A52 and DTS audio codec issue

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

Hi folks,

Apologies in advance if this is the dumbest question ever, but I haven't found an adequate solution yet, so here goes :

I use my main audio system [Cambridge CXA 61 to Focal Aria speakers and a sub] to play movies as well. These are played from a computer, using vlc, and audio is sent to the amp via bluetooth, via this dongle. Problem is, when the audio codec of the movie is either A52/AC3 or DTS audio, instead of sound, I have an abominable avalanche of whitenoisesque audio mess.

I've tried several things, among which fiddling with vlc parameters, changing spdif out to another of the output options available for the dongle (either same result or no sound), sent the sound to my wiim mini, then to the amp via optical, aux out, and aux out to analog in, directly connect the computer to the amp via USB (same ear-destroying result), to only quote those I remember at the moment. The only thing that worked was to transcode the entire movie audio to a codec that works, but that takes a really long time, and, when I did it, the audio quality felt off (though I could not really compare to the original one, since... I can't make it work).

So my question is : how to solve this problem, in the less time and money costly manner that ensures some degree of audio fidelity ? Is there a specific device for this ? Home-theater pre amps look like they're here for it, but they cost thousands, isn't there a simpler device able to do the same ? Is it better on the software side, like is it something in vlc or another software that can be adjusted ?

 

[Redacted]

You could maybe use something than transcodes the audio. This can sometimes be done on the fly, even on VLC.
Are the videos rips (i.e. files) or are they from a streaming service?
Do you watch using a smart TV? In which case you could use its digital output (toslink or coax) to the amp, and let the TV convert the audio to stereo.

There are several ways to solve this, but more info needed...

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

You could maybe use something than transcodes the audio. This can sometimes be done on the fly, even on VLC.
Are the videos rips (i.e. files) or are they from a streaming service?
Do you watch using a smart TV? In which case you could use its digital output (toslink or coax) to the amp, and let the TV convert the audio to stereo.

There are several ways to solve this, but more info needed...

• Videos are rips, so files yes.
• I watch using a (non-smart) projector, that only get connected to the computer via hdmi.
  

 

[Redacted]

• Videos are rips, so files yes.
• I watch using a (non-smart) projector, that only get connected to the computer via hdmi.

You can batch process the video files to add a (default) stereo audio track with a codec you know works, using ffmpeg or do it in Handbrake if you like a GUI (but it's harder figure out ironically). Or in VLC command line. You can try a few vids, saved with a different name, until you get what you need.

With ffmpeg for one file with something like "ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec copy -acodec mp3 out.avi" (mp3 is an example codec, and avi are example input and output files typess/containers).

There are other ways to a get a result but this is free!

If you want to batch process a bunch at once, you can write a script with a do loop - here's one I wrote that you could adapt - it's for flac to aac (you can use -c:v copy to keep the video part)... A few minutes of googling will show you what to do.

for /R %%I in (*.flac) do ("C:\Program Files\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe" -i "%%~I" -c:a aac -b:a 256k "%%~nI.aac")
pause

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

So far I've done it with handbrake for a handful of files, but it is indeed far from the simplest software I've come across (and, on my not so new pc, not a fast solution). But I'm not particularly efficient with adapting command lines or using scripts so GUI is still what works best for me at this point, but I'll fiddle around with that !

 

[Redacted]

I use Handbrake to process video clips made on my phone, and it has an utterly weird interface - you make a preset to use say, passthrough or clipping etc, and it does not not do it! You have to go through various menus every time to get a usable output file! In the end, it's just on top of ffmpeg anyway, so it makes you wonder why the GUI is messed up - how hard can it be? Other tools I use, like MKVtoolnix or gMKVExtract work with a certain logic that's easy to follow. I still use handbrake though, as I'm used to it - I have tried a dozen alternatives and they are even weirder.

 

[voodooless]

VLC can do the decoding on the fly. Must be a simple settings that outputs bitstream audio. You should disable that.

 

[Redacted]

Apparently so and as I thought - but can you point to the transcoding setup details?

 

[voodooless]

Apparently so and as I thought - but can you point to the transcoding setup details?

I think that usually happens by default, no settings needed. Also I have no idea what OS we’re talking about, so settings might differ as well. Look for something like spdif/ hdmi pass though. This should be disabled. Ask a random AI, it will know this kind of stuff.

 

[OldTimer]

You can use Plex that can transcode on-the-fly. It will get rid out problems related to audio video format. Just click & play.

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

You can use Plex that can transcode on-the-fly. It will get rid out problems related to audio video format. Just click & play.

Sadly my nas processor isn't powerful enough to correctly stream big files, and I failed to make it work on the (rather confidential pops os) distro directly on the computer.


Haven't had the time to try every proposition yet, and the videoprojector's cooling would aggravate the summer heat far too much, but I'll get to it, thanks.