DTS to AC3 conversion for LG TV using mediatomb DLNA server

Question

I want to convert a MKV video file containing DTS audio to a stream with AC3 audio. I want to pass this resulting stream to mediatomb's transcoding feature. Mediatomb will transfer the stream via DLNA to a LG TV, which does not support DTS audio.

I have tried the VLC command below but the TV does not recognize the stream, and playing the destination stream on PC does not produce sound.

vlc -vvv -I dummy INPUT.file --sout \
'#transcode{acodec=ac3,ab=256k,channels=2,threads=4} \
 :std{mux=ts,access=file,dst=DEST.file}'

The following ffmpeg command give a stream that plays on the TV with sound, but the ffmpeg process gets killed (with signal 15) within 10-15 seconds, and then the TV restarts the playback from the beginning. This goes on in loops.

ffmpeg -i INPUT.file -acodec ac3 -ab 384k -vcodec copy  \
 -vbsf h264_mp4toannexb -f mpegts -y DEST.file

I want to have a working DLNA server which transcodes DTS to AC3, any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Honestly, I'm not too sure. I suspect that ffmpeg is not transcoding fast enough and your TV just loops when it reaches the end. If there is no way to make mediatomb buffer a bit before it sends the stream, I would give http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/ a shot. It's the best DLNA media server I've used and you can force it to transcode to AC3 quite easily.

P.S. I know it's called "PS3" media server, but it now has support for all sorts of devices. It is also very easy to create a device profile if your is not supported out of the box.