TrueHD audio dropping out for POTC DMTNT

[Beerboy64]

My first attempt at burning my UHD library to MKV has already set me back. When playing the MKV with Plex or VLC (haven't tried anything else) the audio (Atmos) will cut out for a split second in the same spots in the movie. The movie is pirates of the Caribbean dead men tell no tales. One example is in the opening scene when the ship rises out of the ocean. If I select any other audio option it does not do this. Only the TrueHD. Has anyone else had this problem?

[Beerboy64]

Okay now I'm thinking this may be an issue with the players I am using. I tried to open with windows media player but it only opened the audio. However, listening to just the audio I could not hear any drops in audio. Going to start trying other players.

[Beerboy64]

Windows media player is so far the only thing I can get to work but it is audio only no video so that is pointless. Is there a setting in makemkv I can change to help with this issue?

[Woodstock]

The Windows Media Player is rather limited in what it can handle. It won't do h.265 video (the usual encoder for UHD). I think they added support for h.265 when it was remade into a different program for Win10.

[ArArdin]

I have no experience with Plex or VLC. But if dropouts show at the same point every time, first suspect would be a corrupt file. I would rip the disc again and see if same problems persist.

[Beerboy64]

What media player do you use? I ripped it again and Atmos sound drops out in the same exact spots.

[ArArdin]

I'm usually on a Zidoo Z9X for the DV mkv playback. On Windows I use PotPlayer but this doen't do DV. With dropouts in same exact spots I'd still believe the file to be the culprit. But I can be wrong here.

If you want, you can try to narrow things down by doing other things:
First off, let MakeMKV create a full disc backup instead of ripping the main movie directly to mkv. Be sure to check "decrypt video files" when doing so.
This will result in a regular BDMV folder structure of your entire disc. Try to play this back (if folder structure is not supported, play back the proper m2ts file in the BDMV\STREAM folder). Should it be fine now, it probably means that MakeMKV's internal processes to create a mkv-file run into issues. And you can try other things, for instance remuxing into "movie only" with other tools.

If you're up to it, give it a go and report back.

[Beerboy64]

I did this and unfortunately it made no difference. Still same issue.

[ArArdin]

That's disappointing. You indeed aren't fortunate with your first UHD rip. I doubt there would be something wrong with the disc, authoring-wise.
I would try to rip some other titles and see if playback would be ok. Can help pointing in the right direction. Maybe you also want to try out other players for that matter.

[Beerboy64]

I'm thinking this is a problem with players or the settings in the players. There may be a way to fix this in makemkv but I'm not sure. With that being said I'm not going to post anymore about this topic here because I do think it is a playback issue. Here are my closing thoughts.

WMP does not have this issue because it is simply playing the audio straight. I downloaded POT player and changed the settings to pass through ATMOS. Once I was able to get the truehd output, audio was smooth with no dropouts. However, the video was absolutely not smooth. I did the same exact thing with powerdvd and audio was smooth, no drops, yet video had a lot of judder. In my VLC and Plex players I have settings to match the frame rates to the refresh rate or vice versa. I forget exactly how but I make it to proper 24p playback which is smooth with no judder or anything else. Due to these settings, the players may be struggling to keep the audio in sync with the video. This may be the cause of the drop outs. I'm not entirely sure about this so take it for what it's worth.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with suggestions and what not. Take care!