problem getting 5.1 from dvd handbrake dvd encodes

[oleus23@aol.com]

this is a recent problem that's popped up for me - at first i had no problem getting 5.1 from dvd content using handbrake and then streaming to my Apple TV. But now I can only occasionally (1 out of 10 tries) successfully get the 5.1 track streamed to my Apple TV (i get prologic instead). The first few (successful) encodes still play with 5.1 but anything i've encoded recently with handbrake (even though i selected the 5.1 track and used AAC+AC3 output) plays as prologic.

i have tried troubleshooting this with no clues....i will occasionally get a 5.1 track from certain discs but these encodes take so long this is a hard one to troubleshoot!

any help appreciated!

 

[Kurfer]

this is a recent problem that's popped up for me - at first i had no problem getting 5.1 from dvd content using handbrake and then streaming to my Apple TV. But now I can only occasionally (1 out of 10 tries) successfully get the 5.1 track streamed to my Apple TV (i get prologic instead). The first few (successful) encodes still play with 5.1 but anything i've encoded recently with handbrake (even though i selected the 5.1 track and used AAC+AC3 output) plays as prologic.

i have tried troubleshooting this with no clues....i will occasionally get a 5.1 track from certain discs but these encodes take so long this is a hard one to troubleshoot!

any help appreciated!

Silly question, are the files m4v? I have seen handbrake for some reason keep it on mp4 when I click my apple tv setting or my custom setting. I just make sure to watch it, I catch it all the time. It's not annoying enough for me to troubleshoot at this point and once I click the preset again it switches to m4v.

 

[Cave Man]

Open one of the transcoded files in Quicktime and then select Window > Show Movie Properties. Are both the AAC (stereo, selected) and AC3 (surround, deselected) tracks listed? If so, then the file is properly encoded and the problem likely lies with your ATV or your receiver.

Also, did you update your presets after your last Handbrake install?

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

Open one of the transcoded files in Quicktime and then select Window > Show Movie Properties. Are both the AAC (stereo, selected) and AC3 (surround, deselected) tracks listed? If so, then the file is properly encoded and the problem likely lies with your ATV or your receiver.

Also, did you update your presets after your last Handbrake install?

just tried this with one of the files - and indeed all of the tracks are listed (STEREO IS CHECKED, SURROUND IS NOT BUT IT'S THERE!).

Doubt anything is wrong with my receiver as it handles 5.1 from other items in my itunes movie list via Apple TV (it's an Onkyo 7.1 hdmi receiver and it seems to send out whatever it's fed with zero problems for the year i've had it), and it's 100% repeatable with certain titles i've encoded. If the fault lies with my ATV would a system reset be in order??? it's just strange it doesn't seem to be "seeing" the AC3 from certain encodes while it is with others....

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

Cave Man -

I tried opening some items in QT that only had prologic/DD 2.0 to begin with from DVD/handbrake/ATV and they all showed the same item properties, so I am not sure if seeing the "surround/AC3" on the files that should have 5.1 is really telling me anything.....AC3 doesn't necessarily mean 5.1, just that a dolby digital track of some sort is present, correct?

also to answer your other question - i have only installed handbrake once so my prefs haven't changed.

 

[Cave Man]

So if I understand you correctly, you can currently get 5.1 Dolby Digital from your older Handbrake encodes, but not your newer ones? In other words, you can start an older handbrake file and your receiver switches to DD, but then you start a new handbrake file and it switches to DPL (or some other analog)?

 

[Cave Man]

Cave Man -

I tried opening some items in QT that only had prologic/DD 2.0

I'm not sure what you mean here. Pro Logic and DD are two different surround sound technologies. Are you saying they had only Pro Logic OR DD; or are you saying they had both Pro Logic AND DD?

to begin with from DVD/handbrake/ATV and they all showed the same item properties, so I am not sure if seeing the "surround/AC3" on the files that should have 5.1 is really telling me anything.....AC3 doesn't necessarily mean 5.1, just that a dolby digital track of some sort is present, correct?

Yes, if your file has a Dolby Digital (AC-3) track, regardless of the number of tracks, the Apple TV (Take 2) should activate DD on your receiver. Handbrake does not work with DTS digital as far as I know. Perhaps dynaflash can chime in here since he's on the dev team.

also to answer your other question - i have only installed handbrake once so my prefs haven't changed.

You might try it anyway: Presets -> Update Presets.

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

So if I understand you correctly, you can currently get 5.1 Dolby Digital from your older Handbrake encodes, but not your newer ones? In other words, you can start an older handbrake file and your receiver switches to DD, but then you start a new handbrake file and it switches to DPL (or some other analog)?

yes this is exactly correct. one recent handbrake encode is properly playing in 5.1 on my apple tv....the rest are dolby prologic 2.0 even though my encoding selections were for the DD 5.1 track as AAC+AC3. videos with 5.1 from my first several encodes are still playing as 5.1 on ATV.


as for the prologic / DD issues... i may be incorrect here but i thought AC3 just meant discreet DD audio whether it be 2.0 or 5.1. Dolby Digital can even be sent out as 1.0, so i was figuring that the QT "show movie properties" indicator might not be a good guage for what's going on here since my natively DD 2.0 (prologic) encodes are showing the same "AC3 SURROUND" track in quicktime as the ones that are (or should be) 5.1.....but i could be and probably am wrong on some of these specifics so any help is appreciated.

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

I'm not sure what you mean here. Pro Logic and DD are two different surround sound technologies. Are you saying they had only Pro Logic OR DD; or are you saying they had both Pro Logic AND DD?

well for the tracks i am speaking of, my receiver is reading them as 2.0 DD and reading the flag as prologic to matrix to surrounds. so we can throw out the prologic term for the problem i'm having, i am just trying to figure out why certain 5.1 tracks are being seen as 2.0 on my ATV. and since even DD 2.0 tracks are showing up in QT with a "surround ac3" option (unchecked) i was just thinking that QT was interpreting ANY DD track as a surround track even though it might be natively 2.0 or even 1.0 (like some of my encodes have been). so it's hard to say whether these recent problemed encodes really do have a 5.1 track embedded in them or not, since QT doesn't seem to be differentiaiting there.

 

[Cave Man]

as for the prologic / DD issues... i may be incorrect here but i thought AC3 just meant discreet DD audio whether it be 2.0 or 5.1. Dolby Digital can even be sent out as 1.0, so i was figuring that the QT "show movie properties" indicator might not be a good guage for what's going on here since my natively DD 2.0 (prologic) encodes are showing the same "AC3 SURROUND" track in quicktime as the ones that are (or should be) 5.1.....but i could be and probably am wrong on some of these specifics so any help is appreciated.

It's either Dolby Digital (AC3) or Pro Logic (AAC), not both. They are two different encoding schemes. Dolby Digital is always listed as AC3. Have you read this thread for a little background on surround sound and the Apple TV 2 software? Yes, Dolby Digital is a digital-only signal capable of mono to 10 or 20 or more (theoretically, but up to 9.1 practically). If the Dolby Digital indicator lights up on your receiver, then the ATV is properly passing through the AC3 Dolby Digital audio. Dolby Pro Logic is 4-channel (DPL) or 5-channel (DPLII) analog surround sound audio that is encoded as AAC for the ATV.

i am just trying to figure out why certain 5.1 tracks are being seen as 2.0 on my ATV. and since even DD 2.0 tracks are showing up in QT with a "surround ac3" option (unchecked) i was just thinking that QT was interpreting ANY DD track as a surround track even though it might be natively 2.0 or even 1.0 (like some of my encodes have been).

When you click on the Surround track and then the Audio Settings tab of one of these movies that's giving you trouble, do you see 6 channels, as is in the attached screen shot?

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

Cave Man -

I understand all of that about DD, etc. I am choosing to handbrake with AAC+AC3 and it was working before (getting me 5.1 via ATV).

And every single one of my handbrake encodes (whether it be 5.1, 2.0, 1.0) shows up in QT with a surround AC3 file listed so i can't use that as a guage for whether a 5.1 track exists on an encode.

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

PS to Cave Man - i do see all six channels with the files in question when i go into the surround track audio settings, so handbrake is definitely not the problem. i have encodes with 5.1 it's just my apple tv isn't seeing them all properly. i wonder what's going on here...

 

[Cave Man]

PS to Cave Man - i do see all six channels with the files in question when i go into the surround track audio settings, so handbrake is definitely not the problem. i have encodes with 5.1 it's just my apple tv isn't seeing them all properly. i wonder what's going on here...

So, to recap:

1. Your encodes do indeed have both AAC and 5.1 AC3 audio tracks.
2. Your receiver, which is connected directly to your ATV by an HDMI cable (or is it optical), only receives the AAC track from some of these movies, but the AC3 track from others. This results in your DPL indicator illuminating for the AAC audio and the DD indicator for the AC3 audio from these files.

If this is correct, I think I'm stumped. All of my encodes have worked as they're supposed to with my Onkyo system - DD for the AC3 and DPL for the AAC. Strange problem.

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

So, to recap:

1. Your encodes do indeed have both AAC and 5.1 AC3 audio tracks.
2. Your receiver, which is connected directly to your ATV by an HDMI cable (or is it optical), only receives the AAC track from some of these movies, but the AC3 track from others. This results in your DPL indicator illuminating for the AAC audio and the DD indicator for the AC3 audio from these files.

If this is correct, I think I'm stumped. All of my encodes have worked as they're supposed to with my Onkyo system - DD for the AC3 and DPL for the AAC. Strange problem.

yep that pretty much sums it up (i am using hdmi for video and audio, BTW). QT shows all 6 channels for about 5 different encodes and these play in ATV from the AAC track.

my three DD 5.1 encodes from yesterday are all playing with 5.1 so I have to chalk this up to a day of faulty 5.1 encodes I guess. Seems to be working now. It's just strange that QT sees the 5.1 on these while ATV doesn't.

 

[FreeState]

You don't by chance have the audio passing to your TV as well? With my Onkyo if I pass the audio through the HDMI to the TV sometimes it will not play the 5.1 surround. I have to tell the receiver to not pass audio to get 5.1 consistently (I usually pass it through because I have an HDMI amplifier splitting the signal to two TVs - one is in another room).

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

You don't by chance have the audio passing to your TV as well? With my Onkyo if I pass the audio through the HDMI to the TV sometimes it will not play the 5.1 surround. I have to tell the receiver to not pass audio to get 5.1 consistently (I usually pass it through because I have an HDMI amplifier splitting the signal to two TVs - one is in another room).

no audio passing to TV - i use a projector.

 

[dynaflash]

Handbrake does not work with DTS digital as far as I know. Perhaps dynaflash can chime in here since he's on the dev team.

HB does "work" with DTS but for obvious reasons cannot pass it thru as AC3, so you can downmix it to aac, etc. (since pass thru is just that ... pass thru) and even if it could pass through the DTS as .. well DTS it wouldn't matter to an atv since an atv cannot play dts ... well you get the picture.

 

[Cave Man]

Yes, that's why I put in the "digital" after DTS - no passthrough of DTS.

 

[dynaflash]

Right ... I knew that ... was just testing to see if your awake.

 

[Tweeksy]

I'm having the same issues, knew that I would get an tv, so encoded a load of DVDs ready and thought they would all have 5.1 (used ATV preset in HB) but only one of them actually has it.

Tried to encode another and made sure it was saved as a .m4v file instead of .mp4, and double checked all the HB settings but it still only had the stereo soundtrack

Assuming it is either me making a mistake, and the GUI not making it clear, or a bug here? I haven't had any other major issues with HB, it works really well!

 

[dynaflash]

Well, also bear in mind that AC3 is not always 5.1 surround. Plenty of dvd's only have AC3 2.0. HB will just pass through the AC3 that is on the dvd, you can see in the audio source track popup what mix of AC3 the source has available and that you have selected.

 

[MikieMikie]

I'm not near my Apple TV right now, but isn't there a setting in the
Setup->Audio
that says, "Turn on DD/AC3" or something?

 

[oleus23@aol.com]

I'm not near my Apple TV right now, but isn't there a setting in the
Setup->Audio
that says, "Turn on DD/AC3" or something?

yes, but for the two of us in this thread who are having this issue, we are seeing 5.1 on some encodes via ATV and not others.

FWIW, i am now getting 5.1 on all of the encodes that should have them, so i'm just going back and re-encoding the handful that only play with 2.0 audio even though the 5.1 is technically there on the original encoded file (and just not passing as 5.1 like other files are).

 

[eyephone]

I am having the same issue. Any fixes in the last few months?

 

[MacBlackBook22]

I had the same problems till I went and updated the presets once I did that all my ripped DVD's had the 5.1 surround sound again

Go to Presets and click update built in presets.