On MAC: Convert DTS-HD to wav/flac

I have a blu-ray rip and I'd like to convert the DTS-HD audio to wav or flac files. I would like to keep each of the 5.1 tracks, not downmix to stereo.

What I've tried:

makemkv- I used this to create a mkv with FLAC audio. This program will convert the DTS-HD to 5.1 FLAC as part of a MKV, but I don't think it's able to save just the FLAC file.

I then used imkvextract to extract just the FLAC file from the MKV. However, I'm given a file with .??? as the extension and no decoder programs see it as a valid FLAC file, even after renaming. VLC plays it and reports that the audio is 5.1 FLAC. But I haven't been successful in using VLC to transcode to 5.1 wav, only a stereo downmix.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Got it to work. I used mkvtools to extract the FLAC audio and it gave me a valid FLAC that I could then decode to multichannel wav.

Good to know that works.  The only thing I'd check to make sure of is whether the bit depth of the DTS-HD MA is being retained: if the original was 24-bit, the decoded output should be 24-bit also.  If it is being cut down to 16 at any point, then obviously that's not good.

It is of course possible to reduce a 24-bit file to 16 bits without much audible degradation, but you have to use dither to do it, so if there is any undithered truncation happening, loss of quality will result.

Can you verify that the audio bit depth is being retained by this process?

Can't say, this particular DTS-HD stream is being reported as 48/16. Checking  around the net, that seems to be correct for this title. But it would certainly be very important to me to retain 24-bit with discs that offer it.

I don't have any other ripped Blu-rays to try, but makemkv is reporting Harmy's latest SW 2.5 & ESB 20. mkvs to also have 48/16 DTS-HD streams. Is that correct?

It is: I rendered them at 24-bit while doing the editing processes, but the DTS-HD MA encodes are made from dithered 16-bit files in order to fit comfortably on a BD-25.

rnranimal, did you split your audio into 6 separate mono tracks? That's what I'm trying to do... the only program I can find that'll open the FLAC is audacity. It does open it as 8 separate mono tracks (mine's from a 7.1 DTS-HD track) but I have no way of knowing which track is which. Center, front left, front right, LFE, etc.

Any suggestions?

Free program called Audacity did the trick for me.

Have you tried this step by step guide :: spam link removed?

It lets you convert DTS to FLAC as well as keep the channel of the source file like 5.1 DTS to 5.1 FLAC, the same to DTS to WAV.

It also help you convert 5.1 FLAC to DTS/5.1 DTS, 7.1 FLAC to DTS/5.1 DTS while keep high output quality.

Hope it will help you more or less.

A few things.

Depending on how old your FFMPEG is , you may actually be decoding the LOSSY DTS core part of DTSHD. DTSHD decoding via dcadec was only very recently added to FFMPEG (mid 2015).

MakeMKV is updated regularly, so as long as you have a recent version of MakeMKV AND the makers of MakeMKV have decided to use a recent FFMPEG, you MIGHT be ok.

I would assume that MakeMKV/FFMPEG decodes to the bitdepth that the lossless part of that particular DTSHD stream specifies. DTSHD MA can be 16, 24, or any number of bits in between.

I would also argue that 16 bit is OK for listening, and even for editing, and dither is bad. It’s:

Potentially harmful
Mostly useless
Self-defeating

For converting to 16bits, I highly reccomend truncating the bits (no dither).

At sensible volumes, you won’t need dither until you get to approx. 12bits.

I recommend Avdshare Audio Converter which can easily convert DTS to FLAC, WAV, MP3, AAC etc, It also helps to convert video and audio to DTS.
In fact, it can convert between various audio formats like FLAC, DTS, WAV, MP4, M4A, AAC, OGG etc.
It has both Windows and Mac version.