default is *not to rip* HD audio?

[captain]

Why is that? Wouldn't it be better to default to rip *all* the data, and then have the option to choose which one to play back later? What am I missing here? As it is I have to open each title and sub-title to see if there are any HD audio tracks that need to be ripped, and manually tick those boxes. If there is some reason I should *not* be doing this, please let me know. Search failed to answer this.

FWIW, the HD lossless audio sounds clearer to my ears in the one test I did between HD and DTS 3/2-1 (or whatever it's called). I think I used "Inception" as my test, since it won 2010 Oscar for sound.

edit: nope. Inception only ripped the 3/2/1 DTS track. The King's Speech was a nominated film, but I can't tell the difference between the HD-Lossess and 3/2+1 tracks. They both claim to be DTS Digital by my decoder. I was sure that during a test I noticed a difference, but now I don't, so don't understand this.

[SamuriHL]

This issue has been discussed several times before. There has been resistance to the idea of adding an option in the options page to automatically select the HD audio stream. I have requested this feature in the past, but, there hasn't been an official response (that I remember...I could be wrong) one way or the other. I know it's been said that by default they want the core audio because it's compatible with more devices. Fine, I can accept that argument. But, I would ask for an option to switch it to HD audio by default. Ah well. It's only an extra step we have to remember to do.

[robpdotcom]

they want the core audio because it's compatible with more devices.

Is there any device that is compatible with the DTS core, and not DTS-HD MA? Isn't that one of the beauties of DTS - it's backwards compatibility?

Considering DTS-HD MA is pretty much the only format used now, extracting the core only makes sense if you really need to save space. Even those who don't have HD audio capable AVR's probably intend to at some point - and once they do, they'll probably end up wasting time by re-ripping a bunch of movies. Time is valuable and hard drives are cheap: I really can't see how it makes any sense at all.

MakeMKV is a really good program, but needs a few more options to be a really great program.

They both claim to be DTS Digital by my decoder.

Is your receiver supposed to show something different for HD audio? Most do, so my guess is that you are either:
A) Not using software that can bitstream HD audio.
or
B) Ripping both the HD audio and the core as 2 separate tracks, and are playing the core.

[SamuriHL]

they want the core audio because it's compatible with more devices.

Is there any device that is compatible with the DTS core, and not DTS-HD MA? Isn't that one of the beauties of DTS - it's backwards compatibility?

Considering DTS-HD MA is pretty much the only format used now, extracting the core only makes sense if you really need to save space. Even those who don't have HD audio capable AVR's probably intend to at some point - and once they do, they'll probably end up wasting time by re-ripping a bunch of movies. Time is valuable and hard drives are cheap: I really can't see how it makes any sense at all.

I didn't say I AGREED with the reasoning! Simply that I understand the basic point. And no, DTS-HD MA is NOT "pretty much the only format used now". It's used a majority of the time, yes, but, there are plenty of new discs still using TrueHD. TrueHD is more complicated for MKV's than it is on Blu-rays. There isn't a real "AC3 core" in TrueHD. It's really an interleaved THD+AC3 track. Meaning they're 2 separate tracks that are stored interleaved together. (Don't ask) That isn't technically legal in an MKV container (so I'm told) so if you only keep the THD track then there could potentially be compatibility issues. Again, I don't necessarily agree, I'm just explaining what the current thinking is by defaulting to "core". I have no real problem with that. I just wish there was a way to override the default behavior and select the HD audio tracks by default. Meh. That request has gone unheeded.

[robpdotcom]

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that you were agreeing with the reasoning - I should have quoted your whole sentence: "I know it's been said that by default they want the core audio...."

It's been a long time since I've seen a new release with TrueHD, but I trust that you're correct that there still are plenty of new discs using it. So, that does complicate things a bit. It would probably require an extra option to extract AC3 from TrueHD by default.

[SamuriHL]

Dreamworks uses truehd as one example. In any case I would love an option to change the default.

[tp546]

I would also like this option, that or be able to select default streams to include in the config (I would prefer this but would settle for either).

[SamuriHL]

Hopefully as more and more people ask for this the option will gain some traction and maybe get implemented. It would rock!

[joe42]

Add me to the list of people requesting an option to automatically check the HD audio, in addition to the core audio.

I'll also note that I paid the fee to purchase a license for MakeMKV, so please consider me a paying customer.

[Romansh]

they want the core audio because it's compatible with more devices.

Is there any device that is compatible with the DTS core, and not DTS-HD MA? Isn't that one of the beauties of DTS - it's backwards compatibility?

Any player using libdca to decode DTS won't - probably a bug. libdca seems to have no problem extracting the DTS core from DTS-ES, but can't handle DTS-HD.