Playing AC3/DTS tracks sourced from DVD

[Henry66]

[... replay gain settings continued from previous post]

For each of you AC3/DTS albums you now need to set the new tags so that replay gain in your player will not change the bitstream:

Album and track gain = 0, track peak = 1.


Now you can turn replay gain on (I like to use Smart Gain) in your player(s) and the AC3/DTS tracks will get decoded!

The only issue is that the loudness levels in the AC3/DTS files are typically higher than the 89dB that replay gain levels normal stereo tracks to. So your surround tracks will sound louder than stereo tracks. But at least I can have replay gain enabled and leave it that way. Since most of my listening and music collection is still stereo, I prefer to have RG enabled, and can live with the occasional louder surround tracks.

[emalvick]

You can just not include replay gain tags at all, and it will work the same way. RG only works if RG tags are there (for any file). The problem is when you have RG tags in those AC3/DTS files and they are not essentially set at 100% as you are showing. I just leave the RG tags out of those files.

It can be "loud" but I also find that most AC3/DTS tracks are mastered without trying to be "loud" so that they sound ok anyway.

[Henry66]

You can just not include replay gain tags at all, and it will work the same way.

Ah, OK, thanks. I guess my problem is that I continuously "auto-organize" and scan my library for missing settings, mostly using MediaMonkey, and albums without replay gain values get updated. I guess not everyone is as anal-retentive as I am.

It can be "loud" but I also find that most AC3/DTS tracks are mastered without trying to be "loud" so that they sound ok anyway.

Indeed.

[smst]

I would like to thank smst for providing the spdifconvert script and instructions for enabling AC3/DTS tracks to play via SqueezeBoxes. I have used this to add dozens of surround albums to my library.

You're welcome! I'm always glad to see people have found this useful. And thanks for the information on AudioMuxer. My script isn't exactly user-friendly, so anything that makes things easier for others is great.

Cheers.

[emalvick]

A friend gave me some sample FLAC files he had that are in a 6 channel (5.1) format (Self-composed/mixed tracks). I am guessing I need to somehow convert them to AC3 before I can run the SPDIF script?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Henry66]

A friend gave me some sample FLAC files he had that are in a 6 channel (5.1) format (Self-composed/mixed tracks). I am guessing I need to somehow convert them to AC3 before I can run the SPDIF script?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

AudioMuxer that I mentioned in post #248 in this thread will do it.

[emalvick]

AudioMuxer that I mentioned in post #248 in this thread will do it.

I just read the post. I'll check it out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk

[Morbeas]

Ok, please bare with me as I'm very new to the multichannel audio scene.

So I have a Squeezebox Touch and would like to play some multichannel flac files that I have (Dark Side Of The Moon 5.1 mix etc). My Touch currently plays the flac files just fine but I don't think in 5.1 surround. With the little knowledge I have and following this thread, I was able to convert the flac files I have to .DTS files but now the SB is not seeing these files. Do I need to further convert the .dts files to something else before playing?

Thanks in advance for your help.

PS. I used a program called AudioMuxer (0.9.3.8) to make the .dts files. Just an FYI.

[Philip Meyer]

>Do I need to further convert the .dts files to something else before playing?
>
You need to use a program to convert .dts or .ac3 multi-channel files into another format. Or to be more exact, wrap the multi-channel sound content in a container that makes it look like it is in 2 channels.

I use spdifer from AC3FilterTools: http://ac3filter.net/wiki/AC3Filter_tools to wrap a .ac3 or .dts file in a .wav container.

I then concert .wav to .flac so that I can tag the content.

[Henry66]

I used a program called AudioMuxer (0.9.3.8) to make the .dts files.

AudioMuxer will also convert the .dts files into spdif-wrapped .flac files. Choose "Convert AC3/DTS to SPDIF Wav/flac" in the Tools menu. Click on "Select AC3/DTS Files", then make sure "Export To Flac" is checked and click on the "SPDIF Wav" button. (I usually uncheck the "Re-tag" option before doing this, and afterwards I use MP3tag to re-tag the files.)