The problem with "no sound" when playing this .m2ts file is this: this movie, and possibly other Weinstein & Co. titles, use audio formats that make their discs hard to play on PCs. I am not sure if this is on purpose or not. This move has a .vc1 video track and a LPCM 3 channel .wav audio track. LPCM sounds good since it is 48000 samples/sec of uncompressed 16 bit audio, but PC players have problems with this format when it is streamed; that is, they will play the LPCM .wav file fine, but not when it is multiplexed with the video file.
I want to be able to mount my media on a Linux server and send it to my Tivo, but a .iso will not work with the pyTivo software. I do however own this disc and I want to be able to play it where I want.
SOLUTION
Here is the short answer for those of you who have the tools: first, demux the .m2ts file, using tsMuxer, into the component audio and video files, a .wav and a .vc1. Then use sox to mix and level the 3 channels of audio into 2 (or 5 if you want) since none of the players that I tried were able to handle a a 3 channel stream. Transcode the audio into .ac3 or the format of your choice, as long as the format is compatible with your player software. Finally remux the a/v stream files into a .m2ts file. The file can then be played on Microsoft Media Player in Windows, or Totem, mplayer, etc. on Linux.
For those of you unfamiliar with this stuff, here is the long version. I tested this on XP SP3; I can't guarantee these tools will run on Vista but it's worth a try. All of the sotware is legal, free to use, and most is also open source.
1. Download tsMuxer from
http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html and unzip it into a directory of your choice, like C:\tsMuxer\ or the like.
2. Get sox.exe from
http://sox.sourceforge.net/ and select the "latest windows build." Download and unzip it into the directory of your choice, like C:\sox\ or the like.
3. Download the GUI front end for ffmpeg (aka WinFFMpeg) from
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ffmpegGUI. It includes a Windows installer which default installs to C:\Program Files\WinFF\. It comes with a pre-compiled ffmpeg.exe but the ffmpeg. exe is an old version, so I suggest you replace it with a current version in step 4.
4. Download the updated ffmpeg: "Tripp's unofficial ffmpeg build for Windows" at
http://tripp.arrozcru.org/ and unzip the files into the directory of your choice. Unzip will create a "bin" and a "doc" subdirectory. Copy the .exe and the .dll files from the "bin" subdirectory into c:\Program Files\WinFF\.
Now you are ready to go. Here's what you do:
1. First separate the audio and video streams into two files. Start tsMuxerGUI.exe and click on "add", browse to the .m2ts file with the movie on it, click "open." In the Output section you will see the auto-selected output filename in the same directory as the input file. Click on "demux", and then click "start demuxing." Let it run until it is done, about 30 minutes on my not very fast machine. Now you will have three files: the original .m2ts (21GB), a .vc1 file (17.8GB) with the video in it, and a .wav file (3GB) with the LPCM audio. Close tsMux.
2. Mix the 3 channels into 2 channel stereo. Open a cmd window (Start->run-> cmd), and change directory (ie, cd C:\...) to the directory where you saved the .wav file from step 1. Assuming you installed sox.exe in C:\sox, type this command: "c:\sox\sox.exe infile.wav outfile.wav remix -p 1,2 2,3" (but without the quotes) and press ENTER. "infile" is the name of your .wav from step 1, and "outfile" is the name you choose for the new mixed file, like "mix.wav". The mixing will only take a minute or two. Save yourself a ton of grief and don't use directory or filenames that contain spaces inside the cmd window.
3. Transcode the file to .AC3. Start WinFFMpeg and click on the + (add) icon and browse for your mixed .wav file, select it and click "open." Under the Output Details tab, select
Convert To: "Audio", then
Device Preset "AC3 DVD - 384Kbps Stereo", and finally browse for the same folder where the input file resides. That is where ffmpeg will put the new file. Click on the "Convert" icon and it will do its thing. The converted file will have the same name as the original but with an .ac3 extension. Close WinFFMpeg.
4.
Make sure you can play the .ac3 file and that it sounds OK before you re-mux the streams. The .ac3 stereo 384kb/s file should be about 272MB for this movie. You can play it with Windows Media Player. If you hear the Lion growl about five seconds into the file then you should be good to go.
4. Now mux the streams back together. Start tsMuxerGUI again and select your .vc1 video file and then your new .ac3 audio file. They should both appear on the list marked "input files." Under the Output section click "m2ts muxing" then browse for an output directory and enter a filename for your final movie file. Click "Start Muxing" and let it do its thing. It will make a .m2ts file that contains the movie and AC3 stereo sound.
The final file should play in any player than can handle a m2ts file. I tested my file with Microsoft Media Player 11 with no problems. Once it works you can delete the .vc1, .ac3, and the original ripped .m2ts files.
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS METHOD TO CONVERT CONTENT THAT YOU DID NOT BUY. Thanks.
