For years now I have been ripping all my BluRay to MKV and converting the HD audio to flac. I know flac is lossless, but I am wondering if there are any real reasons at all not to convert to flac besides getting the little light on my receiver to say DTS-MA instead of PCM?
Any reason not to convert HD audio to Flac?
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The little light on a bitstreaming AVR is reassuring. And with Lav Splitter, and Lav Audio set to bitstream you can get to the little light through MPC-HC. And when you rip blu-ray just name the DTS-HD MA audio track .dtshd.
But I believe if you rip to .flac properly with the arcsoft decoder it will give you the same results.
But I believe if you rip to .flac properly with the arcsoft decoder it will give you the same results.
+1, i don`t see any compelling reason to waste time converting to FLAC for the "whooping" 200-300MB you can save, at best.
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx /forum/post/20865359
I am thinking reversely: Are there any real reasons at all to convert HD audio to FLAC?![]()
+1, i don`t see any compelling reason to waste time converting to FLAC for the "whooping" 200-300MB you can save, at best.
If you have the hardware to support DTS-MA, there is no reason to convert it to FLAC. You're just adding a step to the process and possibly causing a situation where your PC can alter the original audio, whereas you know the PC won't touch the audio when it's bitstreamed.
I don't do it for space savings, I do it because currently I don't have an audio card that can bitstream HD formats, and it doesn't waste anytime using Another Eac3to Gui while converting to MKV. I also hate futzing with external players, and prefer to keep everything right in the default player in mediabrowser.
I do have the arcsoft decoder, so that is not an issue.
So with all that said, is there anything I could possibly be missing out of? I don't think there is, but a little confirmation is always nice.
I don't do it for space savings, I do it because currently I don't have an audio card that can bitstream HD formats, and it doesn't waste anytime using Another Eac3to Gui while converting to MKV. I also hate futzing with external players, and prefer to keep everything right in the default player in mediabrowser.
I do have the arcsoft decoder, so that is not an issue.
So with all that said, is there anything I could possibly be missing out of? I don't think there is, but a little confirmation is always nice.
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What graphics card do you have? Most of us have audio from HDMI connected to our graphics card out to an AVR. I don't have an audio card.
Decoding any compressed HD audio codec to multichannel LPCM bit-perfect in real time (with most DirectShow players including the WMC internal player) is a piece of cake nowadays. It's beyond me why some people want to stick to the obsolete method of converting to FLAC.
Well, even a codec packer does not know how to decode DTS-HD MA/HRA in real time. No wonder why many people don't know this simple method (LAV Audio Decoder + dtsdecoderdll.dll), believing converting FLAC is the only solution.
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I have a system with the G45 MB too. I added a cheap nVidia GT430 card, and I am able to bitstream everything now. If you have room in your case, you may want to consider this upgrade.
I have a system with the G45 MB too. I added a cheap nVidia GT430 card, and I am able to bitstream everything now. If you have room in your case, you may want to consider this upgrade.
Is the dtsdecoderdll the same one from Arcsoft? If so I have that. I have been using shark with the Gabest MKV splitter. Haven't updated in a few versions because I have been stable.
Though as I said before, when I rip to MKV my audio gets converted on the fly to FLAC using the arcsoft decoder, so it is really no extra work. My only concern would be losing something, and still no one has said that I would be, so I will probably just stick with what I have been doing. No need to muck up a stable system if there is no real benefit.
Is the dtsdecoderdll the same one from Arcsoft? If so I have that. I have been using shark with the Gabest MKV splitter. Haven't updated in a few versions because I have been stable.
Though as I said before, when I rip to MKV my audio gets converted on the fly to FLAC using the arcsoft decoder, so it is really no extra work. My only concern would be losing something, and still no one has said that I would be, so I will probably just stick with what I have been doing. No need to muck up a stable system if there is no real benefit.
Are you sure you are going to married with FLAC+ReClock permanently? If you decide to upgrade GPU and AVR and try bitstreaming, perhaps you will find how easy and great bitstreaming is and will be thankful that you ripped all BDs with compressed HD audio intact. For example, are you still decoding AC3/DTS to LPCM at ripping? Almost nobody decode AC3/DTS at ripping because bitreaming AC3/DTS is much easier than decoding them to LPCM first in PC, then send LPCM to AVR; this assures bit-perfect sound/perfect channel mapping without being bothered with Windows Audio Engine (one of the worst Windows components for HTPC). Exactly the same applies to compressed HD audio codecs.
I highly recommend keeping all video/audio/subtitle streams intact:
- H.264/VC-1/MPEG-2 -> H.264/VC-1/MPEG-2
- TrueHD/DD+/DTS-HD MA/HRA -> TrueHD/DD+/DTS-HD MA/HRA
- PGS subtitles -> PGS subtitles
(use for example MakeMKV or BluRip). This assures the best quality and the best future-proof. If your current hardware supports only multichannel LPCM, don't worry, decoding HD audio to LPCM bit-perfect in real time is one of the easiest tasks.
Sticking to the obsolete method just because you don't want to try a new method with better filters (LAV Splitter and LAV Audio Decoder in this case) is really a bad idea, IMO. Software/hardware are developing everyday.
I highly recommend keeping all video/audio/subtitle streams intact:
- H.264/VC-1/MPEG-2 -> H.264/VC-1/MPEG-2
- TrueHD/DD+/DTS-HD MA/HRA -> TrueHD/DD+/DTS-HD MA/HRA
- PGS subtitles -> PGS subtitles
(use for example MakeMKV or BluRip). This assures the best quality and the best future-proof. If your current hardware supports only multichannel LPCM, don't worry, decoding HD audio to LPCM bit-perfect in real time is one of the easiest tasks.
Sticking to the obsolete method just because you don't want to try a new method with better filters (LAV Splitter and LAV Audio Decoder in this case) is really a bad idea, IMO. Software/hardware are developing everyday.
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Im still ripping to FLAC too. My AVR wont take new codecs so I would need to convert at the PC to LPCM anyway. Seem like a horse a piece but I kind of see you point moving forward.
I just havent had the time to research, find the needed files, and change my set-up. Everytime I want to do something that seems like it should be simple it get overly complicated and sometimes other stuff breaks. Theres something to be said for a system that just runs like it is.
May this will really be simple???
I just havent had the time to research, find the needed files, and change my set-up. Everytime I want to do something that seems like it should be simple it get overly complicated and sometimes other stuff breaks. Theres something to be said for a system that just runs like it is.
May this will really be simple???
I don't use reclock, never needed it.
If I have in fact no lost any detail, then who cares what format it is in?
My system sends standard DTS and DD via bitstream, just not HD, so they stay as is. You seem hung up on the ease of keeping bitstream when converting to flac litterally takes me zero effort. At first getting the arcsoft decoder setup was a little cumbersome, but that was done long ago, so there is no ongoing maintainence for it.
I am not against trying a new method, what I am leary of is futzing with a stable system unless doing so provides a clear advantage, which I have not yet seen.
I don't use reclock, never needed it.
If I have in fact no lost any detail, then who cares what format it is in?
My system sends standard DTS and DD via bitstream, just not HD, so they stay as is. You seem hung up on the ease of keeping bitstream when converting to flac litterally takes me zero effort. At first getting the arcsoft decoder setup was a little cumbersome, but that was done long ago, so there is no ongoing maintainence for it.
I am not against trying a new method, what I am leary of is futzing with a stable system unless doing so provides a clear advantage, which I have not yet seen.
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I just got an AVR which bitstreams and of course LAV audio is pretty recent. I added an ASUS 440 1GB GDDR5 to my EP45_UD3P recently
I started with eac3to.exe and mkvmerge more than two years ago and added bdsup2sub4. I doubt many people are still using command line ripping. However, the resulting .mkv files have always played well. When I had trouble ripping, usually multipath Blu-rays, I just use slysoft to .iso.
When eac3to failed I have tried almost everything else. None of the other alternatives ripped a blu-ray for me if eac3to failed. MakeMKV may well be a much better program than when I first tried it. I have not tried BluRip but I am willing to try the program.
I thought eac3to did not convert AC3 or DTS to LPCM. As I said having an AVR which tells me the format it is playing is new to me.
Reclock was a disaster for me. I intend to never allow reclock on my computer again.
Anyway, Renethx, thanks for alterting me that I should consider changing my ways. I am already using LAV audio to bitstream to the new AVR.
I started with eac3to.exe and mkvmerge more than two years ago and added bdsup2sub4. I doubt many people are still using command line ripping. However, the resulting .mkv files have always played well. When I had trouble ripping, usually multipath Blu-rays, I just use slysoft to .iso.
When eac3to failed I have tried almost everything else. None of the other alternatives ripped a blu-ray for me if eac3to failed. MakeMKV may well be a much better program than when I first tried it. I have not tried BluRip but I am willing to try the program.
I thought eac3to did not convert AC3 or DTS to LPCM. As I said having an AVR which tells me the format it is playing is new to me.
Reclock was a disaster for me. I intend to never allow reclock on my computer again.
Anyway, Renethx, thanks for alterting me that I should consider changing my ways. I am already using LAV audio to bitstream to the new AVR.
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