Advise on MKV playback

[phoneguyinpgh]

Need some solid advise on ripping BR to MKV files and playing back in 7MC.

I just started using MakeMKV to finally rip my BR.  It seems to be working and rips them in about 30min.

I read this article and followed the minimalist approach for playback in 7MC. 

http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/01/playing-mkvs-in-media-center.html

I ripped History of the World Part I but I think I ripped with the wrong audio settings in MakeMKV, the audio came out in MC in 2channel instead of DDII or DTS and it sounded like I had 2 audio tracks playing sightly out of sync with each other.  Changing settings in FFDS didn’t help things any and sometimes caused the file not to play in WMP.  I re-ripped it with just the top level HD-DTS sound track selected and that seemed to make it work.

It is obvious that setting in both programs need to be correct for everything to play nice together.

I am not bit-steaming throught HDMI.  Both HTPCs are connected to my AVR via optical SPDIF.

My questions are;

1.  Should I have used the Shark007 method in the article instead of using FFDshow?

2. If I stay with FFDShow, what are the correct audio decoder configurations to playback the DDII or DTS sound track via SPDIF?

3.  What are the correct settings in MakeMKV to rip the DDII/DTS sound tack only.

 

Thank you in advance for any help.

 

PS  if there is a guide that exists that I missed let me know.

[swoon]

Since you are ripping with the DTS HD audio track, it contains lossy DTS core audio as well which means that you should be able to bitstream that portion through S/PDIF. Since you are able to get stereo sound, it seems that what you are doing is decoding the audio to PCM and then sending via S/PDIF.

It has been a while since I have used FFDShow Audio, but IIRC, there is an output section where you can configure audio passthrough types your AVR can accept. Are AC3 and DTS selected there?

[phoneguyinpgh]

Thanks Aaron.  I’ve done a little more playing around with MakeMKV, I’ve been de-selecting all the audio tracks except DTS-3/2 and I think I have FFDShow’s audio set correctly as the 5 or so that I have ripped in the last 3  hours are coming through with DTS sound.

However, one rip I have done, The Mask, seems to be using quite a bit of CPU power and is stuttering.  Others such as Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Total Recall are playing fine, CPU is between 30-50%.  The Mask Runs between 80-100%.  I’ve re-ripped 3 times and it still has hi CPU usage.  I can’t seem to figure out why.

[swoon]

What hardware are you playing back on? The Mask is VC-1.

[phoneguyinpgh]

AMD Athalon 5600+, ATI 5450 HDMI to Tv.  The file is stored on WHS2 Gig-E network connections all around. 

Total Recall I is VC-1 as well (I think) and seems to play fine.

[swoon]

According to blu-ray.com, Total Recall is MPEG-2.

You might try installing the optional Catalyst package “AMD Media Codec Package” as I think it will install a VC-1 codec that WMP can utilize for HW decodes of VC-1.

[swoon]

BTW, If you use GraphStudio, you can drag the file in there and see exactly what is being used for the audio and video processing of the file.

[phoneguyinpgh]

Ok…  I’ll give that a try.  Forbidden Planet is VC-1 and has rather hi CPU as well.  Not as bad as Mask though.  Will advise as to the AMD codec pack.

[phoneguyinpgh]

Aaron,

Still no joy. It is only the VC-1 BD have have the hi CPU and slight stuttering issue.  Is there a setting in WMP to use HW acceleration?  Or maybe one in FFDShow??  I can’t seem to find them.

[swoon]

Can you post a screenshot of FilterGraph with the file?

[phoneguyinpgh]

Aaron,

I think I may have figured it out.  I restored last nights backup and started over with the shark007 method.  I’ve been able to get both MP4 and VC-1 encoded MKVs to play with HW acceleration so CPU usage is down around 10-20%.  I am still having issues with the surround sound, I need to do more tests but it seems that if I rip the MKV with both the HD and regular DTS sound track, the decoder can’t seem to figure out which one to use and outputs 2ch.  I’ll let you know what I find.  Thanks for the help.

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