No Dolby 5.1?

[MacGoddess]

I was pleased to see we have more formats we can choose to convert video but I am having problems finding something that works for me. I want to rip a DVD that contains 4 episodes of a TV show on it and convert the whole thing as one video (which I did) then send it to my TiVo where I can watch it with my regular TiVo controls rather than having to deal with a DVD which makes me sit through a lot of junk before I can get to watch what I want.

 

I tried converting as MKV (high quality). The original DVD is 7.47GBs. The MKV file I converted is 4.02GBs. Looking at the quality of the video on my Mac, I am not that impressed. But what is really annoying is that it takes out the Dolby 5.1 audio and puts in Stereo. When I go to Custom, there is no Dolby 5.1 to even select. I checked a few other formats and those also do not have the option to use Dolby 5.1.

 

I have seen some very good quality MKV or even AVI videos that contain surround-sound. I am guessing they were converted on PCs, not Macs because I can't find a way to do that myself and get as good quality.

[mike457]

I would suggest using Makemkv, which is free, does not compress the video, and will let you choose the 5.1 soundtrack. If you do need compression, you can do that through Handbrake (also free), which will keep the 5.1 sound. I have not been able to get 5.1 sound to work right in previous versions of Toast.

 

My apologies: I missed the Tivo reference in the OP.

[tsantee]

This is an interesting topic. Usually the complaint is that Toast won't include a 5.1 surround track with a h.264 conversion, which El Gato's Turbo.264 software can do. But you're wanting to send this to your TiVo so it needs to be in mpeg 2 format. This, of course, is the format you're starting with. I'm not hopeful but I'll do some exploring of this. Toast will keep the 5.1 surround if you are making a new video DVD so maybe there is a way for Mac2TiVo to send an existing mpeg2 video with 5.1 audio to the TiVo without any re-encoding.

 

Addendum:

I've just completed my experiment and was able to use Mac2TiVo to send video with 5.1 audio to the TiVo. I know it has 5.1 audio on the TiVo because I transferred it back to my Mac again using TiVo Transfer and Toast reports it as having 5.1 audio.

 

What I did was use MPEG Streamclip to save the video from the VIDEO_TS folder as an MPEG file. I then put the mpeg file in a folder that I added to Mac2TiVo. The video appeared on my Mac's directory in the My Shows list on the TiVo and transferred without a hitch. No conversions were needed. My source wasn't a ripped disc. It was a Toast-authored video DVD that included a program I captured from TV using my EyeTV.

[MacGoddess]

This is an interesting topic. Usually the complaint is that Toast won't include a 5.1 surround track with a h.264 conversion, which El Gato's Turbo.264 software can do. But you're wanting to send this to your TiVo so it needs to be in mpeg 2 format. This, of course, is the format you're starting with. I'm not hopeful but I'll do some exploring of this. Toast will keep the 5.1 surround if you are making a new video DVD so maybe there is a way for Mac2TiVo to send an existing mpeg2 video with 5.1 audio to the TiVo without any re-encoding.

 

Addendum:

I've just completed my experiment and was able to use Mac2TiVo to send video with 5.1 audio to the TiVo. I know it has 5.1 audio on the TiVo because I transferred it back to my Mac again using TiVo Transfer and Toast reports it as having 5.1 audio.

 

What I did was use MPEG Streamclip to save the video from the VIDEO_TS folder as an MPEG file. I then put the mpeg file in a folder that I added to Mac2TiVo. The video appeared on my Mac's directory in the My Shows list on the TiVo and transferred without a hitch. No conversions were needed. My source wasn't a ripped disc. It was a Toast-authored video DVD that included a program I captured from TV using my EyeTV.

 

I was hoping I could find a way with Toast 11 to convert DVD to video which will have Dolby 5.1 audio as well as good quality video. I know that Toast can keep the Dolby 5.1 sound if you are making a DVD, but shouldn't I be able to use Toast to convert a DVD to something I can play on the TiVo or other devices and still keep the high audio and video quality? If I could get 720x480 video with Dolby 5.1 sound into an AppleTV or MKV format, I could send it to my TiVo. It would be converted to MPEG2. I have sent many different video formats to my TiVo using PyTiVoX.

 

I will give Streamclip a try. Just downloaded it but had to also get the MPEG2 playback component for QuickTime.

[tsantee]

I was hoping I could find a way with Toast 11 to convert DVD to video which will have Dolby 5.1 audio as well as good quality video. I know that Toast can keep the Dolby 5.1 sound if you are making a DVD, but shouldn't I be able to use Toast to convert a DVD to something I can play on the TiVo or other devices and still keep the high audio and video quality? If I could get 720x480 video with Dolby 5.1 sound into an AppleTV or MKV format, I could send it to my TiVo. It would be converted to MPEG2. I have sent many different video formats to my TiVo using PyTiVoX.

 

I will give Streamclip a try. Just downloaded it but had to also get the MPEG2 playback component for QuickTime.

The TiVo can only play MPEG 2 video so there is no reason to convert it to any other format for playback with it. However, Toast won't convert video to another format and retain 5.1 audio so playing the video on devices other than the TiVo that don't play MPEG 2 video won't have 5.1 audio if you used Toast for the conversion. The ElGato Turbo.264 HD does include the 5.1 audio along with 2-channel AAC audio when converting from a 5.1 source to h.264. The default audio for play back is 2.0 and I don't know how one chooses the 5.1 AC-3 audio instead.

[MacGoddess]

The TiVo can only play MPEG 2 video so there is no reason to convert it to any other format for playback with it. However, Toast won't convert video to another format and retain 5.1 audio so playing the video on devices other than the TiVo that don't play MPEG 2 video won't have 5.1 audio if you used Toast for the conversion. The ElGato Turbo.264 HD does include the 5.1 audio along with 2-channel AAC audio when converting from a 5.1 source to h.264. The default audio for play back is 2.0 and I don't know how one chooses the 5.1 AC-3 audio instead.

 

I was thinking ElGato Turbo was something you used with EyeTV but it sounds like anyone can use it along with Toast?

[tsantee]

I was thinking ElGato Turbo was something you used with EyeTV but it sounds like anyone can use it along with Toast?

The Turbo.264 HD is specifically for converting various video formats to h.264. The hardware device does speed up Toast's conversion to h.264 but when used with Toast you still don't get 5.1 audio. The ElGato device has its own software and you need to use it to get 5.1 audio included with the 2.0 audio. ElGato is now selling a software-only version at a lower cost. I don't know if the software-only version includes the 5.1 audio. I suppose I could find out by running the software without the USB device connected. I'm busy with some other problem solving right now but will check it out soon.

 

Addendum: I was able to make a test. The software-only version of Turbo.264 HD includes both the 5.1 AC-3 and 2.0 AAC audio tracks when exporting to the AppleTV preset from a video DVD that has 5.1 audio.

[TivoHawaii]

How can I get that legato software?

Will it convert .tivo file to another format with audio?

Would appreciate the link. Thanks.

[tsantee]

How can I get that legato software?

Will it convert .tivo file to another format with audio?

Would appreciate the link. Thanks.

It's ElGato, not legato. Just Google for it.

 

Their software cannot convert video that's in the .tivo package. If you have the Toast Blu-ray plug-in you can use Toast to create a Blu-ray video disc image file that contains a video stream that the ElGato Turbo software can decode. What are you planning to use to play the video when you're done?

[TivoHawaii]

I want to play DVD and also some media player

Like asus or western digital.

U want to create a video of all the swim events.

[tsantee]

I want to play DVD and also some media player

Like asus or western digital.

U want to create a video of all the swim events.

If you are going to use a WD TV then you don't need to convert the video at all. You just have to get Toast to remove the .tivo container. As I mentioned before this is done by setting up to make a Blu-ray video disc but then choosing Save as Disc Image instead of clicking the burn button. Toast multiplexes the video and creates a .m2ts video/audio file within the disc image. Mount the disc image and drag out the .m2ts and it can be played with the WD TV (and other players that can play MPEG 2 HD video files).

 

With Toast 11 you can use the Roxio Video Player or VLC to play the .m2ts file on the computer.

 

This process retains the original audio without any modification (except for trimming out any segments you marked with Toast's editor).

 

You need Toast 11 and the Blu-ray plugin to do this.