Need Help Encoding: Surround Sound Goes Away

[antiwebbite]

Hey Guys,

Sorry I am a ripping noob, but I could use some help. After I encode a movie, I no longer have true surround sound, even though setting suggest I would.

Here is my process...

I use tMuxer to rip a movie off the Blu-Ray. I rip the movie to a M2TS file and the audio to DTS. This file plays perfectly, I get surround sound (my reciever correctly registers as reciving DTS audio) but the file is HUGE! So I try to reduce the size with...

Xilisoft Video COnverter Ultimate 6.
My settings are as follows...

Video Codec: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Video Size: (hd 1080)
Bitrate: 12000k
FramerateL 29.97fps
Level40

Audio Codec: MPED-4 AAC (this is the only choice I get)
Sample Rate: 48000
Bitrate: 320k
Channels: 5.1

After encoding the movie, my receiver registers the audio as stereo!

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[redwudz]

Check the file with MediaInfo and see if it's just stereo. I usually convert to 640Kbps AC3 6 channel as it's more universal.
I've never used Xilosoft, so no help there. I use RipBot and usually convert to MKV, but you can convert to AVCHD if you want Blu-ray compatibility.
You can also use BD Rebuilder.

What's your final format? A AVCHD, or a Blu-ray disc, DVD for a set top player, or just hard drive playback? What size are you going for?

And welcome to our forums.

[antiwebbite]

Thanks for the welcome!

The final format comes out as .mp4. I was told the codec I should be using is H.264, and that setting gives me .mp4 when it is done. I want pretty high quality rips, so I had the video at 8.39GBs and it looked great for me.

I am NOT putting it back on a disc at any point, it is for my media center computer, so it is just living on a HDD.

So I use that MediaInfo program and it says I have 319Kbps, 48kHz, 6 Channels, AAC (Version 4) (LC)

I am guessing maybe my receiver can't understand this format?

So I guess my next question is, is there a way for my to take the uncompressed original DTS Audio from the initial rip from tMuxer and mix it with the Xilisoft encoded video easily?

EDIT: I have Ripbot, but when i tried to use it, the file was huge and came out squished! So I tried a different program, maybe I will return to using it if I cant figure this out...

[guns1inger]

Your media centre is probably sending 2 channel PCM to your receiver because it can't handle AAC audio. My PS3 has to do the same.

MP4 can handle AC-3 audio although this is a relatively recent addition and no all encoders can do it, and not all player recognize it. You could try a different container that does handle AC-3 (or even the original DTS) audio - m2ts is one option. All you have to do is recompress the video to get the size down.