[madmax2]

Currently there is only an option to enable AC3 transcoding..

I have a DTS capable receiver
and I would like to be able to transcode AAC 5.1 to DTS 5.1 Audio..

I find that the audio is much better quality and louder on DTS than AC3.
and it also means I don't need to increase my audio volume each time I watch any movies with AAC 5.1 that is transcode to AC3 5.1.
then need to change it/lower it again when I change to a 2 channel audio movie etc..


Please add this feature to a future update of Kodi.

[Memphiz]

There is no dts encoder available in ffmpeg i guess. Might be because of licensing issues.

[FernetMenta]

There is no dts encoder available in ffmpeg i guess. Might be because of licensing issues.

ffmpeg has a DTS encoder

[jjd-uk]

This request makes no sense to me.

DTS is normally louder than AC3 because when the tracks are authored a simple parlour trick is used of having a higher volume reference level for the DTS track, in addition on DVD's with DTS you'll find the DTS track is always encoded at a higher bitrate than the AC3 track which is more likely to be the cause of any perceived increase in quality rather than the actual encoding mechanism itself. Both of these things make any neutral & objective A/B comparison impossible using sources such as retail DVD's.

Given an equal playing field of two tracks having the same bitrate rate and encoded to the same reference volume level, then I very much doubt you'll be able to discern any noticeably difference.

[madmax2]

This request makes no sense to me.

DTS is normally louder than AC3 because when the tracks are authored a simple parlour trick is used of having a higher volume reference level for the DTS track, in addition on DVD's with DTS you'll find the DTS track is always encoded at a higher bitrate than the AC3 track which is more likely to be the cause of any perceived increase in quality rather than the actual encoding mechanism itself. Both of these things make any neutral & objective A/B comparison impossible using sources such as retail DVD's.

Given an equal playing field of two tracks having the same bitrate rate and encoded to the same reference volume level, then I very much doubt you'll be able to discern any noticeably difference.

Why not make sense?
Has kodi improve their quality movie or audio playback from previous versions yet?
This feature will see an improvement in audio playback..

Quality perception is different for different people..
It is just an opinion.

Maybe for you, you don't notice the difference, but for others like myself I view DTS to be more better quality..
DTS actually sounds more crisper/sharper to me..

Also I said there is another advantage to having the DTS volume already louder than AC3
in that I don't need to turn up the volume each time I watch an AC3 5.1 audio movie
then I need to turn down the volume, when I switch to watching a normal 2 channel movie/video or listen to music..

Anyway I just made this feature request as something that could possibly be added as a feature for future version of Kodi...
Nobody is saying it needs to be done now..
Just something for any developer/s to possibly looking into implementing in a future kodi version.

There are other third party media player that supports DTS transcoding,
so it rather sad to see Kodi missing this feature
considering that this is suppose to take over my Living Room as my primary media center.

[madmax2]

There is no dts encoder available in ffmpeg i guess. Might be because of licensing issues.

ffmpeg has a DTS encoder

If you are on windows or able to install windows application

please look at potplayer..
it has support for DTS transcoding..

Not sure which DTS encoder it is using, but the software is freeware.

http://www.videohelp.com/software/PotPlayer

[Gracus]

Why not make sense?

Because the difference between DD and DTS is how the tracks are made

You probably won't here difference between DD and DTS transcoded from DD as transcoding will not add the "missing" information but just change the "codec"

Just my 2 cents...

[madmax2]

Why not make sense?

Because the difference between DD and DTS is how the tracks are made

You probably won't here difference between DD and DTS transcoded from DD as transcoding will not add the "missing" information but just change the "codec"

Just my 2 cents...

Anyways as I said audio perception is different for each person..

For myself I find DTS to sound more better..

Also I said there is another advantage of not needing to turn up the volume each time I watch an AC3 transcoded movie
then need to turn down the volume again, when I change to a standard 2,1 audio movie / music / video

Also why should a third party software have this DTS transcoding feature but it is missing in Kodi?

This is just a feature request for a future version of Kodi, no one is saying it needs to be done immediately..

[da-anda]

converting a AC3 movie to DTS won't increase the volume level, which is what I belive jjd-uk tried to say

[madmax2]

converting a AC3 movie to DTS won't increase the volume level, which is what I belive jjd-uk tried to say

No i think there is some misunderstanding with regards to the feature request..

The request is to have option to transcode AAC 5.1 to DTS...not AC3 to DTS

Currently I can only transcode AAC 5.1 to AC3....

If you look in system > audio settings,
there is option to

AC3 capable receiver
-Enable dolby digital (AC3) transcoding

But if I enable
DTS capable receiver...
It does absolutely nothing when AAC 5.1 audio in used in the movie..since their is no DTS transcoding option

There should be new feature
DTS capable receiver...
-Enable DTS transcoding

If you download potplayer
you will see there is an option to transcode audio to DTS..

[voochi]

Perhaps OPs point is that AC3 via spdif is limited to 640kbps. DTS via spdif is limited to 1.5Mbps

In theory transcoding to DTS could give higher quality to those stuck with older receivers with spdif. As it is "less compressed".

That's the theory. However some would say that 640k AC3 gives similar quality to 1.5Mbps DTS regardless of lower bitrate, the codec is more efficient.

I don't have a strong opinion personally. Just trying to clarify what he might be asking. Most older spdif recievers support both.

[Gracus]

No points to compare quality of AC3 versus DTS if we do not know quality of AAC

If AAC is already more compressed than AC3 then there will be no advantage to transcode AAC to DTS instead of transcoding it to AC3

[da-anda]

@madmax2 - could you do us a favor and convert a 5.1 AAC (or FLAC) sample to AC3 and DTS and compare those? Maybe also share the samples for our devs to test. If devs can't be convinced it's adding value, they are not interested to add another feature that only needs maintenance.

[voochi]

No points to compare quality of AC3 versus DTS if we do not know quality of AAC

If AAC is already more compressed than AC3 then there will be no advantage to transcode AAC to DTS instead of transcoding it to AC3

It may seem that way intuitively but with lossy-to-lossy transcoding it's not always the case.

Even if the source AAC is what we might consider 'low quality' to begin with, when we transcode to AC3/DTS we still want to preserve as much of this 'low quality' as possible without adding too much extra compression artifacts on top. The transcoded audio will always be worse than the AAC source, this is inevitable with loss-to-lossy transcoding. The question is how much worse? Perhaps DTS with its higher possible bitrates and lower compression ratio can be 'less worse' ?

[nickr]

When madmax2 provides the samples we'll be able to hear for ourselves.