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

[El Guapo]

52 minutes ago, phoenixdogfan said:

So how much processing power does all this eat up?

My 2020 Intel i5 13" MacBook Pro is adequate to do the Blu-ray ripping, Atmos decoding + audio recording at the same time and video editing + playback. But I personally prefer HQPlayer Embedded to do the DSP (room correction) and upsampling to multichannel DSD256 so I setup a 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K server for it. The latter one is optional tho.

[retro]

@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..🙂

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, retro said:

@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..🙂

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

[retro]

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..?

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, retro said:

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..?

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

[retro]

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.

[The Computer Audiophile]

15 minutes ago, retro said:

 

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.

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. 

[retro]

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..?

 

[mitchco]

@retroIn Resolve it is called Render which will allow you to output to mp4 or to a number of different formats...

 

[El Guapo]

2 hours ago, retro said:

maybe I'm missing something..?

You didn't miss anything. 😅 

 

Media players' capabilities and video format limitations are two major issues. 

• For Kodi, unfortunately the max output channel is 7.1. The JRiver can support many audio channels but it's just for audio. The video playback is still limited to 8 audio channels.
• Most of the video file formats are only support / contain 8 uncompressed audio channels.

So that's why I choose DaVinci Resolve as a solution on PC for editing and playback. Or use Resolve to export .mov with 16ch, 24/48 LPCM and playback from QuickTime for Windows.

1. Go Workspace: Switch to Page: Deliver 

 

2. Click video tab and select QuickTime + H.264

 

3. Click audio tab and select 24bit LPCM. Add all of the 16 buses. Check 'Render one track per channel' and 'Render as discrete audio track' then add to / start the render queue:

 

I don't know why JRiver didn't use the QuickTime engine for playback the video with 16ch LPCM audio...🤔

[retro]

@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..?!?

 

 

 

[El Guapo]

2 hours ago, retro said:

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??

Yes. After tried some major players I would make that conclusion.

 

2 hours ago, retro said:

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..?!?

I thought it's just no such demand before this Atmos journey. No one was crazy enough to make / distribute the digital videos with greater than 8-channel LPCM audio. 😆 Both Dolby and DTS are using computational methods to expand the presentation channels.

But so far this demand is still not strong enough to push developers to enhance their product I thought...

[El Guapo]

21 hours ago, El Guapo said:

Or use Resolve to export .mov with 16ch, 24/48 LPCM and playback from QuickTime for Windows.

Apology. This is incorrect information. I just verified .mov with 16ch LPCM audio is unable to playback from my QuickTime 7 Pro for Windows. The maximum supported audio channel is still 8... 😥

[El Guapo]

@The Computer Audiophile @retro I'm sorry I was wrong. 

JRiver does playback video w/ 16ch uncompressed 24/48 LPCM.

 

Here's what I did:

1. Ripping the Blu-ray to .m2ts (H.264 for video and keep original audio track). 

 

2. Re-recorded the audio track using Dolby Reference Player + Audacity technique. Export the audio using 'Custom FFmpeg Export':

 

3. Select 'Matroska' and associated 'pcm_s24le' and export to .mka audio format

 

4. Extract the video to .m4v. I was using VideoLAN to do this. On my system only .m4v works. You can choose the tools you like:

 

5. Re-mux the video and audio track (.m4v and .mka) into .mkv using MKVToolNix:

 

6. And then JRiver can playback the video w/ uncompressed 16ch 24/48 LPCM:

 

Apologize again I chose the wrong approach / wrong tools and made the wrong conclusion. Now I can say finally we've got the solution for video w/ 16ch audio playback.

[retro]

Outstanding work and effort @El Guapo!

 

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

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 minutes ago, retro said:

Outstanding work and effort @El Guapo!

 

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

I just tried, but my output is audio only, so JRiver has an issue with it. At least I believe that's what's going on. Could also be my Remote Desktop session to it. 

 

[retro]

@The Computer Audiophile

 

I get the exact same error message..

 

(willneverbuyamacwillneverbuyamac)

😉

[retro]

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..

 

 

[retro]

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:

 

 

 

[El Guapo]

@The Computer Audiophile @retro Yes I have the same error message on Windows. I guess it's the LPCM little endian or big endian issue. 🤔 But on Mac it can be played by JRiver for sure. 

[retro]

@El Guapo

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

[El Guapo]

I'm working on the combo of codecs issue now...

[phoenixdogfan]

Based on this thread, I'm looking very carefully at a Mac Mini M1.  In fact my only questions are whether I need 8gb or 16gb of RAM, and 256 or 512gb of memory. And this from a nearly 70yo lifelong Windows guy.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, phoenixdogfan said:

Based on this thread, I'm looking very carefully at a Mac Mini M1.  In fact my only questions are whether I need 8gb or 16gb of RAM, and 256 or 512gb of memory. And this from a nearly 70yo lifelong Windows guy.

I have an M1 Mini with 8GB RAM and 512GB of storage. Some days I wish I would've got more RAM, especially because I can't add any after the fact. I'd never get less than 512GB for storage, but that's just me. I try all kinds of things that sometime require a lot of local storage. 

[bbosler]

1 hour ago, phoenixdogfan said:

Based on this thread, I'm looking very carefully at a Mac Mini M1. 

 

just FYI, the current M1 will not output anything but 48K through the HDMI port which I found out after buying one... sent it back.

 

I know not the focus of this thread, and for Atmos looks like the 48K limit is not a  problem, but in case you were thinking about the possibility of interfacing it with a processor like mine that accepts HDMI input and want to use higher rates like I do

 

Agree with advice to get the 16GB ram version. If you go to the Apple site and scroll to the bottom of the page there is a link to the refurbished site where you might find what you want for a bit of a discount