OK, I’ll admit right off the bat that I made a stupid mistake…
I recently got the Live Hub for my son because he has such a love of watching old movies. I read through several posts and noted that many users were using DVDFab to convert their DVDs into mkv format. I made a trial run and created an mkv file that played fine on the Live Hub. I had temporarily moved a TV into my office to test the files to ensure that they worked. After the first one worked ok, I moved the TV out, lined up 6 laptops and desktops and started ripping through a huge stack of DVDs. Unfortunately, when I set all of them up, I must have set something up wrong because now the 80+ DVDs that I’ve burned will not produce any audio. The Live Hub is connected via a composite cable, but will eventually be connected via HDMI or fiber.
The settings that I used on DVDFab are as follows:
-DVD Ripper (to mkv)
-Profile: generic.mkv.h264.aac
-This profile sets it to 1-pass fast encoding, 1015 kbps, 720x392, framrate same as source, audio 448kbps, 5.1 multichannel (depending on DVD source)
The video seems to be fine. I’m previewing on a small screen but will eventually be on a large plasma screen. First I would like to know if there is an “easy” way to do a batch reformatting of the audio to convert it into a playable format. Secondly, I would like to know if there is a better setup for DVDFab that would have prevented this mishap in the first place.
I have tried using handbrake to reformat the audio. It actually made the file larger because it seemed to have added a second audio track that is playable by the Hub. However, it took 5 hours for one movie and I am unsure if it downgraded the video any when I made the conversion. Thank you in advance for your help.
So I’m assuming the 5.1 audio in the files is actually AAC 5.1? That would certainly be a problem…
You can re-encode AAC 5.1 into DD 5.1 using Popcorn MKV Audio Converter:
http://audioconverter.heartware.dk/Tutorial/
The only downside is the lack of batch converting. Conversion is pretty fast though (it doesn’t touch the video stream at all).
Do you think it would be ok to do the conversion directly on the Hub or should I move them back to my local HD first?
The Hub doesn’t have great bandwidth, I’d do it locally.
The process outputs a new MKV file, so make sure the source and target folders are not the same (or at least name the new MKV something different).
Popcorn would not do the conversion. The log stated the following:
Progress log:
Extracting Information for file “C:\DVDs\Already Copied\DEVILSBRIGADE\DEVILSBRIGADE.Title3.mkv”
Video Track:
Track Number: 1
Codec: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Pixel Resolution: 848x368
Aspect ratio: 2.30
Display Resolution: 848x368
Frames per second: 29.970
Audio Track #1
Track Number: 2
Codec: A_AAC
SampleRate: 48000
Channels: 2
Skipping conversion - none of the audio tracks can be converted or the conversion has been disabled:
Audio Track #1 of codec A_AAC is of a convertible codec, but not a convertible format.
Only SBR-format Stereo AAC audio tracks needs to be converted
Any suggestions?
Apparently, your files are encoded with a version of AAC that the program won’t / can’t re-encode to AC3.
Do you get the same error when trying to convert files that have 5.1 audio?
This one actually ran for a while and then failed after 10min or so, with the following log:
Progress log:
Extracting Information for file “C:\DVDs\Already Copied\STAR_TREK_VIII\STAR_TREK_VIII.Title1.mkv”
Video Track:
Track Number: 3
Codec: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Pixel Resolution: 848x368
Aspect ratio: 2.30
Display Resolution: 848x368
Frames per second: 23.976
Audio Track #1
Track Number: 4
Codec: A_AAC
SampleRate: 48000
Channels: 6
DeMuxing tracks
Extracting time codes for audio tracks for proper handling of audio delay
Track #1 wasn’t delayed
Decoding Audio Track #1 to WAV
Any other suggestions (including a way to have handbrake only look at the audio)?
Thanks
I’m a little confused that your AAC tracks aren’t playing at all for you…
A number of my files have 2-ch AAC and I still get sound from them.
Can you paste the MediaInfo output for one of them here?
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en
General
Unique ID : 207892764602366273825507097821708047787 (0x9C66B0A791E7B927AF141295D12C55AB)
Complete name : C:\DVDs\Already Copied\STAR_TREK_VIII\STAR_TREK_VIII.Title1.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 1.15 GiB
Duration : 1h 50mn
Overall bit rate : 1 489 Kbps
Movie name : STAR_TREK_VIII.Title1.DVDRip
Encoded date : UTC 2011-01-22 17:57:06
Writing application : DVDFab
Writing library : libebml v0.7.8 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video
ID : 3
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 50mn
Width : 848 pixels
Height : 368 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.35:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Writing library : x264 core
Color primaries : BT.601-6 525, BT.1358 525, BT.1700 NTSC, SMPTE 170M
Transfer characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients : BT.601-6 525, BT.1358 525, BT.1700 NTSC, SMPTE 170M
Audio
ID : 4
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 1h 50mn
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
This one was the 5.1 mkv file.
Looks fine…
Did you re-attempt re-encoding the 5.1 file with Popcorn MKV Audio Converter?
There didn’t seem to be an error message in the log you pasted for it…
There are other ways of converting the audio without touching the video but they require multiple applications ( like this tutorial).
I don’t know how to make HandBrake process just Audio… I can’t find anything about enabling such a feature.
I did not try it on the Hub because the conversion failed. After several minutes, I received an error message stating “Unable to resample audio file c:\tools\temp\4.wav”.
There was no explanation for the error. I will try a few more and let you know if I get the same results.
Ok, popcorn AudioConverter will not convert my mkv files. Each time it gives me this message:
Skipping conversion - none of the audio tracks can be converted or the conversion has been disabled:
Audio Track #1 of codec A_AAC is of a convertible codec, but not a convertible format.
Only SBR-format Stereo AAC audio tracks needs to be converted
Any other suggestions?
To get the audio converted you are probably going to have to demux the MKVs with MKVExtractGUI, convert the audio and then remux the MKV back with AC3 audio using MKVtoolnix.
Although there is another tool that you can try, XviD4PSP. I don’t know if it will work, since it’s one of the few tools that I’ve tried.
I have been able to successfully extract the AAC audio tracks but have been unable to find anything that would convert them to AC3.
I tried Popcorn, but it would not produce an output file.
I tried mkv2ac3 but it would also not produce an output file.
I tried the convert function in VLC per these instructions ( http://www.kombitz.com/2009/02/24/how-to-convert-aac-to-ac3-in-mkv-file/)) but VLC has been “upgraded” and does not properly convert the audio track (MediaInfo shows it as still being an AAC track with the exact same size and parameters as the original).
Still trying more options. some helpful hints would be most appreciated…
Well, you can see HERE as to one way to convert AAC to AC3.
You can also try Audacity, which may convert it, I know that it accepts AAC (FFmpeg) and AC3 (FFmpeg), but I’m not sure that it will do what you want it to.
But you will probably save yourself time just re-converting the DVDs. I would recomend using Handbrake, select High Profile and then select AC3 Passthrough (or DTS passthrough if your DVD has it) for your Audio. This way your audio is the same as the DVD, if you try to convert the audio then remux it to the MKV you are probably going to spend more time trying to do that then it would take just to re-rip the DVD then convert the whole thing to MKV, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience demuxing and muxing.
PixelPower said: "I’m a little confused that your AAC tracks aren’t playing at all for you…
A number of my files have 2-ch AAC and I still get sound from them."
Aren’t you the one that told me that the WD TV can’t handle 5.1 AAC audio? Something about licensing, IIRC. Anyway, it has been my experience that AAC 5.1 audio does not play on the WD TV. I use AC3 or DTS for my conversions if I want multi-channel audio.
Miami_Son wrote:
PixelPower said: "I’m a little confused that your AAC tracks aren’t playing at all for you…
A number of my files have 2-ch AAC and I still get sound from them."
Aren’t you the one that told me that the WD TV can’t handle 5.1 AAC audio? Something about licensing, IIRC. Anyway, it has been my experience that AAC 5.1 audio does not play on the WD TV. I use AC3 or DTS for my conversions if I want multi-channel audio.
I am and I did say that about 5.1 AAC 
But, if you look again at the text you just quoted, you’ll see I specified 2-ch AAC (2-channel or AAC 2.0 if you prefer). It’s kinda unusual that AAC 2.0 isn’t working for him when the Live will happily play that format.
You did say your 2-channel AAC files played fine, but the OP says his 80+ conversions have 5.1 AAC audio. His problem appears to be that he can’t re-encode them to stereo AAC. Despite the best attempts at giving him an easy out, I think his only choice is to redo his conversions with the proper settings that will give him working audio he desires. I sure hope WD releases a firmware that supports 5.1 AAC soon. As it is one of the most prolific surround sound formats used it makes no sense for them not to.
His problem is that he can’t re-encode his AAC files to AC3 5.1. He pasted the error message for one of his attempts and it shows he was re-encoding a file with AAC 2.0, which is why I made my comment. There should be no need to re-encode stereo AAC.
It would be great if WD supported AAC 5.1 but they have no license and won’t convert it to 5.1 PCM. They seem to bitstream, which only a fraction of the user base is suitably equipped to play.
Agreed on the reconversion suggestion for the OP. In the time spent discussing and trying to troubleshoot re-encoding, he could have re-ripped and encoded half his collection properly. Still don’t understand why the program he’s using is creating AAC tracks that can’t be re-encoded. 
