Transcoding help needed for Sony blueray dlna atmos bypass

Background I have a Windows 11 PC that I use for a media file server and a Sony UDP-x700 Blu-ray player that connects to that media file server via DLNA. I only use the Sony for playing 1080p and occasionally 720P MKV and MP3 movies / TV shows stored on that file server. The Sony Blu-ray is connected to an older 5.1 Denon 1610 surround AVR. The AVR is connected to a 1080p Sharp TV via the HDMI arc although I do not use any apps on the TV at all, nor plan to.


According to the user manual the Sony supports Atmos, but the Denon does not, although it supports DD and DD+. When I play an Atmos file such as those from Disney Plus or Apple TV I get an error "audio not supported" which I'm certain is being caused by the atmos content. I have been using the handbrake application in the past to strip this off/convert these files. However that is time consuming. I am aware of the servio setting to Output to stereo only but that won't meet my needs as I don't want to lose my surround on all other files

My hope Is that there is some way VIA transcoding to strip or convert this atmos content (when present) in realtime yet still leave me 5.1 surround sound. Is this possible? Are there any experts out there that can walk me through this? Thanks!!

[atc98092]

To my knowledge there's no Matches line that will detect tracks with Atmos. So I don't think there's any way to only transcode files with Atmos tracks. You can detect TrueHD, which is the codec used by most Blu Ray discs for Atmos. It's also available in Dolby Digital Plus, but that's usually only from streaming sites. But transcoding TrueHD would force you to lose your lossless audio completely, since all such media would be transcoded to standard AC3. Now, if your AVR doesn't support TrueHD at all, then there would be no loss in doing it that way. And audio transcoding requires very little computer power (compared to video transcoding).

Depending on how you ripped your media, perhaps there's a different audio track you can select to play. But that can only be done at the player level. I do know that my older Sony BD players did offer the ability to select a different audio track. and Serviio can be configured to send all available audio tracks.

My denon does support TrueHD. I am not in control of the rips (how they were done or what they contain). I don't care if the end result of the solution is lossy or not. I just want it to work with whatever is thrown at it. If it can convert everything down to AC3 I'm fine with that.For clarity, I'm not looking for a solution for a subset of files but Aa generic one for all of them (lowest common denominator answer). Just need to know exactly how to make that happen. Thanks

[atc98092]

If you're OK with losing the lossless audio for TrueHD tracks, then yes it's simple to capture just those files and transcode the audio. There's a number of existing profiles that will transcode TrueHD to AC3, so you can test those files to make sure that's all it takes. For a test, try the Roku 4K Media Player or the Roku 4K TV profiles. Both will transcode TrueHD and DTS Master Audio to AC3. Both of those codecs have the capability to include height channels (TrueHD has Atmos and MA has DTS:X). Both profiles will catch the audio in any container and with either H.264 or H.265 video codecs. It's unlikely you have any media with a different video codec with TrueHD audio.

I will mention that sometimes there are other settings in a profile that mess with using them for a device they weren't written for. So if the Roku profiles don't show or play your files, there's several other profiles that also match the TrueHD audio codec. But this is really just for testing purposes. Once you confirm that your media will play with the alternate profile, you can create a personal profile that is more closely matched to your Sony player and just have it match those specific files. Hopefully that will give you playback with everything.

Unfortunately that didn't work. I tried all 5 or 6 roku profiles. I even tried the denon profile.

But then I saw a sharp aquos TV profile. Now I have a sharp tv but keep in mind I don't use any TV apps at all and all audio is provided from my denon avr. So I had no expectations that it would do anything at all. To my shock and surprise, it worked!!! Every file I've thrown at it so has worked great!! I have no idea how or why that profile does it, but there you go.

Thank you for your help and pushing me in the right direction.

[atc98092]

Happy to assist and glad you found a profile that worked.