Problem converting MKV / MPG to DVD.

[smackyourfupa]

I've been having a problem converting mkv files to DVD with ConvertXtoDVD and DVDFlick. Video is fine, but there will be no audio, only white noise when I playback through my receiver with half the mkv files I try converting. The sound is fine if I play the finished DVD on my PC, but if I stream it through XBMC to my receiver or burn as a DVD and play it on my Pioneer BDP-51FD BR player all I get is white noise (but the video is ok). I know the problem is not just with mkv files because the same thing happens with some (not all) files I transfer over from my Tivo and try converting to DVD as well. My first guess would be that my receiver can't handle the bitrate, but I am using a brand new Pioneer VSX-1019 which handles all the HD audio formats (and the resulting DVD obviously does not have an HD audio format). Any help is appreciated.

[redwudz]

Have you dropped one of the problem files into MediaInfo to see what it says about your audio? Just from what you have mentioned, it sounds like a incompatible audio format. ConvertX usually handles most audio formats. Maybe a problem with your installed codecs? It seems unlikely that that many of your files are not convertable.

What is the MKV audio format and specs? Have you installed a codec pack that may have damaged your installed codecs? Does XBMC have playback limitations for audio? It seems odd that a converter program would create a incompatible format or at least not give you some warnings. Anything odd in the log files of ConvertX?

[smackyourfupa]

I wasnt aware of MediaInfo. I just installed it and one of the files that is giving me trouble reads 510 Kpbs, 48.0 KHz, 6 channels, DTS. XBMC does not have playback limitations...most of these are regular DD 5.1 or DTS files...but like I said, when I burn the movie as a DVD and play it in the Pioneer blu-ray player i get the same result with the audio. ConvertXtoDVD and DVDFlick have to be doing something to the audio in these files to make them incompatible with my receiver...just cant figure out what. I'm going to compare one mkv that will not work to one that will work and see if there is a difference with the audio in MediaInfo.

[guns1inger]

510kbps is not DVD compliant. Force ConvertXtoDVD to encode the audio to 5.1 AC3 instead and see what happens.

Are you sure it isn't saying 1510 kbps ? I have seen mediainfo report 1536 kbps HD DTS get reported as 1510. If your amp isn't capable of playing back HD DTS you will get problems (and HD DTS isn't DVD compliant, either).

[smackyourfupa]

510kbps is not DVD compliant. Force ConvertXtoDVD to encode the audio to 5.1 AC3 instead and see what happens.

Are you sure it isn't saying 1510 kbps ? I have seen mediainfo report 1536 kbps HD DTS get reported as 1510. If your amp isn't capable of playing back HD DTS you will get problems (and HD DTS isn't DVD compliant, either).

Nope, my receiver is definitely capable of DTS-MA and Dolby True HD. media info is stating the audio is 1 510 kbps (didnt see the space in between the 1 and 5). Already tried the option to endode in AC 3 5.1 and had the same result. The file I'm checking is the mkv file, not the resulting DVD VOB files btw. Also, MediaInfo is saying the audio track is DTS, not DTS-MA.

[guns1inger]

DTS for DVD maxes out at 768 kbps. If your converted DVD has higher than this, it may not decode correctly even if the amp is HD capable, simply because the player itself won't know how to handle something out of spec.

I certainly have not had any issues using either ConvertXtoDVD or AVStoDVD to convert this type of MKV to DVD with 5.1 audio.

[Tazlord]

The highest legal bitrate for DTS is ~1510 kbps. However, DVD only supports a max of half that, ~755 kbps. It has been argued that at the "half rate", DTS and AC-3 are almost identical in the final quality. For maximum compatibility I would suggest converting your DTS stream(s) to AC-3@448 kbps. DVD Flick should not have a problem with that AC-3 stream.

Also, DTS-MA (and DTS-HD) are NOT the same as DTS. They are newer extensions to DTS audio that were designed for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (respectively). If your DTS stream is of either type, I would recommend using eac3to to extract and convert the core stream to AC-3. You can accomplish this by using the "-core" flag.

I hope this helps....