What am I missing - why is .mkv/.mka a thing for multi-channel audio files, when .m4a exists? Does .mkv/mka containers have some support that .m4a does not?
Atmos Experiences, Frustrations and a Plea for Help
- Thread starter quoddiophile
- Start date
Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:
Video?
I understand .mkv for video. I am talking about when there is no video - its an audio file only, and people here still prefer to use .mka/.mkv in lieu of .m4a, which solves all tagging and Kodi issues - that is unless i'm missing something about m4a vs mka, but im not sure what it could be aside from a container issue with m4a with a certain codec. Otherwise, I am stumped why people fight using m4a.
I do think MKV is supported by more applications.
M4a can be tagged... Yes. To do that you have to break into chapters. But I could never get them to play gapless. Hence the reason for single large MKV/MKA files and cue sheets. They do play gapless and still allow track selection
Hmm. Well personally I don't use Kodi, Jriver, or apps of that sort. I rip as .iso files (when possible) and play back with PowerDVD. I don't do further ripping as I don't do playlists. Old school, I listen to whole albums.
So IMOO I think you all do too much work to listen to music...
Indeed, not everyone is using Kodi for playback.
The way I look at is simple: if it's a BD/DVD/DVDA/SACD, rip to .iso.
HDD space is relatively cheap. I have over 100TB capacity on my main pc, which includes backups. I also have another pc with backups, and more HDD's filled with BD backups sitting on shelves in my audio room.
I have backups of backups. I also have literally walls of shelves holding surround (and stereo SACD) discs, which easily number 2000.
I have the same thing in a digital backup just like playing a disc, with nothing lost, 1 for 1 identical.
I don't like apps like Kodi or Jriver, and I don't own any separate devices to play what I can easily play on my pc. Don't do playlists and tagging, don't have time to fool with what I see as unnecessary extra work. Works for me, and I know it's not for everyone. I like simple.
HDD space is relatively cheap. I have over 100TB capacity on my main pc, which includes backups. I also have another pc with backups, and more HDD's filled with BD backups sitting on shelves in my audio room.
I have backups of backups. I also have literally walls of shelves holding surround (and stereo SACD) discs, which easily number 2000.
I have the same thing in a digital backup just like playing a disc, with nothing lost, 1 for 1 identical.
I don't like apps like Kodi or Jriver, and I don't own any separate devices to play what I can easily play on my pc. Don't do playlists and tagging, don't have time to fool with what I see as unnecessary extra work. Works for me, and I know it's not for everyone. I like simple.
For Kodi and my Dolby Atmos TrueHD bluray MKV rips I have decided on single file MKAs with chapter tags. That way I don't have to deal with M4A folder structures (I can just convert from MKV and then tag with Chapter Editor) and then not have to decide if something is potentially gapless or not (M4A tracks do not play back gaplessly in Kodi).
Mr. Afternoon
Mixing Engineer & Artist
I have no issues with Atmos tagging with MKAs nor seamless playback with split MKAs. However I don't actually have an Atmos-capable AVR so I suppose everything is getting passed through as TrueHD, likely with the Atmos metadata stripped.
Yeah, I can see how you might get gapless playback that way.
It's such a shame that hardware (SoC) players don't support chapter navigation of .mka and .m4a contained files (regardless of the audio format). Indeed, it's even more of a shame that very few hardware (SoC) players support chapter navigation of .mkv and .mp4 contained files!
madscot
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
I hate being old, most of what’s being said here is chinese to me, I just play my discs and dont worry about other stuff lol
When my wife said she wasn't keen on seeing loads of CD's on shelves and became even less keen on seeing DVD-A's, DVD-V's and SACD's in different sized cases sitting on shelves, I agreed and this is when I started backing-up all my discs
And even though she and I have long since gone our separate ways I've not been tempted to resurrect the shelves...
madscot
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
All my 1200 plus cd’s are backed up, if backing up blu-rays, sacd’s, dvd-audios etc were as easy i’d be in there BUT it’s not as loads of threads in here show. More than half of my cd’s are boxed in a cupboard (I keep thinking I should sell them) everything else is in cabinets against the back wall to keep my better half happyWhen my wife said she wasn't keen on seeing loads of CD's on shelves and became even less keen on seeing DVD-A's, DVD-V's and SACD's in different sized cases sitting on shelves, I agreed and this is when I started backing-up all my discs
And even though she and I have long since gone our separate ways I've not been tempted to resurrect the shelves...
I can't say I've had any trouble backing up BRD-A discs using MakeMKV. DVD-A's are a slightly more difficult using DVD-Audio Explorer. And after discovering that my OPPO BDP-103 can back-up SACD's, these are not difficult either.
For me, the most challenging tasks are after the discs audio streams have been extracted, as I like to create .iso image files of all my discs for storing onto HDD's. I also prefer to create one long audio stream and access individual tracks using a .cue sheet file.
I quite like the cabinets idea, it's something I'll consider when I move house if I've got enough wall space...
Everything I have, surround disc wise, save DTS-CD is backed up to .iso. It's not that it's hard, it's just always been an ongoing process for me. If I had to start from scratch now I don't know as I'd ever finish.
As for the disc racks, I moved to 6 ft tall bookcases and added extra shelves. It's more of a way to store them, since our home is small. I have 4 of them now and two smaller ones. Going vertical saved a lot of space.
As for the disc racks, I moved to 6 ft tall bookcases and added extra shelves. It's more of a way to store them, since our home is small. I have 4 of them now and two smaller ones. Going vertical saved a lot of space.
barfle
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Although my LPs and Laser discs are on shelves, all of my little silver discs are in drawers. There are pics in my sig.When my wife said she wasn't keen on seeing loads of CD's on shelves and became even less keen on seeing DVD-A's, DVD-V's and SACD's in different sized cases sitting on shelves, I agreed and this is when I started backing-up all my discs
And even though she and I have long since gone our separate ways I've not been tempted to resurrect the shelves...
Everything I have, over 4,500 albums are on my hard drives.
CD & DVD-A ripped to flac, BD's to mkv.
For the big BD's I do like to save a bit of drive space and not save the music to
every different codec on the disc. Do I really need the 3 Dolbys & 3 DTS files ? naw.
Usually I save the very best Atmos and a 5/7.1 file. maybe the 2ch, maybe not.
Funny how we each have our own priorities and ways.
So much music, so little time.
CD & DVD-A ripped to flac, BD's to mkv.
For the big BD's I do like to save a bit of drive space and not save the music to
every different codec on the disc. Do I really need the 3 Dolbys & 3 DTS files ? naw.
Usually I save the very best Atmos and a 5/7.1 file. maybe the 2ch, maybe not.
Funny how we each have our own priorities and ways.
So much music, so little time.
Drive space is cheap. Ripping everything down to flac/mkv is a time suck for me. When I have spare time, I want to be listening to music, not fiddling with it.Everything I have, over 4,500 albums are on my hard drives.
CD & DVD-A ripped to flac, BD's to mkv.
For the big BD's I do like to save a bit of drive space and not save the music to
every different codec on the disc. Do I really need the 3 Dolbys & 3 DTS files ? naw.
Usually I save the very best Atmos and a 5/7.1 file. maybe the 2ch, maybe not.
Funny how we each have our own priorities and ways.
So much music, so little time.
But that's me. As you say, every one has their own way (and more time than I do, apparently).
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