Converting 5.1 recordings on Blu Ray disc to a hard drive

I have been building a music collection on my computer that consists of music from places like HD tracks and many of my cd’s converted to FLAC files.

My new car has a nice audio system capable of playing 5.1 music. It has a disc player that will play dvd and dvd audio discs, but I would prefer to go disc less and feed the system from a high capacity mobile hard drive. (My stereo collection of music plays very nicely).

i have been converting hires stereo Blu-ray and dvd tracks to FLAC files, but I’m struggling with getting the 5.1 files converted in a format that the car system will “see” and play?

Anyone know what file format to use for this? Is it FLAC, m4a ? Please Help an analog guy in a digital world!

 

Need to check the specs of the audio system. A reasonable number of systems (car or home) that can play stereo FLAC files from a USB drive will not handle multichannel ones.

It may well be that the only workaround is to author your own DVD video or audio discs with a compatible surround format, or make your own DTS CDs for car playback.

Check the specs first!

 

Manual says MPEG 1/2, Windows Media Audio 9 and 10, MPEG 2/4, FLAC, MPEG4 AVC, and Windows Media Video 9

The file converter I am using only offers conversion to stereo FLAC files. No drop down to convert to surround FLAC files.

I did convert a Blu-ray surround disc to MPEG4 AVC files in surround, but the car didn’t “see” them?

 

Which car model is still allowing DVD Audio? Acura was the last that I knew of. A few do allow regular DVD but might not play the DVD-V layer from a DVD-A disc.

 

2017 Audi Q7

 

What are you using to rip Blu Rays? MakeMKV +- Audiomuxer is what I use. If you use the forum search function there are several threads discussing audio extraction from Blu Ray, and there are several ways of doing it, and many forum posters who are a) better than me at doing it and b) better than me at explaining it! It isn’t difficult to extract surround FLACs.

Even though the spec states that there is FLAC support I would still be unsure whether multichannel FLAC is supported. As a (non car) example, my Sony surround system will happily play a stereo FLAC but generates a “file type unsupported” error if I try a 5.1 FLAC. The same FLAC will play correctly on my Blu Ray player... I think support for multichannel FLAC is patchy.

 

Wise advise. I will add only that I use MakeMKV and XRECODE 3 for ripping BDs. The latter has 24 possible output formats but the crucial issue is whether the car's system will decode multichannel in any of them.

 

Try encoding to a lossy video format, but audio only, of course - i.e., mpg. You can also try taking the same file and renaming the extension from .mpg to .vob, which is a standard DVD file name.

 

I have a 2014 Audi, which won’t play the -V layer of many -A discs. In that year they were still using SIM cards rather than USB ports, which max out at 320 and don’t take FLAC/ALAC.

 

Thanks for all the ideas. I have work to do!

 

You have studying to do...as do we all. It seems the more places I want to play something, the more re-reading I have to to, to understand either why what I want to do, won't work, why what I want to use, won't suffice, and why whatever I have already solved another application with, doesn't solve the new problem.

Some players have their own issues with common gapless playback. Some files need to be saved in multiple formats before you can just get that one disc out of the way, to get on to the next one. Some music on DVD/Blu or other video platform won't play alongside other formats ripped from other sources. Some quad sources come from 5.1 formatted products, some albums don't have bonus tracks available in the same system, and some things you want to play together, simply can't pay nice together in the same place on the hard drive.

What's worse, whenever you express one of these situational quirks, somebody will always play the, "whaaat are you talking about!", with no understanding of how some situations can differ from their own. There is no general resource for these conundrums that take all situations into account that may make something simple for one well-heeled engineer-gearhead, but doesn't take into account the newb who actually needs a recipe, the D.I.Y.-guy who doesn't have all the compatible gear, or the future-proofer who just needs to save files on a server before his Playstation blues-screens him out of business.

For me, just getting started seems to require a database of tasks where even the fields need to expand off the page to keep up with what I can, or cannot do. Even if it's just to fill a NAS (or a DVD or a thumb drive) with tracks that will be what I need when I buy the right car, find the right firmware on an Oppo, or know whether my Stevie Wonder disc will play with the segues not broken up by a :02 pause.

 

Success ! I tried DVD Fab and I was able to rip a BluRay 5.1, Beck’s Sea Change. It sounded pretty good in the Audi, but it’s hard to compete with the B&W surround set up I have in the house. I’m challenged to get a correct album, artist and track titling, but I’ll work on it.

 

As predicted by Dillydipper, I'm back.

Im getting multi channel FLAC files to play in the car, but its one big file, no chapters? Any tips on what I am doing wrong? I am using DVD Fab BluRay Ripper.

 

Haven’t used DVDFab for a few years. Is there the option to split audio by chapters, as individual songs are usually divided by chapter?

Failing that, if you have a gigantic FLAC file software like Audacity can be used to split the file into separate files, but you have to go through and set the track divisions yourself which is time consuming.

Third option: if you copy the whole disc to your hard drive using DVD Fab, Audiomuxer or DVD Audio Extractor can extract the audio and split it by chapter. I tend to use this having backed the disc up using MakeMKV rather than DVDFab. I’m fairly sure somebody pointed out to me that this can be done in one stage with MakeMKV, but i’m a creature of habit and I like the two stage approach.

I’m jealous of your ability to get surround working in the car. If my car could do that i’d be taking a longer route to work!

 

I’ve just discovered that the Blu-ray Ripper only converts to lower res files, not anything close to 24/96. It seems that you have to bolt on another module (Hi Fi Audio converter) to get hi resolution and easy chaptering of the files. That add on costs as much as the ripper!

I can trial it and convert three files. I’ll see how it works and decide on spending the money.

 

IIRC, the DVD Fab Blu Ray Ripper allows you to rip the whole Blu Ray, like MakeMKV, which bypasses the encryption and copy protection of the disc.

If you do this, both DVD Audio Extractor (which is easy to use and has a 30 day free trial period) and Audiomuxer (free, arguably a bit trickier to use) can extract surround FLAC files in their original resolution and bit depth, split by chapter, from the ripped Blu Ray. I’ve used both of these apps to extract surround FLAC files from multiple Blu Rays. I don’t believe either of these apps can extract directly from encrypted Blu Rays hence the two stage approach.

One of the reasons I stopped using DVDFab is that it is expensive and there are free alternatives.