bradt

I found my own (easy but yow-expensive) solution. I was giving myself a Mac mini for Christmas anyway. So:

mini -> HDMI -> TV

and I'm watching the Despecialized Edition via VLC Player. I don't recommend you take the route I did, but as others have just described, each of you will find your own unique solution for any technical obstacles that are encountered. (Recall that my cheap, old Samsung Blu-ray player could not understand the audio format in V2.5.) Anyway, I'm a happy boy. As countless others have said, thank you, Harmy.

chyron8472 said:

Mackey256 said:

bradt

Rats. I may be totally out of luck here (unless I go for a hardware purchase). I did upgrade the firmware; no luck. Thanks for the info, though.

When I had my old computer setup I had problems playing back DTS-MA tracks all the time.  I was able to convert the DTS-MA tracks to DTS using TSmuxer with ease.  It might be worth a shot if the file is still giving you trouble.

TSMuxer, definitely. 

Also, one wonders if you have a smart TV, and if so what it supports.

 It's a not-smart-enough TV. It's a six-year-old Samsung that has a USB port but can recognize only audio and photos. (There's no firmware update available for it.) I had wondered, briefly, if it might be a problem with the TV, but the error message is clearly coming from the Blu-ray player. I'm gonna need a Muxing for Dummies book.

CatBus said:

bradt said:

I put the file on a USB drive and plugged it into my Samsung BD-E5300 Blu-ray player. I got video (dear maker, it's beautiful) but no audio. The error message "Not supported audio codec" flashed on the screen.

That means that the player doesn't support DTS-MA audio in an MKV container.  This is a little on the dumb side because a Blu-ray player HAS TO support DTS-MA in Blu-ray video.

Your options are: listen to a Dolby Digital track (tracks 5+), but none of these include the original English audio, or learn how to demux/remux the MKV and make yourself a homemade Blu-ray (Blu-ray burner required).  Or download the AVCHD and try your luck there, although Samsung's support for AVCHD disks is spotty and your player already has one big strike against it.

Actually checking for player firmware updates would be very worthwhile.  This is such a weird shortcoming even they probably consider it a bug.

 Rats. I may be totally out of luck here (unless I go for a hardware purchase). I did upgrade the firmware; no luck. Thanks for the info, though.

stretch009 said:

bradt said:

Total newbie here saying hi (a relative graybeard who stood in line many times at the Coronet Theater in SF in 1977) and asking one of *those* questions ....

I put the file on a USB drive and plugged it into my Samsung BD-E5300 Blu-ray player. I got video (dear maker, it's beautiful) but no audio. The error message "Not supported audio codec" flashed on the screen. I imagine the player isn't smart enough or is simply incompatible. Is there anything I can do on my end to rescue the situation? I'm not too tech-savvy, but I'll try anything. Thanks muchly.

 If it's like my Panasonic BD player you'll need to convert the audio to 'AAC'.  XVID4PSP is a free program that's perfect for converting audio.

 I will find this app and give it a try. If I have any luck I will post my results. Thank you.

Total newbie here saying hi (a relative graybeard who stood in line many times at the Coronet Theater in SF in 1977) and asking one of *those* questions ....

I put the file on a USB drive and plugged it into my Samsung BD-E5300 Blu-ray player. I got video (dear maker, it's beautiful) but no audio. The error message "Not supported audio codec" flashed on the screen. I imagine the player isn't smart enough or is simply incompatible. Is there anything I can do on my end to rescue the situation? I'm not too tech-savvy, but I'll try anything. Thanks muchly.