Journey Greatest Hits DVD 1978-1997

[sfriedrich]

The resulting title00.mkv has no sound.
I had no problem yesterday doing 5 other DVDs and a blu-ray.
I tried Handbrake instead, and the audio is there but breaks up.

[Woodstock]

If you load the MKV file into handbrake, does handbrake show any audio tracks?

[sfriedrich]

yes, 1 English (pcm_s16le) (2.0 ch) AAC (avcodec) Bitrate: 160

[Woodstock]

The problem is that your player is not capable of playing the PCM video that the audio codec. It works with handbrake because you're converting it to something more portable, AAC, although it would seem your player isn't quite up to that.

Some Bluray authors use either 16 or 24 bit PCM in place of more popular codecs like AC3, DTS, or DTS-HD, because it is "uncompressed". Sentai Filmworks, for example, uses 24pcm for most of their anime titles. I process everything through handbrake before it goes on to the media server, and have it convert the tracks to both AAC and AC3 for compatibility.

Most software-based players SHOULD have PCM compatibility nowadays, but not all do. It is actually one of the simpler ones to decode. Depending on how you're playing the file, it may be that the player expects the audio to be decoded externally.

[sfriedrich]

Windows 10 Movies & TV app fails to decode the audio in the .mkv file.
VLC and PowerDVD 14.0 decode the audio in the .mkv file.
I ran the title00.mkv through handbrake and Windows 10 Movie & TV app plays the sound because handbrake converted it.

Thanks for the help. I now know what I'm doing a little better.

[Woodstock]

If you followed the link I embedded, 16 bit LPCM (what your video has) is the same codec used for audio CDs... And also used by Microsoft's WAV files. The fact that Windows couldn't decode it would indicate to me that it is "file type specific", i.e., the file extension dictates what encodings the Windows players would play.

Apple does this, too - QuickTime can play AC3 audio in an MP4 file, but ONLY if the file has the extension ".m4v"; It doesn't recognize the audio if the extension is .mp4 or .mpg.