I usually remux my Blu-rays to MKV keeping the original DTS-HD MA or TrueHD tracks (keeping also the legacy AC3 track). But I have been considering converting the lossless tracks to FLAC instead, and ditching the legacy AC3 tracks. Because there would be lots of HDD space to save, and my HTPC and any decent device nowadays can output multichannel FLAC as PCM.
1. Has FLAC nowadays a clearly defined/standardized channel order? I researched this and found only old articles and discussions. Some saying not to use it for anything other than 2 channels, some saying channel order is only defined up to 6 channels.
2. Does DTS-HD or TrueHD contain any useful information that would not be converted into a FLAC?. I heard those formats contain volume and downmix information. If that is correct, then how much of a difference would it really make? Would there be any noticeable difference on a stereo setup, when playing back a surround TrueHD track vs the same track converted to FLAC.