Removing the primary audio track

andy

I'm trying to backup Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition, and I want to get rid of the primary track (DD5.1). I hear this can cause problems with some DVD players though. Is there a way I can make the DTS track primary, so that it plays automatically without having to select it from the menu?

... You can do it with IFOEdit.

Its really not recommended though, if you borrow the DVD to a friend or put it in a reciever that does not support DTS, you can immediately damage the equipment.

Check out 2Cool's guides in the IFO/VOB editor forum.

Thanks...will it really damage the equipment if you play it on a system that doesn't support DTS? I was under the impression that it would simply not work or the sound would be distorted.

I have audio stream remapping as one of the quot;to-dosquot; on my list.  But I agree with Int 21 -- I would never create a DVD without an AC3 track, it is required on NTSC and highly recommended on PAL.

Originally posted by SuprSonik
Thanks...will it really damage the equipment if you play it on a system that doesn't support DTS? I was under the impression that it would simply not work or the sound would be distorted.

It would sound pretty awful... put a datacd in a cd player and play it at a very low volume and you'll have an idea of what it would sound like. I don't think it would damage your reciever so much as ruin your speakers. But it really is not a good idea.

If your primary track is DTS, on most non-DTS players/recievers you will hear silence.

There are Hollywood movies with a DTS primary track with AC3 as the second track. I doubt they would do this if it would damage your player. I think one movie that did this was Castaway. I popped the original disc in my non-DTS player and heard no audio. Checked all my connections only to find out it was playing DTS by default. When I went into the menu and selected Dobly it worked fine.  
You can use IFOEdit or PGCEdit to edit the main movie's program chain precommand to play the second track by default.

Audio tracks start at 0, not 1. So the command to play the 2nd track (DTS) would be:
(SetSTB) Set Audio Stream: 1

Refer to 2Cool's guides if you never added commands.

Originally posted by jdobbs
I have audio stream remapping as one of the quot;to-dosquot; on my list.  But I agree with Int 21 -- I would never create a DVD without an AC3 track, it is required on NTSC and highly recommended on PAL.

I would very much so like to see audio remapping because I always go for the DTS track over the DD5.1 track if its available and it gets to be a pain to have to select it from the menu because its not the default track.
With both my panasonic progressive scan and my pioneer DVR set top players an AC3 track is not required. I've played many DVD's that only had DTS tracks and they play fine.

There's always a gotcha' when you make non-standard discs.  One that you'll find often is when you lend your disc to a friend who uses the standard analog outputs with his SAP -- and it won't play any sound at all.

Sure there are many players that will play without an AC3 track... but you can be assured that WILL ALL PLAY AC3, because they can't get the DVD symbol on the front without it.

Maybe then, I can downmix the AC3 track to 2ch so that it takes up less space? LOTR Extended Edition already has a Dolby Surround (2ch) track, but for other movies with only a DD5.1 track and DTS, I mean.

What program could be used to do that? And is it possible to lower the bitrate on an AC3 track?

Just my opinion, but I think DD5.1 is already extremely high-fidelity audio.  I think DTS is overkill.

But -- that's just me.

(This one ought to get some spears thrown in my direction)  

I can tell the difference between DTS and DD5.1 tracks, but to tell you the truth the difference probably isn't worth the effort of doing this (and the extra space the DTS track takes up.)

But for some reason I just have this thing that makes me always want quot;the bestquot;, and DTS has a certain allure to it...I guess I'm just weird