Article: How To Decode and Play Dolby TrueHD Atmos on Windows and macOS

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@The Computer Audiophile, @El Guapo First of all, very good job getting this to work. It's been much wanted for a long time.

 

But of course, a couple of questions first..😉

 

1. The process you describe after you extracted the mkv with makemkv, I understand you split the mkv file to get separate mka audiofiles for easier access to the individual songs. Yes, I would do the same with my concert and pure audio blurays. But in the case of a movie mkv, what would the process look like then? I assume the original ripped mkv is enough for Dolby Reference Player to play, or am I wrong?

 

2. As the DRP is required to decode the Atmos-tracks, what would the playback chain look like if the source is a movie-mkv..? You open the file in DRP to decode the Atmos-tracks, but what about the video..??  

 

Again, great work so far!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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23 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Hi Retro, I'm glad you're as excited about this as we are. This is really something, and it's only going to get better. I was playing around with the command line interface of the Dolby Reference Player, and think ease of use can be taken to another level. But anyway, I'll leave it to @El Guapo to talk about video. He has video working in his system. You need to convert to M2TS files because the Dolby Reference Player only accepts a few file formats.

 

 

Hello and thanks for the reply,

 

Yes, for sure it's early days. 

One worry I have is that this is relying on Dolby's software, and since it's used in a way they obviously not intended, they could stop selling it to us, or change the way it works. It's possible, don't you think..?

Yes, I worry about everything. It's a problem..😉

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21 hours ago, El Guapo said:

Hi retro,

For movies with ATMOS audio, only three containers can be accepted by DRP which are .m2ts, .mp4 and .mov. The supported video codec are H.264, H.265 and AppleProRes. The ATMOS audio are .mlp and .eac3 mainly.

If you already ripped your BD in .mkv, you have to change the container and video codec to the one of the accepted format (assumed the audio is original format when ripped).

 

DRP doesn’t support full screen video playback and also doesn’t support audio delay adjustment. What I did was I use Audacity to record the DRP output audio then use video editing software to build an audio delayed (audio before video about 1.5s on my system) movie.
I know it’s painful but that’s the only workaround for movies so far.

Guapo

Hello Guapo and thanks for taking the time.

 

Another container is of course no problem. But you still would need to have them split then, right? Like m2ts for video and mlp for audio?

 

The video playback is a "thing" though..🙂 I play all my audio and video with JRiver, guess at this point it's not possible then..?!?

But hey..this is early days..I'm sure solutions will come.

 

 

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1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

That’s the sole reason why I hesitated to release this article. 

Understood.

And for the same reason, I have not linked this on the JRiver forum. But there are some excellent software guys there that I'm sure could help to get this going further. 

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I think I like where this is going..😉

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JRiver has no probs with CAF-files...😎

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So you played decoded atmos with JRiver?

 

Now, if there also was video, say a concert bluray, can you merge the video with the decoded atmos, using something like Handbrake..?

 

(mostly thinking out loud here..) 😇

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Great work Chris!

 

Yes, as an audio only solution for Atmos, with this latest development, I'd say you nailed it! 

 

But some (many) of us like video too..in my case, concert blurays especially..🙂 

 

But which software to use for the merge..mkvtoolnix perhaps..?!?

 

@El Guapo, hoping you're into video as well..any ideas on merging the audio and video..?

 

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Thx @El Guapo

 

But what about us poor souls who don't use Mac..?

 

Maybe should take a stab at building a Hackintosh..😇

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2 hours ago, Me2 said:

For

So i used in earlier a times a tool called tsmuxer which muxed almost everthing together, even subtitles and wand wav64 and so on. There is a opensource (wasn`t before) version available which is maintained on github. You can inform yourself here:

https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=176668

 

These guys are really good there and it is also available for windows.

 

Thx Me2!

 

Checked it out a bit and it seems useful for muxing video and audio together, however I couldn't find anything about delaying video. Maybe you know?

Or if I'm asking everybody, what Win software is capable of delaying the videostream similar to FinalCutPro on Mac...? This is not something I'm familiar with..

 

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6 hours ago, El Guapo said:

Yes. JRiver could playback movie with 16ch audio to my Merging device directly. But I don't know which part I missed I just couldn't put the "virtual audio interface" like BlackHole or Dolby Audio Bridge in the audio path. Such issue not allows me to route the audio into HQPlayer as DSP. So I didn't put JRiver on my list.

That's strange.. Any chance u could start a thread in JRiver's forum..?

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Any advancements? 

Or are u guys just busy ripping disc after disc..🙂..?

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Still hoping for an "easy" way to get the video into this as well. 

Anyone working on this? 

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@El Guapo

@The Computer Audiophile

 

Any new ideas to get the video part as well..? 

No mac here, only Windows 10 on my machines..

 

Still hoping...😎

 

 

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6 hours ago, El Guapo said:

Reassemble video and 16 audio tracks in DaVinci Resolve and playback from it? 🤔️🤔️

 

Thanks for replying @El Guapo.

I just downloaded the manual for DaVinci Resolve. It has 3981 pages....🤯

 

Have you used this program and maybe know if it's the right tool for the job..?

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@El Guapo, many many thanks for your great tutorial..! 

 

Question, when you are done in DaVinci, when you have synced the video and audio, can you then mux them together to use with other players? 

My guess is no, but I have to ask..🙂

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19 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Can’t you just export into a format that supports all the channels?

Yes, JRiver should handle the audio in 16-ch caf or waw, as far as I understand..?

However, it does not support playback of separate audio and videofiles together.

So some sort of muxing it all together, video + audio, is needed. Maybe it's not possible..?

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21 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I assume the only reason to put audio and video together in the Resolve app, is to be able to export those together. 

 

Yes. if possible..?!?

Not sure we understand each other 100%, but my end-goal is being able to play-it-all, video + decoded Atmos audio, perfectly synced, with only JRiver and/or Kodi.

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15 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I completely understand the goal. I’m just saying that the Resolve app was built to edit then export. Nobody uses Resolve to watch anything. 

 

Ok, but that's exactly what El Guapo is doing in his (great) tutorial..?!? Nothing about exporting as I can find..?!?

I've read it several times, but maybe I'm missing something..?

 

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@El Guapo Thanks for explaining all this.

 

So, there is no current mediaplayer for windows that is capable of playing video and more than 8 discrete audiochannels at the same time?  Playing audio only, then 8+ discrete channels are no problem.

Have I got the above correct??

 

Ok, apparently QuickTime player will work (have not tried myself), but that's no longer supported on windows..

But if QuickTime in fact does work with 8+ channels, doesn't that mean that the current mediaplayers, JRiver, Kodi etc.  should be able to overcome this limit too..?!?

 

 

 

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Outstanding work and effort @El Guapo!

 

But can u play the file with JRiver in Windows..? 

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@The Computer Audiophile

 

I get the exact same error message..

 

(willneverbuyamacwillneverbuyamac)

😉

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Posted a thread on JRivers forum, with Guapos permission:

 

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,132865.0.html

 

There we have a link to the 1.8Gb MKV-file, made by Guapo, that plays on Mac but not on Win..

 

 

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The file does play on VLC. However, I am only on my laptop now, can not try atm on my HTPC with 12 analog out + 4 digital out.

 

Here's the mediainfo from VLC:

 

 

 

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@El Guapo

Please, no more talk about Mac. I won't buy one anyway..I think..😄😉