Please Help! DVD rip with surround sound playback?! Is it possible?!

[Gatlinator]

I just built a nice home theater PC with HDMI video outputs and optical audio. My plan is to rip my DVD collection onto the hard drive for playback. I have a 2TB hard drive, so space is of no concern to me.

The HTPC is connected to my home theater system and I have successfully played back DVD's and Blu-Rays with full DTS surround sound. I have played the surround sound test files (in WMA format) from Microsoft's website and verified that windows is playing in full 5.1 and outputting to all 6 channels.

My problem is that I have not been able to find a DVD ripper, converter, or movie player that will rip my DVDs and play them back with surround sound.

I've tried DVDDecrypter, DVDFab, and MakeMKV to rip DVDs.

I've used MKV, AVI, WMV, and MP4 container formats.

I've played back with VLC, WMP, and DivX player.

Nothing reproduces 5.1 surround sound.

However, as previously mentioned, playing the test WMA file from Microsoft in WMP produces full surround sound on 6 channels. Playing DVDs on WMP and on PowerDVD 8 causes my surround sound system to switch into Prologic II mode and play in full 5.1

Here's another kicker. One time and one time only, I played an MKV file that was ripped with DVDFab in VLC and it played in surround sound. The playback was so choppy though it was unwatchable.

What is my problem? Any suggestions?

I've been searching for help for over a week now and it seems as though I'm the only person who has ever even tried this.

Thanks in advance!
Garrett

[Ai Haibara]

Ripping the DVD (with DVD Decrypter, DVDFab, AnyDVD, etc.) will give you an exact copy of the DVD disc, in either ISO or VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS folder format. The only thing missing would be the discs' protection. In other words, if the DVD featured surround sound before you ripped it, it will have surround sound after you ripped it.

It sounds as though you're adding an extra step and converting/re-encoding immediately after you're ripping - and that's where the surround sound is somehow being lost. If your HTPC can play from ISO disc images or VIDEO_TS folders, try doing that. Or see where the re-encoding process is reducing the sound quality. As space is no concern, though, I'd recommend the former.

[Gatlinator]

Ripping the DVD (with DVD Decrypter, DVDFab, AnyDVD, etc.) will give you an exact copy of the DVD disc, in either ISO or VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS folder format. The only thing missing would be the discs' protection. In other words, if the DVD featured surround sound before you ripped it, it will have surround sound after you ripped it.

It sounds as though you're adding an extra step and converting/re-encoding immediately after you're ripping - and that's where the surround sound is somehow being lost. If your HTPC can play from ISO disc images or VIDEO_TS folders, try doing that. Or see where the re-encoding process is reducing the sound quality. As space is no concern, though, I'd recommend the former.

So, one of my options would be to rip it into an ISO, then mount the image every time I wanted to watch the movie? I was hoping for something more convenient like a container that would hold audio/video together and not be mounted. Even if there was no compression or conversion.

[Ai Haibara]

Your HTPC may be able to play an ISO (or VIDEO_TS folder, of course) directly, without mounting it. I'd experiment with both, just to be sure.

[guns1inger]

Also, if you are converting the video, keep the original audio. AC3 is supported in AVI and MP4 containers, and most players will play it back in full surround.

Post a mediainfo tree view of one of your converted files.

[olyteddy]

I rip my DVDs to ISO, and I associate the ISO extension to Virtual Clone Drive. That automatically mounts the ISO and I have DVD Video associated with MPC HC so it automatically starts. This also means that If I want to watch an actual DVD I just pop it in the DVD drive.


PS: I used to have VLC associated with ISO because VLC will mount and play DVD ISOs.

[Zetski210]

I've ripped all my DVDs into m2ts format with AC3 audio (any dts was converted using eAC3to). Playback using MPC or stream to PS3 & WD TV Live with full 5.1 (and 6.1 where available).

Used DVD Decrypter and then MeGUI for pretty much all of it. Re-encode from VOB to h.264 takes about 30-60 mins depending on PC specs.