6 channel audio output from the HDR

[Steve Harper]

I have my HDR-FOX T2 running the latest custom firmware connected to my amp (Onkyo TX-NR509)
via hdmi, live and recorded HD content is fed to the amp as either 2 or 6 channel dolby digital.
When a HD recording is decrypted then edited using videoredo and saved back to the HDR without any conversion as a .ts file the audio is output as 2 channel pcm even though the 5.1 audio is still entact.
Videoredo reports the HD recordings as being H264 + AAC which is also the format of my 5.1 DVD rips stored on the HDR but also only output to my amp as 2 channel pcm. If I re encode a dvd rip with megui to a H264 + AC3 in a .mp4 container (which megui allows) this plays fine on the HDR with 6 channel DD sent to the amp. How can I get the Hdr to output 5.1 AAC to the amp from anything other than live or unedited recorded tv. Thanks

 

[framedtoo]

have you tried nicesplice
to edit your recordings

 

[Steve Harper]

Thanks for your suggestion framedtoo, I finally found time to try nicesplice on a recording of Max Payne off channel4 HD and can confirm that the 5.1 channel audio is retained and output to my amp which is great for future recordings. Nicesplice is another example of the remarkable creativity and technical expertise of the guys extending the functionality of the humax. I still have the problem of my dvd rips and older recordings stored on the HDR being output as 2 channel pcm. I have a short recording off BBC HD which I have decrypted then saved as a .ts with videoredo checking the output against the original with mediainfo the only difference is the format used
videoredo - mpegTS,
original - BDAV
If I copy the videoredo edit back to the HDR with its original filename and use the original .hmt .hmi .nts files the picture breaks up but the amp switches to 5.1 dolby Great! So as the HDR can clearly output 5.1 AAC audio it must be something in the .hmt .hmi .nts files that tells it to, are these sidecar files understood, can the HDR be persuaded to output 6 channel AAC without them?
Anyway thanks to everyone who has worked on making the humax so much better.

 

[Sam Widges]

Try the hmt command on the hmt file of something that you have copied back and see if the flags indicate that it is still encrypted - if so, clear the encryption flag and maybe it will work. Bear in mind that some features won't work if you have edited the file, but it's a start.

 

[Steve Harper]

Thanks for your suggestion Sam, I don't know even the basics of telnet (on my todo list) anyway after further googling it turns out the HDR can not output 5.1 AAC, it automatically transcodes it to dobly digital AC3 on the fly and outputs this I THINK! link
So the instruction to do this must be in one of the .hmt .hmi .nts files, which is why using nicesplice enables edited 5.1 output.
As I am at the limit of my technical understanding I will have to transcode my recorded HD archive to AC3 unless anyone has any inspiration on getting the HDR to transcode on the fly without the sidecar files.

 

[imatoz]

When I decrypt BBC HD recordings then FTP them to my PC using filezilla I lose the DD 5.1 and only get AAC stereo sound even when the original plays DD 5.1 when run directly from the Humax. Is this unavoidable or am I doing smething wrong?