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[Gatherum]

Title says it all. Could we get DTS and MKA as file types to convert in the DLNA Audio Formats to convert? See attachment.

Even better if MC is updated to be able to detect the stream types in container formats like MKA. In that case, having MKA as an option in this drop-down would be completely redundant. DTS, though, is the main concern.

[Gatherum]

Any thoughts?

If it's important, I'm asking for this because I rip surround and high-resolution stereo mixes mostly from DVD's, some of the latter being encoded either in AC3 or DTS—usually the latter. I've run in to a weird problem with some of these rips: For whatever reason, MC reports them to have a bit depth of 32 bits whereas MediaInfo claims 16. I rip them losslessly, muxing them in to MKA containers via MakeMKV and MKVToolNix. I don't know which one is reporting accurately but it doesn't really matter either way because they won't play through my A/V receiver: a Pioneer VSX-LX101. Play-back initiation simply causes a short hang before it gives up, skips to the next track, and repeats the cycle. It's strange to me that said A/V receiver would not simply down-mix the 32-bit content to the 24-bit that it supports. Ultimately, it doesn't, so I began to look at possible remedies.

I tried down-mixing the files to a lower bit depth via eac3to but this produced the same results. One would think, based on this, that the issue isn't the bit depth; nevertheless, the problem only persists with 32-bit files. Everything else 24-bit and below plays just fine.

I subsequently found that I can remedy this issue by configuring the DLNA options seen in the OP attachment so that the files in question stream to the A/V receiver as PCM/WAV 24-bit. I don't want to convert them to a lossless or lossy format all-together because of, respectively, the bloated space foot print and the potential loss of quality. Applying this process to AC3 files worked just fine but there is no DTS option to choose, meaning that it will not work. I don't want to apply this to every file I own; there are plenty of files it does play just fine.

What say you?

[RD James]

I thought the "formats to convert" was a list of formats that should always be converted in addition to formats that the device does not support.
I doubt many devices support MKA and DTS tracks natively, so they would already be converted by the "specified output when necessary" option?

[Gatherum]

I don't think so, in this case. An A/V receiver worth its salt would typically decode DTS natively, wouldn't it?

It's like mine is trying but getting hopelessly confused by the bit depth.

I could upload one of the files in question for inspection and testing if you'd like.

[RD James]

I don't think so, in this case. An A/V receiver worth its salt would typically decode DTS natively, wouldn't it?

I wouldn't expect it to play a raw DTS file via DLNA at all. DLNA usually has very limited format support, like: FLAC, WAV, MP3, and maybe AAC.
It's possible that a DTS-WAV file might work.
 
I believe you can use FFMPEG to convert from DTS to DTS-WAV using:

Code: [Select]

ffmpeg -i input.dts -vn -acodec copy output.wav
It depends on the AVR really. Either it will detect the DTS bitstream inside the WAV file, or it will play white noise.

[Gatherum]

Wouldn't that drastically increase the space foot print?

[RD James]

Wouldn't that drastically increase the space foot print?

No, it's just putting the DTS bitstream inside a WAV container.

[Gatherum]

So I did some tests and per your conjecture, the A/V receiver outputs static when attempting to play the resulting WAV's.

However, I found out by accident that AC3 is a container format; therefore, I put the following code in a batch file:

Code: [Select]

for %%f in (*.dts) do ffmpeg -i "%%f" -vn -acodec copy "%%f.ac3"
Via existing DLNA conversion options, these stream as intended as PCM in a WAV container—no static.

I still think that DTS and MKA should be in the DLNA conversion options so that FFmpeg would not be necessary in this case but for my part, the issue is practically solved. I appreciate it!

[RD James]

Well it's certainly unexpected that putting a DTS bitstream inside an AC3 container is working.
I suspect it's more about what that's doing on the conversion end of things than the AVR accepting an AC3 file via DLNA, as you have AC3 listed in your "formats to convert" setting.
I just don't know why that wasn't the case for DTS files. They should have been getting converted like AC3 files are.
 
If you remove AC3 from the "audio formats to convert" list, do you get white noise like the DTS-WAV, or does it still play?
And is your AVR picking that up as a multichannel DTS file, or a stereo PCM track? (or multichannel PCM?)

[Gatherum]

If I remove AC3 from the list of files to convert, play-back of said AC3 files hangs and fails as described before with regards to DTS. It would appear that MC does not think that either of these formats need conversion for delivery to my A/V receiver by default and attempts to serve them as-is; however, my A/V receiver does not appear to like that they are 32-bit files (according to MC). Having AC3 in the list of files to convert forces them to be transcoded to PCM 24-bit. There is, however, no equivalent option for DTS, thus requiring additional steps.