HD200 and Blu-Ray ... some questions

[GCS2000]

Before I get into this I have searched and cannot quite come up with a definitive "how to" I am positive it is on this forum and I am either missing it, blind, or dumb (or all 3 at the same time ) so my apologies for asking something that is surely posted already.

Here is my setup:

16TB Vista Ultimate 64 Server with a few thousand STANDARD DVD rips, CD Rips, and pics.

HD200s at 4 locations in the home working great on regular DVDs and CDs etc

I want to start putting BR rips on the server as well so I can continue to be discless and no longer need actual BR players at home.

1 - How do I get the rips into a format that Sage will recognize. I can rip the whole BR with AnyDVD and have done several so far. I need to know how to then pull off just the movie and associated audio tracks. I have yet to figure this out.

2 - Family Room is a full HT set up and I would want the best audio track available (DTS-HD MA, TrueHD etc) for playback here. In ALL other locations we have NO audio systems and we just use the speakers in the TVs. All TVs are 720p/1080p capable LCDs.

So my questions are as follows:

1 - How to prep the BR rip for playback with the HD200 just wanting the movie only after I have ripped the entire disc contents with AnyDVD.

2 - Will these BR rips playback properly with the HD200s they way I need (ie best audio track in the Family Room for use with a full 7.1 setup and in all other rooms playback fine on TV speakers)?

Again my apologies in advance for any "repost" of the same question

Greg

[HelenWeathers]

This thread pretty much covers it:
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=42325

[GCS2000]

Thanks!

So it looks as though I need MakeMKV

Process:

1 - Rip BR with MakeMKV while AnyDVD HD is running. Select the movie only and the audio track I want at this time.

2 - Place on server and watch.

I should be good to go in the family room regardless of the Audio track selected (i.e. DTS-HD, TrueHD etc) so long as I am hooked up via HDMI or Optical and am outputting via bitstream.

In the other rooms where I have just a TV the same would hold true IF the TV can handle the audio stream being passed to it via the HD200. Otherwise I will need to use tsmuxer to rip the DTS core out and then use eac3to to reencode that core to AC3.


So if the BR rip is coded as AC3 for use in the whole house am I losing anything in the family room quality wise (ie using the reencoded AC3 track vs. a DTS-HD track)? Otherwise I would need to have 2 rips of each BR one with DTS-HD etc etc and one with AC3 and then need to pick the correct one to play on each set up since the HD200 cannot handle multiple audio tracks on a rip ... correct?


Greg

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by GCS2000

Thanks!

So it looks as though I need MakeMKV

Greg

You only need MakeMKV if you want the movie in MKV format.

If you want to maintain the Blu-Ray folder structure use BDInfo, TSMuxer and if needed eac3to.

With TSMuxer you can keep the Tru-HD or DTS HD track and add back in the AC3 track created by eac3to. The best of both worlds.

I'm not a user of MakeMKV but I asume you can do the same with it.

[GCS2000]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

You only need MakeMKV if you want the movie in MKV format.

If you want to maintain the Blu-Ray folder structure use BDInfo, TSMuxer and if needed eac3to.

With TSMuxer you can keep the Tru-HD or DTS HD track and add back in the AC3 track created by eac3to. The best of both worlds.

I'm not a user of MakeMKV but I asume you can do the same with it.

So if I do this (have the AC3 and DTS-HD etc on the rip) can I use the HD200 to select the proper audio track based on the setups in each room? I thought I had read that the HD200 could not do this which is why I am asking.

Greg

[stanger89]

You can switch, but the extenders can't decode DTS, so if you've got a room with an extender connected to something that can't decode DTS, you're SOL. In which case you'll need to convert/create a DD track. I think Clown_BD might be able to "automate" that.

[HelenWeathers]

If you have created and muxed the AC3 track into your movie, you'll be able to select that track when playing from the Sage popup menu. If you've placed the DTS track ahead of the AC3 track the DTS track will be your default and will be fed out thru your HDMI/Optical connection unless you go to the Sage menu and select the AC3 track.

[GCS2000]

Ok so I looked through the posted thread and found these info

The HD200s do pass the DTS core from DTS-HD thru HDMI & optical. So if you're hooked up to an amp you're OK.

My problem was with my TVs and HDMI. I needed the AC3 track for that.

You use tsmuxer and take your video track of choice and downconvert the DTS-HD track to a DTS core track and output the video and audio to an m2ts container.

With eac3to you convert the DTS track to AC3.

Then use tsmuxer to build a Blu-ray with the video from the m2ts file and the audio from the new ac3 file (keep the DTS track if you want also).

The command line for eac3to to make an AC3 track for a movie muxed to MyMovie.m2ts where the DTS audio track is the second track in the m2ts file, would be:
eac3to MyMovie.m2ts 2: MyMovie.ac3

The 2: (in the command line) indicates the second track is the audio track to convert.

If you have a problem and need more of a step by step, I'll work one up tomorrow, time permitting. Just say so.

EDIT: eac3to can operate on the DTS-HD track to make the AC3 track, but I got better results and no audio sync issues by letting tsmuxer do the DTS core extraction and then having eac3to use the core for the AC3 build.

So I have done the BDinfo bit and found the track(s) I need from the playlist.

I used TSMuxer and turned this into an m2ts file downgrading the DTS-HD to DTS.

Based on the above I should then run eac3to to turn that into an AC3 but this is where I am hung up as I cannot seem to figure out how to do this step.

I downloaded the EAC3TO Gui but it cannot find the file (i.e. there is nothing there to select) so now I am totally confused.


FYI I was able to rip a BR using AnyDVD first and then using TSMuxer to make the movie only with a DTS-HD track. It played just fine on the Theater Room setup albeit with some stuttering (which I have already looked into and see that I need to downgrade to the 20090505 firmware -- sadly there seems to be a file missing to do this as one link just gives text instead of a file download)

This rip also played fine on the "just TV" setup as well but with no Audio (understandably so).

Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.

Greg

[Fuzzy]

I fall you are using is HD200's, I'm pretty sure you don't even need to keep the TruHD or DTS-MA track, as I don't think they can bitstream those formats. (pretty much it's bitstream AC3 or DTS over HDMI or SPDIF, or decode AC3 to stereo for analog out).

[GCS2000]

Well I ripped Knowing which has a DTS-HD MA track and it worked fine near as I can tell. I did not downgrade it to DTS.

The HD200 even showed that it was a DTS-HD MA track on the screen. My receiver showed it as a DTS surround.

The only issue I experienced with Knowing as well as an MKV ripped Transformers was horrible freezing, stuttering etc. This is documented on the forums and everyone seems to have luck with going back to 20090505 firmware and it fixes their problems but unfortunately that has not worked for me. Regular DVD playback works perfectly (and always has).

I still need to understand how to get an AC3 track and DTS track on the same rip so I can have what I need for the family room and other TV rooms.

Greg

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by GCS2000

Well I ripped Knowing which has a DTS-HD MA track and it worked fine near as I can tell. I did not downgrade it to DTS.

The HD200 even showed that it was a DTS-HD MA track on the screen. My receiver showed it as a DTS surround.

Actually, your receiver WAS displaying it correct. The HD200 only outputs the DTS core stream in the DTS-MA track, so yes, it IS downgraded to DTS. Seeing as how DTS and AC3 are for all intents and purposes relatively the same quality, I would make it a practice to just always downconvert the TruHD or DTS-MA track to normal 5.1 AC3. This will allow the same file to play homogenously on either your surround capable setups, OR your stereo analog setups. It's just simpler...

If, however, you are wanting to get the TruHD or DTS-MA audio out of sage, you're only option currently is a PC client with compatable HDMI output (does not need to bitstream them, as there is really no point in that, as long as you can get 7.1 LPCM into your receiver)

[GCS2000]

Ok so I guess in reality in the Family Room I need to just stick with my PS3 for BR playback and skip the HD200 for now.

Other rooms with just TVs will be fine with the MakeMKV files running off the HD200 (which I might add were much quicker, easier, and faster to make than using TSMuxer etc). Assuming I can solve the stuttering issue.

[JMTBerserker]

Can someone post some step-by-step help on how to create the AC3 track from a BD rip that has DTS audio? I've downloaded tsmuxer and eac3to and have absolutely no idea how to use them.

[ohpleaseno]

Originally Posted by JMTBerserker

Can someone post some step-by-step help on how to create the AC3 track from a BD rip that has DTS audio? I've downloaded tsmuxer and eac3to and have absolutely no idea how to use them.

I get to the demuxing just fine, but the conversion from DTS to AC3 wasn't clicking in my brain. A guide that covers this would be very helpful.

Here are some good starting points if you haven't used the google yet
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic374163.html

Any time I've gone to vh.com, I end up walking away more confused than when I arrived.

[xxLJLxx]

You may check this post. It goes into detail about rebuilding the file with the DTS track and the "new" AC3 track. The command line is used for eac3to alot but I prefer the GUI. The GUI for eac3to makes things pretty simple. Just make sure you point the location for eac3to to the eac3to.exe location.

Where are you getting stuck at during the whole process?

[Mathelo]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

I get to the demuxing just fine, but the conversion from DTS to AC3 wasn't clicking in my brain. A guide that covers this would be very helpful.

Here are some good starting points if you haven't used the google yet
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic374163.html

Any time I've gone to vh.com, I end up walking away more confused than when I arrived.

I've been using ClownBD with Slysoft for months now. It has been flawless and simple. I can't imagine doing it any other way and I've tried a variety of approaches.

L

[autoboy]

My advice for the audio is to Re-encode your primary audio streams to AC3 so no matter what TV you or your family plays them on, they will always have working audio. If you are concerned about audio quality for AC3, standard DTS is more than double the bitrate of AC3 audio and has been shown in blind listening tests to be equal to the HD audio. So, if you want a better audio track, stick a DTS track on as the second audio track and you can switch the audio yourself for the theater. Your family won't care and will just play the 1st audio track everytime. I personally just stick to the AC3 track because I can't tell a difference in quality even on a high end system.

With the HD200, you will never be able to get the HD audio streams so you might as well just get over it. If you need to, conduct your own blind listening test and prove to yourself that there is no perceptible difference.