MKV Playback and True HD Audio / DTS MA etc?

[ben_uk]

Hello,

I am very new to all this so forgive my lack of knowledge.

I playback all my MKVs currently on a Panasonic UHD disc player (DP-UB150) via USB. I dont currently have any kit to decode the HD audio, however I noticed that certain audio tracks do not play when going through the TV (I have to switch soundtracks in order to get some audio). I presume there is a way to get the MKVs to play the HD audio via some means? I also presume MAKEMKV actually captures these tracks when creating the MKV?

Thanks,

Ben.

[Coopervid]

You would certainly need an AV receiver to play the HD audio tracks one way or another. The MKV files have the HD audio if you have selected to keep them.

[ben_uk]

Thanks for the reply.

"selected to keep them"? Now you have me worried... Is that something you specifically need to do?

[exitguy]

Thanks for the reply.

"selected to keep them"? Now you have me worried... Is that something you specifically need to do?

All audio formats are selected by default so will be written, unless, you untick any in which case those will not be written.

[dcoke22]

Thanks for the reply.

"selected to keep them"? Now you have me worried... Is that something you specifically need to do?

You can use a tool like MediaInfo (https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo) to verify what is actually in your existing .mkv files. Here's an example of a movie with TrueHD with Dolby Atmos audio track and a more traditional Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track:

Code: Select all

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : MLP FBA 16-ch
Format/Info                              : Meridian Lossless Packing FBA with 16-channel presentation
Commercial name                          : Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                                 : A_TRUEHD
Duration                                 : 2 h 57 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 5 106 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 8 013 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Delay relative to video                  : 2 s 169 ms
Stream size                              : 6.34 GiB (8%)
Title                                    : Surround 7.1
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray
Number of dynamic objects                : 11
Bed channel count                        : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration                : LFE

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 2 h 57 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 640 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : 2 s 169 ms
Stream size                              : 813 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : Surround 5.1
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

It is possible to select or unselect specific audio tracks (and subtitle tracks) prior to ripping a movie. By default, everything for your preferred language is selected by default or everything if you don't have a preferred language set.

[dcoke22]

Depending on your playback setup's capabilities, you might be able to convert the high rez audio to another format, like FLAC, that your system might be able to play. For example, I don't have a way to decode TrueHD or DTS-MA, but I can play uncompressed PCM audio. So, I convert a track like TrueHD to lossless FLAC, which my playback device outputs as PCM audio to my receiver, giving me a lossless sound track.

See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=25059

Here's the same movie from above with the TrueHD audio track converted to 7.1 FLAC:

Code: Select all

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : FLAC
Format/Info                              : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID                                 : A_FLAC
Duration                                 : 2 h 57 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 3 311 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Lb Rb Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 10.417 FPS (4608 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 4.11 GiB (5%)
Title                                    : Surround 7.1
Writing library                          : MakeMKV v1.15.2 darwin(x64-release)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray