Transcode 5.1 AAC to 5.1 AC3 for ARC connections

[HanzoX7 11]

I have a bunch of movies that have 5.1 AAC audio, which get sent to my receiver as 2.0 PCM. Is there an option or way to make Emby transcode 5.1 AAC to 5.1 AC3 to somewhat preserve multichannel audio? My receiver is connected over ARC.

[rbjtech 5284]

Pre-processing is an option to create and insert an AC3 track and make it the default track 0, created from the AAC 5.1 track 0 (which then becomes track 1) ..

 

ffmpeg.exe -i input.mkv -map 0:v -map 0:a:0 -map 0:a  -c:v copy -c:a copy -c:a:0 ac3 -disposition:a:0 default -disposition:a:1 0 output.mkv

 

Quality may be an issue as you are going from an already compressed track to another compressed codec.

[HanzoX7 11]

I've used an AC3 encoder to do that separately, but it's a chore to be honest. It's mostly old movies that I ripped back when storage was expensive... their audio wasn't that great to begin with, so the quality loss isn't a major issue, at least for me. It would be great if there was an option for the player to do this automagically and perhaps have options for the bitrate for speed and hardware considerations. If I recall correctly, Kodi has this option.

 

If not possible or will take a long time to develop / implement, it's not the end of the world. I can always use one of the fancy "surround sound" modes from the receiver.

[Luke 42077]

Yes an option like this is possible for the future. It's something that has come up before.

[av3nger 0]

Yes an option like this is possible for the future. It's something that has come up before.

Would love it. Like my 5.1 system, but also like the space savings/Bandwidth of AAC.

The Transcode to AC3 option that Kodi possesses is a much needed feature of Emby.

[Richard Branches 330]

This is a duplicate topic, I already requested this on oct 12 2018:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/63959-transcode-aac-51-to-dolby-digital-51-if-two-conditions-are-met/

[legierk 8]

I assume this is a low priority issue. Seems to be a persistent issue for awhile now. Add me to the list of users who would like the capability to transcode aac to ac3. 

[legierk 8]

My apologies. I just found the setting on my Roku TV Emby app. Weird, seems like it wasn't there last time I checked. Anyhow, all good now.

[NakedPirate 15]

Full ACK.
Especially for the TV apps and there LG.
A "convert (unsupported) audio to Dolby Digital" like in Android would be terrific and would save a lot of trouble!

[Richard Branches 330]

I believe the option already exist, have you checked?

[NakedPirate 15]

Just now, Richard Branches said:

have you checked?

Yeah. That option doesn't exist, at least not in the LG app. I don't know about Samsung or others.
Greetings!

[Richard Branches 330]