WD TV Live AAC 5.1?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

Please could someone verify if the latest firmware has resolved this issue with AAC 5.1 audio on the WD LIVE.

It would be handy if posts were updated on this forum with"solved" instead of duplicating and no-one never knowing if the issue was resolved or not?

Thanks

2

No, and it’s doubtful it will be solved, mostly because the issue isn’t with the WDTV.

If your audio file has AAC 5.1, then the WD is going to stream AAC 5.1.

It’s doubtful there are any AVR’s out there that will DECODE AAC 5.1

3

Yeah I am aware the hardware itself probably don’t support it however I was curious as to whether WD had changed the firmware so that if it did come across AAC,it encoded it into AC3 for example on the fly.

There is a simple way around it by converting into AC3 however if the player itself could re-encode on the fly, that would be great and then it would solve quite a few issues with playback. If you look on the forum, it is riddled with playback issues with HD files which are predominantly AAC.

Just a thought really

4

That would require a lot of processing power to transcode on the fly.   Not saying it’ll never happen, but I wouldn’t make book on it…

HD files are predominately AAC?   Mine are all DTS-MA / DTS / Dolby True-HD.  Not from transcoding, but from keeping the original soundtracks from the BluRays.

5

If you look on the forum, it is riddled with playback issues with HD files which are predominantly AAC.

Even if you’re talking about pirate rips, a quick Google shows most to be AC3 or DTS like what was on the original disc, with the same movie available with mutliple bitrate/audio choices… if illegally downloaded AAC files aren’t overly compatible, there’s always the option of illegally downloading the AC3 or DTS version instead.

6

AAC 5.1 is pretty much a dead / failed format, if you actually want to listen to surround sound.

A quick look on iTunes shows that ALL of their films, both purchase and rental, are provided with AC-3 audio. If Apple don’t even support it, why should WD? :slight_smile:

I can’t name a single AVR that supports it and, aside from a really powerful HTPC, no hardware player that could hope to re-encode on the fly whilst playing HD video.

For some reason (smaller file size?), some ripping groups seem to like using it. It probably seems quite common if you’re into that scene but, from official distribution channels, it’s pretty rare.

You can convert AAC 5.1 to AC-3 using Popcorn MKV Audio Converter. Doesn’t take very long and will certainly get your files working faster than waiting for a fix from WD (who really can’t do anything apart from downmix it to stereo PCM, which isn’t surround).

7

Even if you’re talking about pirate rips, a quick Google shows most to be AC3 or DTS like what was on the original disc, with the same movie available with mutliple bitrate/audio choices… if illegally downloaded AAC files aren’t overly compatible, there’s always the option of illegally downloading the AC3 or DTS version instead.

 

True, if you are into the illegal download stuff…These are files i create myself. I have figured out now that the best way to export them but i’m just saying that mp4’s generally allow me to create a smaller file size without overly affecting quality, however these are proving problematic on playback.

Issues with ac3… really, i can’t say i have had one of the ac3 files i have generated cause any issues on my WD unit.