DTS to multi-channel FLAC. Advice needed.

[quicksrt]

Get back to the original 6-channel uncompressed audio, before the encoding to DTS?

Yeah, I’ll take the two Wings albums, and the Poco hold the DTS please, I don’t want it removed from that original 4-channel analogue state of being. And may as well have the 5.1 of Gaucho before the (early) DTS format did a number on it too.

 

[winopener]

DTS—a lossily compressed multichannel format—is shoehorned into uncompressed stereo PCM (which is not WAV, by the way) so that it can be written to an audio CD. Contrast this with native DTS as written to DVD-Video muxed into MPEG2 video, with discrete channels. When played back through a DTS decoder, the same stream as written to either format will sound the same, but the data are written and stored quite differently.

It is possible to demux DTS from MPEG2, but the resulting file isn't a consumer standard. Furthermore, there is currently no way to convert DTS-CD to native DTS. So, I propose that: 1) a DTS filetype standard should exist, and 2) there should be a method to arrive at this filetype regardless of the storage medium from which the stream originated.

The expression "native DTS" is confusing.
DTS stream can be created for AudioCD media or VideoDVD media. These are different first of all by the base sampling frequency (44100 vs 48000) and then bitrate consideration, which is fixed for AudioCD (1411 iirc) and can be varied for VideoDVD.

Both are "native DTS". DTS_AudioCD is not a byproduct of DTS_VideoDVD.

What you notice with "there is currently no way to convert DTS-CD to native DTS" seems to me a way for a DTS2DTS format change, from DTS_AudioCD to DTS_VideoDVD. Am i correct?

 

[ssully]

Hasn't this ship sailed long ago? DTS hasn't produced 'DTS-CDs' for years.

But anyway, if your aim is to go from dts-cd/dtswav to standard DTS, without an intervening decode/recode, this post (and thread) appears to claim it can be done with "DTSParser':

how to extract DTS music CD audio as multi-channel - Doom9's Forum

how to extract DTS music CD audio as multi-channel Audio encoding

forum.doom9.org

 

[atrocity]

Also, since it is a DATA track into a AUDIO frame, the ECC circuit is less strict than a proper CD-ROM (frame of cd-audio: 2352 byte; frame of cd-rom: 2048 byte. The 312 byte less in the cd-rom specs are mostly for stronger ECC codes) so a CLEAN disc is a must because a compressed DATA track - think it as a ZIP file, to have an idea - can be trashed by a single byte that is not correct, while AUDIO can be interpolated.

And for this reason, I'd STRONGLY suggest that anyone ripping DTS-CDs always, ALWAYS use a good, paranoid, error-aware CD ripper such as Exact Audio Copy, Easy Audio Copy, dBPoweramp or CueRipper. I mean, you always should anyway because getting the correct bits off even a normal RBCD can be difficult, but with DTS it really, really, really matters. I got too many DTS discs in trade that went straight into the garbage because they were filled with errors.

For the last couple years I've been involved with a community radio station where one of my "jobs" is to replace tracks in their library that were ripped by people who thought iTunes (or whatever) was a serious tool for adults. The number of tracks that have blatant, obvious, audible defects from the original CD extraction is just shocking.

I don't know if Foobar2000 has error detection or not, but I'd definitely find out for sure before using it.

And yes, there will be people who will say "But I've used [whatever] for years without a problem!" That may well be true, but trust me, one day you're going to hit a problem disc...

 

[atrocity]

It is possible to demux DTS from MPEG2, but the resulting file isn't a consumer standard.

Though I think VLC and Foobar will play it, assuming we're talking about the *.dts (or, for that matter, *.ac3) files that you get after demuxing with something like DVD Decrypter.

 

[quicksrt]

I ripped ‘n burned many of my DTS factory pressed discs to CD-R. When I ripped all of my DTS discs to FLAC, it was about 50/50 CD-R and silver pressed. My Taiyo Yuden CD-R Japan discs ripped just as perfect in accuraterip as the silvers. Quality of discs and burners was very high and have sadly declined on the last 10 years. Good thing I know about those Japan CD-R blanks then.

 

[Stupy]

On the earlier discussions...

It looks like only the last three Nick Cave DVD's are in 24/48 DTS (Nocturama, Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus, Dig Lazarus Dig). All the earlier ones were in 24/96 DTS. The promo at the time says 24/96, IIRC.

I own them all now. Nice set.

 

[ssully]

Matroska Audio (MKA) can hold a DTS stream. DTS-CD to DTS:X, same with Dolby, everything including Atmos.

EDIT: Playback via HDMI and your AVR will decode the contained stream: DTS or Atmos etc

I like that mk* files can be tagged. Is there an easy way to put each .dts (or .ac3) track from a disc into a Matroska wrapper? The only way I know so far is to load already-ripped DTS files (.e.g. ripped used DVD AE) into Audiomuxer, then mux them to MKV (ticking 'Split by: Main Audio Track' so they remain as separate files). Better would be a way to go direct from disc to mka-wrapped files....

 

[HomerJAU]

Take a look at MKVToolNix. It’s a free tool with a GUI that can do just about anything with Matroska file, merge audio streams etc