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[Sesam]

I have been storing all my TV series as split episode MKV files for some time (remuxed from Blu-ray or DVD).

Now I have noticed that MC has a convenient "convert format" function, that can be used on any MKV file to convert the main audio track to FLAC. I tried this with some MKV's with TrueHD, PCM and DTS-HD MA audio tracks, and the resulting multichannel FLAC appears to sound identical.

I kinda fancy the idea of converting all lossless audio tracks to FLAC, as it's an open/free format that is more efficient, and would also be neat for consistency.

- Does MC accurately convert TrueHD and DTS-HD MA tracks to FLAC. Any issues or concerns I should know about?

- How about Dolby Atmos? As I understand it is an extension to TrueHD, can MC just convert the plain TrueHD track to FLAC (ignoring/stripping out the atmos fluff).

[RD James]

Bit-perfect decoding for TrueHD and DTS-HD tracks. Doesn't support (ignores?) the Atmos data.
 
I wouldn't recommend using JRiver to convert video to audio with the intention of remuxing it and replacing the original audio stream though. I haven't done it myself, but that's just asking for sync problems.
Use a tool designed for it like MakeMKV when ripping.
 
The intent with JRiver is so that you can take the audio and listen to it on a device that doesn't play video. (or you just don't want/need the video)

[Sesam]

Bit-perfect decoding for TrueHD and DTS-HD tracks. Doesn't support (ignores?) the Atmos data.
 
I wouldn't recommend using JRiver to convert video to audio with the intention of remuxing it and replacing the original audio stream though. I haven't done it myself, but that's just asking for sync problems.
Use a tool designed for it like MakeMKV when ripping.
 
The intent with JRiver is so that you can take the audio and listen to it on a device that doesn't play video. (or you just don't want/need the video)

I might not have been clear enough, this is my current process:

1. Remux Blu-ray into MKV using DVDFab
2. With MC "convert" the MKV to FLAC
3. Then with MakeMKV I remux the MKV and replace the original TrueHD/DTS-HD MA track with the FLAC

I haven't experienced/noticed any timing issues doing this. Assuming MC converts the audio accurately, then wouldn't timings/length be identical?

(I also just now tried extracting the DTS-HD MA track, and then converting just the .dts file to .flac with MC. And the resulting flac was identical on the byte with the one I converted from the MKV.)

[TheShoe]

I might not have been clear enough, this is my current process:

1. Remux Blu-ray into MKV using DVDFab
2. With MC "convert" the MKV to FLAC
3. Then with MakeMKV I remux the MKV and replace the original TrueHD/DTS-HD MA track with the FLAC

I haven't experienced/noticed any timing issues doing this. Assuming MC converts the audio accurately, then wouldn't timings/length be identical?

(I also just now tried extracting the DTS-HD MA track, and then converting just the .dts file to .flac with MC. And the resulting flac was identical on the byte with the one I converted from the MKV.)

why not just rip the blu ray with makemkv in the first place and convert to Flac as part of the ripping process?  it does this bit perfect for true hd and dts-ma. 

[Sesam]

why not just rip the blu ray with makemkv in the first place and convert to Flac as part of the ripping process?  it does this bit perfect for true hd and dts-ma. 

Well mainly because I prefer DVDFab in general for ripping/remuxing, as it has some features that just make it faster and more convenient to use especially for splitting and tagging TV series.

Also I'm asking this because I'm curious if MC can be used to replace eac3to, for purposes like converting TrueHD and DTS-HD MA tracks. Basically if the converted audio produced by MC would be just as accurate (correct timings, channel mappings, fake "24bit" detection etc..).

[CountryBumkin]

I don't get it. Why not just rip your BD TV-Shows to MKV and stop there? What is the point of converting audio to FLAC? The MKV rip is lossless, so what does the extra step get you?

[RD James]

I haven't experienced/noticed any timing issues doing this. Assuming MC converts the audio accurately, then wouldn't timings/length be identical?

When I have MakeMKV rip discs, I often see it adjusting sync offsets as part of the ripping process. Converting to audio in JRiver and remuxing won't be doing that.

I don't get it. Why not just rip your BD TV-Shows to MKV and stop there? What is the point of converting audio to FLAC? The MKV rip is lossless, so what does the extra step get you?

FLAC is quite a bit more efficient than DTS-HD or TrueHD and can save you a couple of gigs per audio track for a 2 hour movie.
It's also open-source and supported by almost everything, when few players support DTS-HD or TrueHD decoding.

[Sesam]

When I have MakeMKV rip discs, I often see it adjusting sync offsets as part of the ripping process. Converting to audio in JRiver and remuxing won't be doing that.
FLAC is quite a bit more efficient than DTS-HD or TrueHD and can save you a couple of gigs per audio track for a 2 hour movie.
It's also open-source and supported by almost everything, when few players support DTS-HD or TrueHD decoding.

I have been researching this on various forums, and have concluded that many that are really picky about perfect rips/remuxes, recommend using software that use eac3to to demux the blu-ray and convert lossless audio to FLAC (using third party commercial DLL's in certain cases).

So for now I have settled with using Staxrip, because it uses eac3to for demuxing/converting and creates proper logs. Also it is rather convenient for making split episode MKV's.

[vash]

I had similar question recently and after researching it a bit, I'd advise you to keep HD-audio intact. Read more

Is It Worth To Convert DTS-HD MA / TrueHD / LPCM to FLAC?