BD Ripper (3D Plus) Left-of-center vocals when using Copy Audio on PCM 5.1 track

[jharle]

Hello!

A friend of mine encoded a Matroska with DVDFab BD Ripper, using a source ISO which I provided, of a Billy Joel concert. My friend's profile was set to "Copy Audio" to use the same codec / channels / sample rate / bit rate "same as source."

While I was listening to the resultant MKV, I noticed that Billy's vocals were slightly "left-of-center" in my headphones. I didn't remember the vocals being in that "position," so I then listened to the mounted source ISO, as well as a straight remux MKV, and both of those have the vocals "centered." I noticed the same phenomenon with a different concert BD rip he did, this time with an Elton John concert.

I have reproduced the issue using my own instance of DVDFab 10.0.8.8 using the Ripper function, and a "Copy Audio" profile.

I am not an audiophile, but the "position" of the vocals is certainly different when comparing the source to the destination. I am wondering if the DVDFab software is somehow changing some levels of the audio when performing "Copy Audio" against PCM 5.1 audio tracks. Other concerts encoded using different codecs don't sound different from the source, so it seems to be isolated to PCM 5.1.

I am happy to upload segments of the source and destination material, so that someone can perform a comparison themselves.

Thank you for any help!

[signals]

We would prefer for your friend to post, since he can provide the DVDFab internal log session from the conversion. In Ripper, the Copy Audio function should not alter anything, it should be the same stream as that in the ISO. The log would illuminate that. See this for tips on prividing logs in the forum: http://forum.dvdfab.cn/showpost.php?...40&postcount=5

[jharle]

Thank you for that follow-up; as I mentioned, I can reproduce the issue on my PC, so can provide the source/destination/log files as needed.

I have remuxed one chapter (song) from the BD to a Matroska, so that the re-creation steps are faster. I am using the DVDFab Converter to transcode the video, and copy the audio. I will attach a screenshot of the settings, and also the dvdfab_internal.log file (I cleared the log files prior to this activity).

Please let me know if you'd like me to upload the source MKV to you, so that you can try the same process on your own system. The vocals begin at 2:07, and after listening to both the source and destination files, the difference should be obvious.

[Mona]

Thank you for that follow-up; as I mentioned, I can reproduce the issue on my PC, so can provide the source/destination/log files as needed.

I have remuxed one chapter (song) from the BD to a Matroska, so that the re-creation steps are faster. I am using the DVDFab Converter to transcode the video, and copy the audio. I will attach a screenshot of the settings, and also the dvdfab_internal.log file (I cleared the log files prior to this activity).

Please let me know if you'd like me to upload the source MKV to you, so that you can try the same process on your own system. The vocals begin at 2:07, and after listening to both the source and destination files, the difference should be obvious.

Hello jharle，

Please kindly check PM, thank you.

Regards,
Mona

[jharle]

Thank you Mona, files have been uploaded.

[jharle]

Update: the issue persists in DVDFab version 10.0.8.9 in both the Ripper and the Converter.

I have found three content sources with PCM 5.1 audio which exhibit the phenomenon when using Copy Audio in DVDFab. Interestingly, the degree of the "heavy leftness" varies. In a fourth content source using the same audio codec, there are similar messages in the DVDFab logs, but I cannot detect an audible difference between the source and DVDFab's output.

**************************************************

Source 1 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_MS/ACM / 00000001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71
Duration : 5 min 32 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 912 kb/s / 6 912 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 274 MiB

DVDFab Converter dvdbab_internal.log output filtered for audio:

Line 109: 0m 36.62s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65548, channels 6, bitrate 6912000, sample_rate 48000, format 2, bit_per_sample 24, frame_size 0
Line 119: 0m 36.83s: Source Audio Bitrate: 6912000
Line 120: 0m 36.83s: Source Audio Channels: 6
Line 121: 0m 36.83s: Source Audio Volume: 100
Line 122: 0m 36.84s: Source Audio Bitdepth: -1
Line 123: 0m 36.84s: Source Audio SampleRate: 48000
Line 145: 0m 00.16s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65548, channels 6, bitrate 6912000, sample_rate 48000, format 2, bit_per_sample 24, frame_size 0
Line 159: 0m 00.20s: info: stream input@ Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s24le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(6912000) bitdepth(24) opcode(copy)]
Line 160: 0m 00.20s: info: stream output Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s24le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(6912000) bitdepth(24) opcode(copy)]
Line 169: 0m 00.78s: warning: receive unknown audio codec(65548), try to support it

Output 1 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 5 min 32 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 912 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 32.000 FPS (1500 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 274 MiB

**************************************************

Source 2 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_MS/ACM / 00000001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71
Duration : 6 min 31 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 4 608 kb/s / 4 608 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 215 MiB

DVDFab Converter dvdbab_internal.log output filtered for audio:

Line 108: 0m 15.93s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65536, channels 6, bitrate 4608000, sample_rate 48000, format 1, bit_per_sample 16, frame_size 0
Line 118: 0m 16.05s: Source Audio Bitrate: 4608000
Line 119: 0m 16.05s: Source Audio Channels: 6
Line 120: 0m 16.06s: Source Audio Volume: 100
Line 121: 0m 16.06s: Source Audio Bitdepth: -1
Line 122: 0m 16.06s: Source Audio SampleRate: 48000
Line 144: 0m 00.09s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65536, channels 6, bitrate 4608000, sample_rate 48000, format 1, bit_per_sample 16, frame_size 0
Line 158: 0m 00.11s: info: stream input@ Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s16le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(4608000) bitdepth(16) opcode(copy)]
Line 159: 0m 00.11s: info: stream output Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s16le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(4608000) bitdepth(16) opcode(copy)]

Output 2 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 6 min 31 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 4 608 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 32.000 FPS (1500 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 215 MiB

**************************************************

Source 3 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_MS/ACM / 00000001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71
Duration : 6 min 30 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 912 kb/s / 6 912 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 322 MiB

DVDFab Converter dvdbab_internal.log output filtered for audio:

Line 108: 0m 17.05s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65548, channels 6, bitrate 6912000, sample_rate 48000, format 2, bit_per_sample 24, frame_size 0
Line 118: 0m 17.18s: Source Audio Bitrate: 6912000
Line 119: 0m 17.19s: Source Audio Channels: 6
Line 120: 0m 17.19s: Source Audio Volume: 100
Line 121: 0m 17.19s: Source Audio Bitdepth: -1
Line 122: 0m 17.20s: Source Audio SampleRate: 48000
Line 144: 0m 00.09s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65548, channels 6, bitrate 6912000, sample_rate 48000, format 2, bit_per_sample 24, frame_size 0
Line 158: 0m 00.11s: info: stream input@ Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s24le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(6912000) bitdepth(24) opcode(copy)]
Line 159: 0m 00.11s: info: stream output Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s24le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(6912000) bitdepth(24) opcode(copy)]
Line 166: 0m 00.67s: warning: receive unknown audio codec(65548), try to support it

Output 3 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 6 min 30 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 912 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 32.000 FPS (1500 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 322 MiB

**************************************************

Source 4 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_MS/ACM / 00000001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71
Duration : 1 min 57 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 912 kb/s / 6 912 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 96.5 MiB

DVDFab Converter dvdbab_internal.log output filtered for audio:

Line 108: 0m 17.42s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65548, channels 6, bitrate 6912000, sample_rate 48000, format 2, bit_per_sample 24, frame_size 0
Line 118: 0m 17.58s: Source Audio Bitrate: 6912000
Line 119: 0m 17.58s: Source Audio Channels: 6
Line 120: 0m 17.58s: Source Audio Volume: 100
Line 121: 0m 17.59s: Source Audio Bitdepth: -1
Line 122: 0m 17.59s: Source Audio SampleRate: 48000
Line 144: 0m 00.09s: warning: audio info: index 1, codec_id 65548, channels 6, bitrate 6912000, sample_rate 48000, format 2, bit_per_sample 24, frame_size 0
Line 158: 0m 00.11s: info: stream input@ Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s24le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(6912000) bitdepth(24) opcode(copy)]
Line 159: 0m 00.11s: info: stream output Audio(1)[codec(pcm_s24le) channels(6) sample(48000) bitrate(6912000) bitdepth(24) opcode(copy)]
Line 166: 0m 00.68s: warning: receive unknown audio codec(65548), try to support it

Output 4 audio mediainfo:

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 1 min 57 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 912 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 32.000 FPS (1500 SPF)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 96.5 MiB

**************************************************

[jharle]

This issue persists in version 10.0.9.0.

[jharle]

Another update - it looks like this is actually a VLC playback issue. When playing back using browser, and MPC-HC, the audio does sound the same. Apologies for not validating that in the beginning!

[jharle]

So now I'm chasing this in the VLC forums...https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=143951

[Mona]

Hi jharle,

Thank you for the update. You can use DVDFab Player 5 for playback as well

Regards,
Mona

[jharle]

Hi jharle,

Thank you for the update. You can use DVDFab Player 5 for playback as well

Regards,
Mona

Indeed I just installed that, and the audio playback is correct as well, as expected . There must be a VLC PCM 5.1 decoding issue when playing back through two-channel stereo.