HD extender and DTS

[Rob]

Does anyone have the DTS soundtracks on ripped dvds working with the new HD extender? I've put the extender though the paces and this is the only thing left. Firmware update went fine, h.264 from the Dishnetworks R5000 looks fantastic (as does all High Def material) and all the DD DVD's work great, but I get no sound with the DTS DVDs using the optical output.

Not sure what I'm missing...

[Taddeusz]

I played a DVD last night, Pulp Fiction, that had a DTS soundtrack and it did pass-through to my receiver just fine. I'll have to do further testing but I did noticed that it looked and sounded like there was a very brief pause or skip between chapters. That was kind of odd.

[Rob]

Was there any extender setup required other than selecting the SPDIF output for the audio?

[stanger89]

DTS wasn't in the "as shipped" firmware.

[Rob]

Thanks for your replies Taddeusz and Stanger.

I did update the firmware hoping that was the problem, but it did not help. Since it is working for you guys, I'll start suspecting my receiver setup. I think it is using the same input and settings that were working for the client, but I moved the client into my daughter's room a month ago (in anticipation of replacing it with the extender) so I cannot be sure I'm remembering right.

Anyway, looks like its time to explore receiver settings and/or move the extender into my bedroom and try it in place of the client there.

Thanks for your help.

[Rob]

Well I'm pretty certain that DTS is not working with my HD extender. I've sent the following to sage support:

"I have two Denon receivers an avr-5800 and an avr-2805. The digital input setup for the receivers have Auto, PCM, and DTS modes. My PC clients pass DTS fine when the receivers are set to AUTO or to DTS. I have always set them to Auto so that DTS and DD both work fine with the client PCs.

Neither receiver will output DTS using the HD extender in either Auto or DTS modes. Dolby digital works fine in the Auto Mode on both receivers.

I'm trying to replace the two clients (actually I'll want three extenders soon) but am not able to without DTS pass-through from the HD extender.

Are there any other tests you would like me to try?"

Can you guys think of any other tests or setup changes I should try?

[_Demo_]

We have tested DTS and it is working here on a Denon receiver. Could you verify your source file is good. We had reports of problems when using the software DVD Shrink which doesn't produce good files when using DTS audio tracks.

_Demo_

[Rob]

Originally Posted by _Demo_

We have tested DTS and it is working here on a Denon receiver. Could you verify your source file is good. We had reports of problems when using the software DVD Shrink which doesn't produce good files when using DTS audio tracks.

_Demo_

Well that is interesting. All mine were produced with DVD Shrink, but the files are fine since they play fine on two different PC clients and on two different Denon recievers without any issues. The first movie we tried to watch was the Grinch and when it did not work, we plugged the client back in and watched it fine.

Tonight I'll redo one without using DVD shrink to see what happens, but wow I'll be dissappointed if I have to re-rip all my DTS movies when they play fine on my clients.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by Rob

Tonight I'll redo one without using DVD shrink to see what happens, but wow I'll be dissappointed if I have to re-rip all my DTS movies when they play fine on my clients.

I'm likely one of the guys they're referring to about reporting DTS/DVD Shrink issues.

Prior to getting the hd extender, I had 11 hdd-based DVD's with DTS. As you also observed with your HDD based DTS collection, ALL titles played back fine in Sage client/server, windows media, etc.

After testing all 11 on the hd extender (optical audio to Harman Hardon receiver and HDMI video both set in settings), it turns out that only 2 would pass-thru DTS. Those 2 were ripped with DTS in full disk mode using DVD Decryptor (tool of choice for full disk to iso or video_ts). The other 9 were ripped with DVD Shrink in author mode specifically to remove subs, other non-DTS audio, etc.

So far, I've now re-ripped 3 of the "troubled 9" with DVD Decryptor in full disk mode and they now playback fine on the extender (as well as windows). The other 6 (of the original 9) still do not pass-thru DTS on the extender.

Based on my experience, the HD extender in its current implementation/firmware has an intolerance to DTS rips made with:
a) DVD Shrink in general, and/or
b) DVD Shrink specifically in author mode

Note, I have not tried to re-rip using DVD-Shrink in full disk mode, so I have not yet narrowed my problem to "b" specifically.

This may not be a viable solution for you if you have dozens (or hundreds!) of DTS rips that were done with Shrink, but this is a work-around that works fine for me. I have significantly more HDD space than I used to have when I did those initial rips, so I stripped out the "extras." Now, I don't mind committing the extra hdd space (~10-20GB) and time (~15 min of me in front of pc; ~2-2.5 hours of cpu time) to have rips of 9 other full DTS disks.

I would also like to note that DD5.1 and Flac playback have worked just as well on the extender (speed, audio quality, etc...) via optical as that of the old client pc (XFI elite pro with 5.1 out to same receiver). Video PQ blows the client away on a 46in Sammy DLP (older 720p set)!

The only "unresolved" issue for me is the ir remote response on one unit. HD extender #1 has an IR flasher affixed to it from the rf-ir base station that came with my MX-800 remote (Opus's MX-700 codes work great on this!) and responds almost instantaneously. The one in the bedroom (rf to ir system not available there) is all that's giving me trouble now. Once I solve that (Sage sends out new front panel, I do the 3/8in mod, etc) problem, I can say that I'll be FULLY SATISFIED with my new extender setup (especially considering that they are "only" $200 a pop)

I'm just glad the wife was cool about letting me put the extenders in use now, as long as I wrapped the empty STX-HD100 boxes and put them under the tree

Good luck!

Jay

ADDED: I am running the latest firmware (20071207 0) and using Sage Server 6.3.5 (non-beta) on XP Pro SP2.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by jayman

I'm likely one of the guys they're referring to about reporting DTS/DVD Shrink issues.

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks. For a while I thought I was going crazy (well maybe I still am, but not at least on this issue).

Unfurtanately I have hundreds of rips and there are probably several dozen that are DTS.

I hope sage can fix this through a firmware update. And I hope they try to address it. Their earlier post implied they think it is a DVD Shrink issue. I don't see it that way since all the DTS DVD Shrink rips work fine in the Sage Client and they all work fine in Theatertek. Therefore to me it is a shortcoming with the HD extender. Thanks for the work around for DTS.

I agree completely with your comments on PQ. It is awesome, but if they want the HD extender to be a plug and play replacement for a PC client they need to address the DTS issue.

[reggie14]

Actually, last night I had some problems with digital audio output on the extender. I tried watching a couple DVDs and noticed the audio would go in and out. I really thought they were Dolby Digital audio, but for some reason my receiver was saying it was DTS (maybe the DVDs have both- I don't know). But, I restarted the extender and did haven't the problems anymore. Maybe this was a fluke. Hopefully it is, at least, since errors that appear semi-randomly are horrible to correct.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by jayman

Based on my experience, the HD extender in its current implementation/firmware has an intolerance to DTS rips made with:
a) DVD Shrink in general, and/or
b) DVD Shrink specifically in author mode

Note, I have not tried to re-rip using DVD-Shrink in full disk mode, so I have not yet narrowed my problem to "b" specifically.

I did a full disc rip (Reservoir Dogs 10th Anniversary) with DVD Shrink in full disc-no compression mode. The DTS track of this "re-rip" plays back fine on the HD Extender. Now, I'm leaning toward "b" and only "b" above as the source of my initial DTS issues.

[95TBird]

reggie14:

Originally Posted by reggie14

Actually, last night I had some problems with digital audio output on the extender. I tried watching a couple DVDs and noticed the audio would go in and out. I really thought they were Dolby Digital audio, but for some reason my receiver was saying it was DTS (maybe the DVDs have both- I don't know). But, I restarted the extender and did haven't the problems anymore. Maybe this was a fluke. Hopefully it is, at least, since errors that appear semi-randomly are horrible to correct.

I've seen this on mine as well. If I play a DTS DVD & then play a Dolby 5.1 DVD the audio will cut out every 10 seconds or so, until I restart the extender. Apparently, passing DTS does something funky to it ??

-Bruce

[popechild]

Count me in on the DTS/DVDShrink problems. I haven't counted to see how many of my 400+ rips have DTS, but the very first movies I tried on the extender were the LOTR dvds, none of which would play any audio. By the way, these are all also in "re-author" mode to remove all the menus, etc. I also agree it seems like if it were a DVDShrink problem, it should show up as a problem *somewhere* else, but everywhere I've ever tried to play them except for the HD extender they work fine.

[popechild]

So I just counted, and it turns out I have a grand total of 61 dvds that are ripped with DTS and therefore do not playback any audio.

Not only do I not want to think about re-ripping 61 of my dvds, but I don't really consider that a solution anyway because I don't want to include the full disk with menus (part of the reason I ripped them in the first place), and I don't want to choose a different audio track, as I (obviously) prefer the DTS track when it's available.

Any thoughts of other possible solutions for this, other than Sage releasing a firmware update that fixes the problem? Any "audio fixer" type program that might do something to the stream to make Sage happy with it that we could try?

[_Demo_]

This should be fixed with the latest 6.3.6 server release. Please let me know if it works fine or not with your files.

Thanks

_Demo_

[popechild]

Semi-related: For some reason a few of my DTS seem like they may be out of sync slightly. Can't tell 100%, cause a few that I've tested seem fine, but a couple seem a little off. This may not be specifically related to DTS at all, I just happened to notice when I was testing the DTS fix (which seems to be working great.)

Is there a way on the extender to adjust sync? It seems that the server sync/delay doesn't affect the extender, correct? <going off to search now>

EDIT: Well, the more I check various DTS titles, the more I'm starting to wonder if there isn't actually a very slight sync problem across the board on them. Small enough that I wonder if I'm just making it up, but nevertheless when I check a bunch of non-DTS titles I don't seem to notice it at all, and 75%+ of the DTS titles I check I feel like it's slight but it's there. Anybody else wanna check their DTS titles and see if they're seeing anything similar?

[Motofreak75]

So far I have no issues which normal DVD's with DTS, and even certain movies the are under 20mbps video bitrate with DTS 1536 bitrate. But I'm having lots of problems with movies with 20+ mbits video bitrate and 1.5mbits DTS. From out of sync to skipping. And my hd extender pukes it guts out when I peak beyond 30mbits....

Keeps coming up with "audio pts is smaller than stc, entering paused mode" in the HD log

I have already submitted file samples and logs created by the HD extender from telnet. So I guess we shall see when CES is over

[Nadim]

I have only tried one DTS file. What happened was the DTS was losing sync every few minutes. It would just stop, My receiver would mention no audio and the come back to DTS for a breif second. Wierd and very annoying

[_Demo_]

Could you verify if the loss of DTS audio was happening on chapter/scene cut points?

Thanks

_Demo_