From searching the community it looks like Roon can support a Dolby True HD bitstream encoded in a FLAC file. I just received the R.E.M. 25th anniversary set of Automatic for the People and the diamond in the collection is the Atmos mastering of the album. I’d love to be able to put this into Roon.
I’ve been able to rip the tracks to a .thd file using DVD Audio Extractor. I haven’t verified that the file even has the Atmos information. I was thinking I’d FLAC encode this file and see if my Processor detects the Atmos data. I’m stuck at this point finding a suitable FLAC encoder that will accept the .thd file as input. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks for the help!
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If you convert it to Flac it won’t preserve the Atmos metadata necessary to place the Atmos sound objects in the correct speakers. It may not have survived ripping the audio with DVD Audio Extractor. Other options, such as ripping the audio and video with MakeMKV, will preserve the Atmos metadata, at least if you rip the correct soundtrack.
Hi Steven, thanks for your reply. Have you been successful doing this? Could you please provide a little bit more tutorial information? I have used MakeMKV before but not for this application and the result was a MKV file. Do you know what steps to take to convert the MKV file to a FLAC? TIA.
Simplifying a lot, Atmos is True HD + extension data. The extension data is the bit that allows for the Atmos ‘magic’ of positioning the audio.
When you convert to FLAC you get the True HD 7.1 channel audio but none of the extension data (as FLAC does not support storing this extra data). This is what Roon can play. So nice HD sound but none of the Atmos positioning.
MakeMKV will happily extract the full Atmos sound track (True HD 7.1 + extension data) to an MKV file, but you then need to find something that can play this back to your processor without losing the extension data in the process. I don’t believe Roon can currently do this (although I would be happy to be proved wrong!).
Hope this helps.
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Hi Neil, Thanks for the response!
What you wrote makes sense. I did use DVD Audio Extractor to make a FLAC from this Blu-ray; Roon shows the FLAC as being 48kHz/24bits. When I play the disc from my Blu-ray player my pre-pro shows the stream as 192kHz. Is the higher resolution also extension data?
Sure would be nice if Roon could figure out how to support these bitstream files. The Atmos track is pretty cool.
Thanks again!
True HD is a bit of a strange beast in that the HD 7.1 audio stream on the Blu-ray is always accompanied by a lower quality Dolby Digital 5.1 (or 2.0) stream as well. This is because True HD is an optional codec and not all players can decode it, so they include a Dolby Digital stream for the players that cannot handle it.
Sounds like when you extracted the audio you got the lower quality audio stream encoded into the FLAC file.
After a quick read of the DVD Audio Extractor web-site, I think it did just extract the Dolby Digital bitstream hence why your FLAC files are reporting as 24/48 in Roon.
I can’t see any reference on the site stating it supports True HD bitstreams but it does mention supporting regular Dolby Digital.
Thanks Neil! I appreciate your time looking into DVDAE.