CBD alway converts DTS 7.1 to 5.1 audio regardless of settings

[Mike_EE]

Hi -

Tried to do due diligence on this (found one thread that was close https://forum.redfox.bz/threads/clonebd-and-7-1-audio.75360/) but can't find an answer...

CBD 1.2.8.1 64-bit / Win 10 Pro 1903 64-bit / AMD 1800X / GTX1080Ti

DTS-HD 7.1 audio is being converted to 5.1, regardless of settings.

Source: selecting either an ISO or a BD with a 7.1 audio track
Copy Mode: Convert for a device
Copy Mode: Select MKV
Selection: Autoselect Main Feature
Selection: Verifying audio configuration in the Settings pop-out (shows DTS 7.1)
Target: Video codec: Copy Original (lossless), H.265/HEVC (nVidia NVENC) or H.264/ MPEG-4 AVC (nVidia NVENC)
Target: Audio codec: Copy Original (lossless)
Target: Audio channels: blank
Target: Default: shows "English DTS-HD 7.1" when the source is 7.1

The audio output result, regardless of encoder, is that 7.1 gets converted to 5.1. I verified this with MediaInfo, VLC and my receivers.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike_EE

 

[Mike_EE]

Any thoughts anyone, or did I run afoul of the rules somehow?

 

[Reto]

Any thoughts anyone, or did I run afoul of the rules somehow?

Apologies for the late answer, I wanted to test this before I reply.

I can only partially reproduce what you're saying.
First: when you choose "lossless", CloneBD is writing all channels. It doesn't touch the stream.
There is a small inaccuracy in the MKV output: the audio track header is written with "6 channels", which is not entirely correct.
This stems from the fact, that Blu-ray disc structures only contain the information whether audio is mono, stereo or multi-channel. There is no precise information on the actual number of channels. (CloneBD does get it, though, by snooping into the actual audio data in the m2ts files).
But this can be changed in the future, it's likely not a big thing.

MediaInfo only displays this header-information without actually looking at the audio data. So that's what it shows you.

BUT.
A receiver or even VLC will set up its audio information solely based on the actual audio stream.
VLC will do this, because the number of channels is just a tiny bit of the required information required and it's in the stream anyway - alongside with all the other information (like speaker setup, mixing parameters, ...). So why take it from the header?
And any receiver will disregard the header information for the simple reason, that it never gets to see a "file header", how would it? The player only throws the raw audio stream at the receiver and lets it figure out what it is by itself.

I just tested this - VLC says "3F2M2R/LFE", which is a typical 7.1 speaker setting.
The receiver also displays "DTS:X MA 7.1".

So actual 7.1 audio is really being played.
I can only confirm the incorrect display in MediaInfo so far, which I would label as a fixable cosmetic bug.

 

[Darth Sidious]

I tried to reproduce it once, but it worked normally for me. Check the settings again. Otherwise only support can help.
Also try to first create an ISO on the hard disk (with AnyDVD) and then work from the virtual drive (Virtual Clone Drive 5.5.0.0).

 

[Pete]

Note, that the OP is specifically talking about DTS-HD 7.1, yours is Dolby TrueHD, so the situation might not be comparable.

 

[Darth Sidious]

It looks like MediaInfo_GUI_19.09_Windows has a problem here to correctly recognize this. Once again processed an ISO with HD MASTER 7.1 (DTS X) to MKV. The result is displayed correctly in the TsM and also played correctly on my system.

 

[Mike_EE]

Thanks to everyone for their input!

After reading this post, I took a closer look at MediaInfo and VLC Player. Both of them reported 7.1 sources as 5.1, which is annoying and led substantially to my belief that there was a problem and to this post.

Long story short, I have three home theater systems, and the one that gave me the 'everything is 5.1' indication had been in-child-ificated which is a fancy way of saying that it was stuck in 5.1. Playing the material in question on other systems, and after re-configuring the 'always 5.1' system, I could indeed see that the input signals were as-expected.

So CBD is working correctly, I didn't do as much due-diligence as I could have, and I appreciate everyone's forbearance.

Thanks!

 

[eviltester]

Thanks to everyone for their input!

After reading this post, I took a closer look at MediaInfo and VLC Player. Both of them reported 7.1 sources as 5.1, which is annoying and led substantially to my belief that there was a problem and to this post.

I don't know what version of Mediainfo you are using but I just checked a ton of my 7.1 movies in Mediainfo & all show up properly & NOT as 5.1. I am using version MediaInfo 19.09 so it must be on your end because some of my friends are using older versions & it still reports their movies correctly.

 

[testiles]

Thanks to everyone for their input!

After reading this post, I took a closer look at MediaInfo and VLC Player. Both of them reported 7.1 sources as 5.1, which is annoying and led substantially to my belief that there was a problem and to this post...

... So CBD is working correctly, I didn't do as much due-diligence as I could have, and I appreciate everyone's forbearance.

Thanks!

Mike_EE don't feel bad. I had this identical experience in early January and started to open up a thread on it.

I was using CloneBD to create an .mkv from a UHD with a 7.1 soundtrack and MediaInfo was telling me the mkv was 5.1, even though that was not what I set up in CloneBD.

After a lot of checking and de-bugging I finally realized it was MediaInfo that was off. When I actually played the .mkv in PDVD, it reported 7.1 sound!


Part of my testing though was to create the .mkv from the same source using another tool and MediaInfo correctly reported that .mkv was 7.1. Go figure...


MediaInfo also indicated the CloneBD .mkv had 16-bit sound when the source was 24-bit.

I don't know if that is really true or another error on MediaInfo's part.



T

 

[Mike_EE]

I don't know what version of Mediainfo you are using but I just checked a ton of my 7.1 movies in Mediainfo & all show up properly & NOT as 5.1. I am using version MediaInfo 19.09 so it must be on your end because some of my friends are using older versions & it still reports their movies correctly.

I'm using 19.09 as well but everything Dolby is either 2.0 or 5.1. I have no explanation for it either.