AAC 5.1 conversion to optical DTS or AC3

[dereboyu]

Hi mighty developers...

I'm seeing more and more small size mkv movies with AAC 5.1 audio track. Is it possible to create a solution which converts AAC to DTS or AC3 via optical link, so that the AV receiver can play the 5.1 audio?

Thanks and regards...

[RMerlin]

Your best shot is to use a DLNA server with a tweaked profile. I had the Mezzmo developpers adjust their WDTV profile so any file with AAC 5.1 audio will get transcoded to AC3 5.1, allowing the WDTV to bitstream it.

[dereboyu]

Can you please tell more about this solution? Maybe some links or details? Is this done in the WDTV or externally?

[RMerlin]

Can you please tell more about this solution? Maybe some links or details? Is this done in the WDTV or externally?

This is a server software that you have to install on your computer containing the videos you want to stream. It requires you to have the files located on that same computer, and to go through Media Server instead of using network shares when playing back videos. This means you will also lose some features that require network share or local USB access, such as moviesheets.

Their website is http://www.mezzmo.com/

This is the only solution I can think of, short of transcoding all your videos - there is nothing that can be done from the WDTV itself. This is a feature that would have to be implemented by WD.

[dereboyu]

Sounds very interesting. The WDTV Live is listed under the tested devices. Even my TV and my Bluray are listed.

However, the PC needs to be powerful for 720p or higher transcoding.

"Transcoding: Minimum 2.4GHz CPU and 1GB RAM is required. For 720p or higher resolution video transcoding, a Quad Core CPU with 2GB RAM or higher is recommended"

I still have a Pentium 4 with 3.0 GHz. In any case, I'll keep this on my radar screen and do some tests. Maybe 480p works fine. These 480p movies are around 300Mb-500Mb and have generally AAC 5.1.

One more thing: Do you know how I can enable DLNA at WDTV Live?

[RMerlin]

Yeah, they already supported the WDTV Live for a while. They added the AAC to AC3 transcoding at my request a few months ago. Try out their 30 days trial. Don't hesitate to contact them through their forum if you need support - they are some of the most responsive tech support I have ever seen, and they really know their stuff.

For DLNA, there's nothing to enable. Once you have a DLNA server running on your PC, just browse through Video -> Media Servers. Mezzmo will automatically appear in that list them.

[dereboyu]

That sounds quite straight forward. I'll give it a try and get back with my findings.
Thanks again...

[dereboyu]

Hi again...

Here is a first feedback on what I did so far:

- Installed Mezzmo Version 2.1.12.0 (Trial Version)
- Conversion AAC 6ch to DTS or AC3 didn't work with the original version
- Regular 1080p and 720p movies run through Mezzmo smooth without stutters
- Contacted Mezzmo
- Received new WDTV Profile and installed it
- After new profile, AAC 6ch is correctly converted to AC3 6ch, passed correctly through optical to AV receiver
- Soft Subtitles are gone
- Movie length shows 00:18:18, however movie continues further

Currently in touch with Mezzmo for finetuning. Will keep posting.

[MyLastWord]

Do you need to convert permanently for just transcoding on the fly? If you want to (even batch) permantly convert, you can try "Popcorn Audio Converter (freeware)". I use it on my win7 to covert them.

[dereboyu]

Actually, permanent conversion is OK with me. Can you please summarize your experiences with Popcorn? Some settings info about mkv with aac 6ch to mkv with ac3 or dts would be helpful. Mkv video can be untouched or copied. Just the audio track should be converted. Is this possible?