Be able to choose the audio format (AC3,EAC3,PCM) to convert to when a not supported audio stream is detected

[MediaCenterSP 5]

Hi everyone,

I've got this multimedia chain:

• Chromecast HDMI 2.0 -> HDMI 2.0 -> TV Panasonic HX1000 HDMI 2.0 ->HDMI 1.4a ARC -> Onkyo TX-NR709 HDMI 1.4a

Chromecast with Google TV supports:

• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Digital Plus
• Dolby digital Plus + Dolby Atmos
• DTS (not officially, but it supports it)
• DTS-ES Discrete y Matrix (not officially, but it supports it)
• AAC
• PCM Multichannel

Panasonic 100HZ TV supports:

• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Digital Plus
• Dolby Digital Plus + Dolby Atmos
• AAC
• PCM Multichannel

Onkyo TX-NR709 AVR supports:

• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Digital Plus
• Dolby TrueHD
• DTS
• DTS-ES Discrete y Matrix
• DTS-HD
• PCM Multichannel

The multimedia chain limits the supported formats to those that are common to all the elements of the chain, so the formats that reach my AVR are:

• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Digital Plus
• PCM 2.0: sending the signal by HDMI ARC, ARC limits to PCM to only 2 channels (stereo).

Emby beta got an option that if marked, it transcodes every not supported format to AC3 (at 640kbps I supossed), it's a very usefull option, but it could be great to be able to select the best supported format with more quality possible in each case (AC3, EAC3, multichanel PCM)

In my case what I do when necessary is to convert with ffmpeg the best track with audio in my language to Dolby Digital+ (EAC3) at 1536mbps and 5.1 channels and adding it as the default track.

I use EAC3 because is the best multichannel codec my AVR can playback (better than AC3) and I encode it at the highest secure bitrate to maximize quality. I can't go beyond  5.1 channels because it's a limitation ffmpeg has.

Other users could prefer multichannel PCM if it's devices support it, and if it was lossless, the audio quality would be exactly the same as the original source.

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by MediaCenterSP

[ebr 14958]

1 hour ago, MediaCenterSP said:

Other users could prefer multichannel PCM if it's devices support it

This will already happen if you choose NOT to convert the unsupported audio.  In that case, the audio will be locally decoded and output as PCM.  However, the only Android device I know of that truly supports MCPCM is the Shield (and this does work now with our app).

[MediaCenterSP 5]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

This will already happen if you choose NOT to convert the unsupported audio.  In that case, the audio will be locally decoded and output as PCM.  However, the only Android device I know of that truly supports MCPCM is the Shield (and this does work now with our app).

Ok, that's great and I knew it. But MCPCM isn't the subject of my proposal. Emby now could transcode to AC3 or MCPCM, I propose to do it also in EAC3.

Lot of devices are conected as mine to en AVR via ARC (not EARC), and by this way PCM is only stereo. If Emby could transcode to EAC3 at 1536mbps, wich is supported in ARC, the output would be of better quality, less artifacts, could arrive to 7.1 channels and it's widely supported in a variety of devices.

Edited February 22, 2021 by MediaCenterSP

[MediaCenterSP 5]

mmm, @ebr I think this is a valid and usefull non existent Feature Requests... don't you?

"Be able to choose the audio format (AC3,EAC3,PCM) to convert to when a not supported audio stream is detected"

Edited February 24, 2021 by MediaCenterSP

[ebr 14958]

3 hours ago, MediaCenterSP said:

mmm, @ebr I think this is a valid and usefull non existent Feature Requests... don't you?

"Be able to choose the audio format (AC3,EAC3,PCM) to convert to when a not supported audio stream is detected"

The only valid choices would be AC3 vs. EAC3 as PCM is already done app side.  The server currently does not transcode anything to DD+.  It is possible for the future and I believe there is already a feature request for that.

Thanks.

[MediaCenterSP 5]

18 minutes ago, ebr said:

The only valid choices would be AC3 vs. EAC3 as PCM is already done app side.  The server currently does not transcode anything to DD+.  It is possible for the future and I believe there is already a feature request for that.

Thanks.

Oh, OK, I'll continue in this thread. Thanks.