Audio Track Language/Title

Hi all, i don’t know if this is a bug, a missing feature on WDTV Live (Gen. 3) or i’m doing something wrong. I ripped a film with two audio streams in an mkv container, thing is, WDTV can’t display the audio track language or title when you switch them, it is showing only the track type (“DTSHRA” for English or “DTS” for Italian in my case). Here’s a mediainfo log:

General
Unique ID : 231960755237890001932281491289167405982 (0xAE820435A4B4C646C9F1A3F892E0A39E)
Complete name : I.Robot.2004.BluRay.1080p.x264.DTS-HD-Eng.DTS-Ita.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 12.9 GiB
Duration : 1h 54mn
Overall bit rate : 16.1 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2014-05-07 15:11:38
Writing application : mkvmerge v6.8.0 ('Theme for Great Cities') 64bit built on Mar 3 2014 15:38:06
Writing library : libebml v1.3.0 + libmatroska v1.4.1
TITLE : I.Robot.2004.x264.DTS-HD-Eng.DTS-Ita
DATE_RELEASED : 2004
GENRE : Sci-Fi

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 54mn
Bit rate : 12.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.241
Stream size : 9.61 GiB (74%)
Writing library : x264 core 130 r2273 b3065e6
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1,00:0,15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=18,0 / qcomp=0,60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=78125 / crf_max=0,0 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1,40 / aq=1:1,00
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : HRA / Core
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 54mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 3 018 Kbps / 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 2.42 GiB (19%)
Title : DTS-HD-Eng
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 54mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 768 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 630 MiB (5%)
Title : DTS-5.1-Ita
Language : Italian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #1
ID : 4
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #2
ID : 5
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Italian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #3
ID : 6
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Spanish
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #4
ID : 7
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Russian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #5
ID : 8
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Czech
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #6
ID : 9
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Hungarian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #7
ID : 10
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Polish
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #8
ID : 11
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Arabic
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #9
ID : 12
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Greek
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #10
ID : 13
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Hebrew
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #11
ID : 14
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Icelandic
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #12
ID : 15
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Portuguese
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #13
ID : 16
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Croatian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #14
ID : 17
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Slovenian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #15
ID : 18
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Turkish
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #16
ID : 19
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Bulgarian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #17
ID : 20
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Romanian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #18
ID : 21
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Estonian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #19
ID : 22
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Latvian
Default : No
Forced : No

Text #20
ID : 23
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Lithuanian
Default : No
Forced : No

Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 1
00:01:46.315 : en:Chapter 2
00:03:29.751 : en:Chapter 3
00:06:18.044 : en:Chapter 4
00:07:57.018 : en:Chapter 5
00:10:19.077 : en:Chapter 6
00:12:10.605 : en:Chapter 7
00:15:34.684 : en:Chapter 8
00:17:47.358 : en:Chapter 9
00:22:51.245 : en:Chapter 10
00:26:13.530 : en:Chapter 11
00:26:58.617 : en:Chapter 12
00:33:22.667 : en:Chapter 13
00:36:03.078 : en:Chapter 14
00:41:23.022 : en:Chapter 15
00:46:07.265 : en:Chapter 16
00:49:05.401 : en:Chapter 17
00:52:13.881 : en:Chapter 18
00:55:21.652 : en:Chapter 19
00:58:31.091 : en:Chapter 20
01:00:06.269 : en:Chapter 21
01:01:08.165 : en:Chapter 22
01:07:55.613 : en:Chapter 23
01:08:17.594 : en:Chapter 24
01:10:23.678 : en:Chapter 25
01:13:16.601 : en:Chapter 26
01:16:53.192 : en:Chapter 27
01:18:38.964 : en:Chapter 28
01:20:13.726 : en:Chapter 29
01:21:17.790 : en:Chapter 30
01:21:56.829 : en:Chapter 31
01:27:29.035 : en:Chapter 32
01:28:57.165 : en:Chapter 33
01:32:59.032 : en:Chapter 34
01:34:44.637 : en:Chapter 35
01:38:08.966 : en:Chapter 36
01:41:10.273 : en:Chapter 37
01:44:14.915 : en:Chapter 38
01:45:02.254 : en:Chapter 39

This issue has already been discussed Here or Here but they are old threads and it seems that a fix isn’t out there yet. As you can see from the log, i also tried to add the “Title” field in audio tracks with MKVmerge, but the player doesn’t display it. The toolchain i used for ripping and transcoding the film was: MakeMKV → HandBrake → MKVmerge. Any suggestions please?

EDIT: forgot to mention i’m using latest firmware v2.01.86, also tried a factory reset but didn’t solve this issue.

It will show the track names if you use the menu to select audio.  The quick-change “Audio” button, as you have seen, only displays the minimal info.

During playback, press Options - Audio - … you’ll see the names.

Hi Tony, thanks for your answer. I just tried as you said but i still only get “DTSHRA” and “DTS” as labels in the Options - Audio menù… :cry:

None of the WDTVs showed the title of a track and I doubt they ever will.

Well ok for the lack of support regarding the custom audio track title, but i think it would be useful at least to display the language as many other players do. So, only solution is hoping that WD will implement it in newer firmware releases?

EDIT: seems like the audio track language feature was present on “older” WDTVs, as stated by This post.

Demirulez, I’m sorry for sending you on a ‘fools errand…’ I would have bet a beer it worked.

After retracing my steps, I realize that it was VLC that was displaying the titles.

No problem Tony, it seems like a missing feature of the WDTV Live SMP, pretty annoying but i’ll live with that. Maybe in newer firmware versions they’ll add it one day.

demirulez wrote:
EDIT: seems like the audio track language feature was present on “older” WDTVs, as stated by This post.


Can’t remember seeing this on the old Live model either, it’s definitely not the case in 1.06.34.

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if they added such a feature in the next model while still ignoring the forced flag in MKVs.