only to you?)

I appreciate your attempt to provide helpful information and I figured out that PCH must mean Pop Corn Hour (it's actually called "Popcorn Hour" by the manufacturer, so that makes your abbreviation questionable), but M6500A, NMT and DVICO? You think you're being helpful but to me, all I see is "blah blah blah blah". I have no idea what you are talking about with those three. This is Twitter. You have more than 140 characters to work with here.