DTS (also known as Digital Theater Systems), owned by DTS, Inc., is a multi-channel digital surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical and consumer grade applications. It is used for in-movie sound both on film and on DVD.
Fun Fact:
One of the company’s initial investors was film director Steven Spielberg, who felt that theatrical sound formats up until the company’s founding were no longer state of the art, and as a result were no longer optimal for use on projects where quality sound reproduction was of the utmost importance.
Dolby Digital, or AC-3, is the common version containing up to six discrete channels of sound, with five channels for normal-range speakers (20 Hz – 20,000 Hz) (right front, center, left front, right rear and left rear) and one channel (20 Hz – 120 Hz) for the subwoofer driven low-frequency effects. Mono and stereo modes are also supported. AC-3 supports audio sample-rates up to 48kHz.
Fun Facts:
Batman Returns was the first film to use Dolby Digital technology when it premiered in theaters in Summer 1992. The LaserDisc version of Clear and Present Danger featured the very first Home theater Dolby Digital mix in 1995.
Most movies you download from the internet will be in .MKV container format with .h264 video and DTS Surround audio. While the Apple TV can play .h264 video, it cannot play DTS sound, nor can it do this from an .MKV container format. This post will show you how to convert an .MKV into a format that will play on a non-hacked Apple TV maintaining the surround sound.
Download CrossOver and run the installation. (Can be run in Demo mode)
Make a folder on your desktop called “DTS Converter.” (This is where we’ll be placing the windows utilities and doing the conversions.)
Once CrossOver is running, you can copy the downloaded MKV Audio Converter (AudioConverter.EXE) to the “DTS Converter” folder on your desktop.
Double click AudioConverter.EXE, this will launch the application and it will begin to download a few tools that it requires to do the conversion (the MKV audio extractor, the AC3 encoder, and the merging application). Once this new download completes it automatically installs the files and configures the converter application to use them.
On the MKV Tools tab of the application, in the File specification area, select your source file, and target file name. It’s helpful if you rename the target file so that you do not overwrite the source (in case you need to attempt another conversion for some reason).
Check mark the “DTS: Audio Output Parameters”, and select “Convert to Dolby Digital”, uncheck “Preserve DTS track” as you will no longer need it. Uncheck “VORBIS: Audio Output Parameters” as this will not be needed.
You should be ready to convert at this point. Press the “Run” button under “File specification”. The conversion of the audio should be fairly quick depending on the speed of your computer and compared to converting video.
Once completed, you should end up with a new MKV file that has an AC3 audio track. We’re not done yet!
Install the Perian codec (make sure you go to the control panel after it’s installed and press the “install codecs” button to activate all the codecs). Reboot.
Open Visual Hub, drag your newly created MKV with AC3 onto the Visual Hub window. Change the presets to Optimize for Apple TV 5.1, set the quality to Go Nuts, and check the box H.264 Encoding.
Select a destination for the file and press the start button.
If you have a fast computer, you’ll be done in a few hours. You’ve now got your movie in the correct format. But there’s one last thing. For some reason Visual Hub does not set the AC3 channels properly. You’ll have to open the original MKV with AC3 inside Quicktime, and go to the window menu and select “Show Movie Properties”, select the AC3 track, then press the “Audio Settings” tab. Note the channel assignments for all the speaker channels. (1 left, 2 right, 3 center, and so on). Write these down and close the file.
Now open your newly created Apple TV MOV file that Visual Hub created inside Quicktime. Also go to the window menu and select “Show Movie Properties”, select the AC3 track, then press the “Audio Settings” tab. Click each channel assignment and reassign the tracks to the same settings that were in the MKV AC3 file. Save your file.
You’re done! Copy your file to iTunes, and enjoy your HD/AC3 movie on your Apple TV.
NOTE: Since the conversion takes place with Windows software, this conversion will work on a PC.
