EAC3 to AC3 or DTS on a MAC?

[Ed760]

I have an 5 year old Sony STR-DN1040 receiver that does not decode EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), but it works perfectly with encoded signals like Dolby 5.1, AC3, and DTS.

I didn't mind or care about eac3 for a while, but all of the sudden, high resolution files from almost ALL distributors have this as their audio format, so I'll need some sort of converter or demuxer to convert just the EAC3 Audio of a Video file to ACE3, or EAC3 to DTS.

There are several Video converter apps out there, and some of them working converting Dolby for PC Windows computers, but I cant find the right APP to do it with a MAC running Catalina.

Thanks in Advance!

[lisamelton]

@Ed760 You may not need a converter or demuxer at all depending on your delivery system and/or playback device. In order to properly advise you, I need to know a few things first. Are you using Plex to serve up your videos? Also, what sort of device is hooked to your TV and receiver for playback? Is it a Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, etc.? And, if so, what generation?

Thanks.

[Ed760]

Thanks for your help donmelton!

I don't use Plex, I have an iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch running macOS Catalina 10.15.2 hooked to a Sony STR-DN1040 Receiver and a Samsung TV via HDMI, and I'm playing MKV Video files (for example "TittleDDP5.1.H.264-.mkv") with a VLC Player or Elmedia Player APPS.

MKV Video files with Dolby 5.1, AC3, and DTS play just fine and the Receiver processes them correctly, but the newest EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus) MKVs are not recognized by my Receiver, so I think the best way to solve this without replacing my receiver would be to convert the EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus) MKV files to Dolby 5.1, AC3, and DTS with some APP like Handbrake or similar?

Thanks again. Jose.

[lisamelton]

@Ed760 Thanks for the detailed information! OK, that's a unique setup. :) And you're right, you do need to have your DD+ (E-AC-3) audio transcoded for that.

Unfortunately, you can't use something simple like HandBrake for that kind of job because it will also transcode your video. Which isn't necessary.

Fortunately there's FFmpeg. And it can do this quickly and easily at the command line with something like this:

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v copy -c:a ac3 -ab:a 640k -c:s copy output.mkv

...which simply copies video and subtitle tracks as is and then transcodes any audio tracks to AC-3 format at 640 Kbps.

Does that help?

[Ed760]

Many thanks for your help donmelton!

Please let me know how to install FFmpeg in my MAC.

I just went to the FFmpeg site and it is confusing to me as I can´t find the correct file to download to later be installed on my MAC.

Also please let me know how to input the command you told me about onto FFmpeg.

Regards, Jose

[lisamelton]

@Ed760 My apologies, but I assumed you were familiar with command line tools since you opened an issue here on my video_transcoding project, which is itself a collection of command line tools. And the ffmpeg tool is one of its dependencies so I also assumed you had it installed already.

The easiest way to install the ffmpeg tool is to first install Homebrew. See:

https://brew.sh/

Hombrew is a package manager for macOS. Once you have Homebrew installed, you can then do this:

brew install ffmpeg

...within Terminal.app. After that, you should be able to issue a version of that command I gave you earlier.

Does any of this make sense? If not, I'm not sure what to recommend since I don't use any GUI-based tools to convert or transcode videos.

[damorrison]

Hi Jose,

I'm not aware of a GUI tool that will just convert audio, and all of Don's tools are command line based so you would need to be comfortable working in terminal.app. Personally, if you have a 'smart 'version of your Samsung, I'd install the Plex server on your iMac Retina, point it at your video library, and then use the Samsung Plex app on the TV. All the converting will happen for you based on the capabilities of your system.

On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 at 19:04, Ed760 notifications@github.com wrote:

Thanks for your help donmelton!

I don't use Plex, I have an iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch running macOS Catalina 10.15.2 hooked to a Sony STR-DN1040 Receiver and a Samsung TV via HDMI, and I'm playing MKV Video files (for example "TittleDDP5.1.H.264-.mkv") with a VLC Player or Elmedia Player APPS.

MKV Video files with Dolby 5.1, AC3, and DTS play just fine and the Receiver processes them correctly, but the newest EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus) MKVs are not recognized by my Receiver, so I think the best way to solve this without replacing my receiver would be to convert the EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus) MKV files to Dolby 5.1, AC3, and DTS with some APP like Handbrake or similar?

Thanks again. Jose.

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-- Kind regards, Dave

[Ed760]

@Ed760 My apologies, but I assumed you were familiar with command line tools since you opened an issue here on my video_transcoding project, which is itself a collection of command line tools. And the ffmpeg tool is one of its dependencies so I also assumed you had it installed already.

The easiest way to install the ffmpeg tool is to first install Homebrew. See:

https://brew.sh/

Hombrew is a package manager for macOS. Once you have Homebrew installed, you can then do this:

brew install ffmpeg

...within Terminal.app. After that, you should be able to issue a version of that command I gave you earlier.

Does any of this make sense? If not, I'm not sure what to recommend since I don't use any GUI-based tools to convert or transcode videos.

Thanks for helping me donmelton!

Sorry, I posted my question here after someone in a USENET MAC group recommend it, without realizing this forum is for people familiar with command line tools, anyway it has been very interesting and helpful for me, and I'll try to learn about it as much as I can.

I just downloaded Homebrew and I'll try to make it work to later install ffmpeg.

I'll let you know.

Regards, Jose.

[Ed760]

Hi Jose, I'm not aware of a GUI tool that will just convert audio, and all of Don's tools are command line based so you would need to be comfortable working in terminal.app. Personally, if you have a 'smart 'version of your Samsung, I'd install the Plex server on your iMac Retina, point it at your video library, and then use the Samsung Plex app on the TV. All the converting will happen for you based on the capabilities of your system. …

Thanks for your help damorrison!

I'm comfortable working in terminal.app as long as I'm sure of what I'm doing, so I'll try what donmelton suggested. If I can´t make it work I'd like to try Plex server, and I have a question about it:

Can I run Plex server as any other app from my MAC, or it must be connected to a web-server or other?

Regards, Jose.

[damorrison]

The Plex server comes as an app, so just download it and run it. It does contain a web server etc, but all that is included. It is an excellent piece of server software, that most of us here use as a media hub.

On Sat, 21 Dec 2019 at 17:06, Ed760 notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi Jose, I'm not aware of a GUI tool that will just convert audio, and all of Don's tools are command line based so you would need to be comfortable working in terminal.app. Personally, if you have a 'smart 'version of your Samsung, I'd install the Plex server on your iMac Retina, point it at your video library, and then use the Samsung Plex app on the TV. All the converting will happen for you based on the capabilities of your system. … <#m3311343436663659783>

Thanks for your help damorrison!

I'm comfortable working in terminal.app as long as I'm sure of what I'm doing, so I'll try what donmelton suggested. If I can´t make it work I'd like to try Plex server, and I have a question about it:

Can I run Plex server as any other app from my MAC, or it must be connected to a web-server or other?

Regards, Jose.

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-- Kind regards, Dave

[lisamelton]

@Ed760 No problem, take your time. Asking your question here is fine.

And, yes, you can run a Plex server on your Mac. The server is designed to run on macOS, Windows and Linux. And the client is available for many platforms, including macOS.

BTW, according to this:

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/audio-components-receivers-amplifiers/str-dn1040/specifications

...your receiver should support DD+ (E-AC-3) decoding. So the problem is likely with VLC or macOS itself. Which means that switching to Plex as a playback engine should solve the problem one way or another. Meaning Plex will either pass through your DD+ audio without issue or it will decide to dynamically transcode it for you.

[Ed760]

Many thanks to Don Melton and David Morrison for helping me!

Early today I installed Plex Server but I can`t make it work watching movies or any video file, only still pictures.

The Plex shows OK in my Samsung TV and the interface displays the files I select, but when I try to play a movie I get " Check Your Network" and nothing happens...I`m stuck there.

I tried everything and I also rebuilt my entire network from scratch.

I have an Airport Extreme Router that works very well, and all my network works just fine, so probably it is just something related with my Samsung TV.

Regards, Jose.

[lisamelton]

@Ed760 Sorry I took so long to reply. But... I am at a loss for how to proceed. I've never experienced that error with Plex before if the UI actually shows the videos and allows you to select them. I'll try contacting my transcoding "hive mind" for you since many of them also have experience with Plex, however many are away during this holiday week so I would not expect a prompt response.

[Ed760]

No problem Don, this is not urgent as I can watch movies and the sound isn't bad and you have been very helpful already.

Strange thing is that although my Sony receiver display shows a PCM signal when DL.DDP5.1 MKV movie are played, voices comes from the central channel, and left and right channel work too.

I'm not sure about the L & R rear channels because I have not played many movies yet, but although the sound quality is better when playing Dolby 5.1 and DTS material, the fact that the central channel works, means that the receiver is processing the EAC3 signal somehow without identifying it as Dolby in the display.

Or may be it is performing some Surround-Sound simulation after processing just the L & R channels? I don't know, I do not have now other receivers to compare to.

Probably, the Sony receiver may need a firmware update, but Sony is notorious for abandoning firmware updates after some time after launching them. Next time I will buy a different receiver brand.

I'll keep researching about this and I can probably ask in the Plex forums, and if you find something please let me know.

Thanks again and Happy Holidays! Jose.

[Ed760]

Solved! I found this app that works perfectly for what I need, it is very fast and easy to use. https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35968/remux https://roaringapps.com/app/remux

Anyway, I will try to make Plex work. Happy Holidays!

[lisamelton]

@Ed760 I'm glad that tool will work for you, sir. Happy Holidays to you as well. :)

I'll close this now since this is essentially resolved, but feel free to comment again here or open new issues for other problems.

[george-emerald]

I know this is a closed issue, but there's a much better solution than converting with ffmpeg every single time. You can use mpv which includes an on-the-fly audio converter lavcac3enc that will convert the audio to AC3 as you're playing the video.

[Ed760]

I know this is a closed issue, but there's a much better solution than converting with ffmpeg every single time. You can use mpv which includes an on-the-fly audio converter lavcac3enc that will convert the audio to AC3 as you're playing the video.

Thanks a lot George!

But I have an iMac....is there an "MPV" for MAC´s ?

I have El Media Player, VLC, and Quick Time players already installed, but I still using REMUX to convert the audio in most of movies and series.

Thanks Again for your help!

Ed.

[skj-dev]

is there an "MPV" for MAC´s ?

❯ brew info mpv                                                                           
Warning: Treating mpv as a formula. For the cask, use homebrew/cask/mpv
==> mpv: stable 0.35.1 (bottled), HEAD
Media player based on MPlayer and mplayer2
https://mpv.io
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/mpv/0.35.1_2 (33 files, 9.9MB) *