Feature Request:Flac Audio Conversion

[Icanseestars]

This might be stepping outside the boundaries of MakeMKV so perhaps making it a pay for feature only available to owners of MakeMKV [if you consider it at all].

Anyway I think it would be great to have an option to convert the audio stream into Flac during the ripping process. You can do this afterwards of course with other tools but having it part of the process would be very slick and easy to use. Many media players on the market can output Flac 5.1 as LPCM 5.1 so you can enjoy the HD audio on a sound system that otherwise would not support the TrueHD or DTS-MA audio stream.

Some media players can output TrueHD and DTS-MA as LPCM directly though I'm not sure how prevalent support for that is. For example I dont think thats supported on Realtek chipsets which are extremely common in the media player market.

[skittle]

Seconded, it would be useful... however my reciever only has optical/coax.
Also unless they want to write their own audio decoders MakeMKV would have to depend on ffmpeg code and is subject to bugs in ffmpeg and ffmpeg liscensing... mike, care to comment on this?

[mike admin]

This feature is certainly coming. Can't tell how soon.

[twa000]

Mike, I know this is perhaps asking for a lot, and you may have seen the request before, but how would you feel about putting a list together of the features/requests that you accept as future improvements for Makemkv, and perhaps just indicate those that are being looked at for the next ?/release?

I am not looking at a total commitment or promise, just that if people could see what has been accepted it might help reduce duplicate requests and show some openness that would improve Makemkv's acceptance even further.

[GreggP]

In the mean time, does anyone know of a way to take an MKV file generated by MakeMKV and convert the DTS-HD or TrueHD audio tracks to FLAC, while leaving the video as is?

I think this might be possible with mkvmerge GUI, but not sure. It would be very important that after the conversion the audio and video are still in sync.

I've been struggling with some concert Blu-rays that have 1080i video and DTS-HD audio. I can't play the DTS-HD tracks with my hardware, so I have to convert to FLAC. I have a multichannel (8 channel) external DAC connected via Firewire. My DAC and amp specs are much better than what you will find in a good quality A/V receiver. I use TMT3's DTSHD decoder and it will only play the core audio, not the HD audio. And the only way I can get TMT3 to play the HD audio tracks is if I have a protected path via HDMI. Since I really would like to hear the HD audio with my "audiophile" equipment, the only way it will work is if the audio is FLAC and I play it with 7MC, MPC Home Cinema or VLC.

My Blu-rays with 1080i video have been very difficult to rip and get good results. The audio rips are great, but the video rips are pretty bad - lots of jerkiness.

[dpstjp]

In the mean time, does anyone know of a way to take an MKV file generated by MakeMKV and convert the DTS-HD or TrueHD audio tracks to FLAC, while leaving the video as is?

Not sure that MakeMKV is essential for this. You can use HDBRStreamextractor to demux the streams and convert the audio to FLAC, and then remux to MKV using MKVMerge. This typically will sort out your video / audio sync issues automatically. MKV will just be an additional step that I'm not sure is needed.

VLC will have problems playing 1080i VC1 content.

[GreggP]

In the mean time, does anyone know of a way to take an MKV file generated by MakeMKV and convert the DTS-HD or TrueHD audio tracks to FLAC, while leaving the video as is?

Not sure that MakeMKV is essential for this. You can use HDBRStreamextractor to demux the streams and convert the audio to FLAC, and then remux to MKV using MKVMerge. This typically will sort out your video / audio sync issues automatically. MKV will just be an additional step that I'm not sure is needed.

VLC will have problems playing 1080i VC1 content.

I've tried using 'HdBrstream Extractor' to demux the streams and convert the audio to FLAC. However, after merging with 'mkvmerge GUI', the resulting video plays back with lots of jerkiness. It seems like there is a glitch in the video every 10 seconds. I don't usually use VLC for playing MKVs and I have been seeing these problems with MPC-HC and 7MC.

There are options in 'mkvmerge GUI' for setting the video frame rate and I've tried several different settings. For example, the 'Sting - Live in Berlin' Blu-ray has 1080/59.94i video. The FPS options are 24, 25, 30, 60000/1001, 30000/1001, and 24000/1001. I'm not sure which one is best, but tried 60000/1001 and the resulting audio/video is in sync, but like I said, the video stutters every 10 seconds or so. Its like the video is resyncing to the audio. When I simply play the Blu-ray disc with MPC or TMT3, the video is nice and smooth, but I don't get the HD audio track, it only plays the core DTS track.

I can use both 'Another EAC3to GUI' and 'HdBrStream Extractor' to demux these blu-rays, but just haven't been able to get nice smooth playback after merging everything back together. I don't have any problems with 1080p content, just 1080i and am hoping makemkv can get this right.

[dpstjp]

I've tried using 'HdBrstream Extractor' to demux the streams and convert the audio to FLAC. However, after merging with 'mkvmerge GUI', the resulting video plays back with lots of jerkiness. It seems like there is a glitch in the video every 10 seconds. I don't usually use VLC for playing MKVs and I have been seeing these problems with MPC-HC and 7MC.

There are options in 'mkvmerge GUI' for setting the video frame rate and I've tried several different settings. For example, the 'Sting - Live in Berlin' Blu-ray has 1080/59.94i video. The FPS options are 24, 25, 30, 60000/1001, 30000/1001, and 24000/1001. I'm not sure which one is best, but tried 60000/1001 and the resulting audio/video is in sync, but like I said, the video stutters every 10 seconds or so. Its like the video is resyncing to the audio. When I simply play the Blu-ray disc with MPC or TMT3, the video is nice and smooth, but I don't get the HD audio track, it only plays the core DTS track.

I can use both 'Another EAC3to GUI' and 'HdBrStream Extractor' to demux these blu-rays, but just haven't been able to get nice smooth playback after merging everything back together. I don't have any problems with 1080p content, just 1080i and am hoping makemkv can get this right.

In which case you might try a double demux, where you use MakeMKV to rip the blu-ray, then use HDBRStreamextractor to demux just the audio and convert it to FLAC. After this you can remux the video in the MakeMKV MKV with the FLAC audio and see if this resolves the video issue. Messier, I'll warrant, but you never know.

[Icanseestars]

Any chance of this happening at all ?

Boxee Box owners would be very grateful as there is a very tricky bug in HD audio that Intel/Boxee are trying to fix but it is slow going.

[mike admin]

This should happen "very soon" . That's the best time estimate I can give.

[GreggP]

Any word on this? Then I can switch from AnotherEACto GUI/mkvmerge.

[foghat]

I would love to see FLAC support as well. Any updates on this?

Thanks.

[kathleen71]

So, what about updates by now? It would be good news

[ryanjk333]

I, too, am curious to know when this LPCM to FLAC feature is coming to MakeMKV. I have quite a few LPCM blu rays that I'd love to throw at MakeMKV as soon as it's able to convert them to FLAC!

[tammy342]

join to you, i'm also interested in this issues!