Blu-ray Audio Issues - A three-pipe problem?

[GeeKay]

A strange conundrum: nowadays whenever I try to play my Blu-ray edition of 'The Lord of the Rings', I get plenty of video, but no audio. That's to say there's audio throughout the preamble (adverts etc) that comes before the main feature starts. But as soon as the actual cinematic part of the disc begins it goes completely silent. The same problem exists on all three discs - though, interestingly enough, it doesn't occur on any of the special features discs bundled with the boxed edition. They come out loud and clear! No other Blu-ray film or DVD of mine has this weird and wonderful audio issue. They play just fine. It occurs only on the three LOTRs discs - and then it's just the cinematic sections. I haven't loaned the box set to anyone. The problem seems to have manifested entirely by itself.

NB. I must confess to having hawked this problem around various online help forums, and so far I've received zilch responses. So this is my last port of call. As for myself, things have reached the point whereby I simply want to know what the cause is, even if nothing can be done about it. There has to be a rational scientific/technological explanation, one that ultimately makes sense. Otherwise I might as well start believing in fairies. . . perhaps even in the existence of Middle Earth?  

Many thanks. 

 

Edited November 23, 2017 by GeeKay
punctuation

[fiveworlds]

Sounds like an audio codec. Do you have an alternative video player you can try? Alternatively it is possible to convert the audio track to a different format (it doesn't always work) with ffmpeg but you will have to copy the movie to your computer.

[GeeKay]

I'm afraid I don't - the only Blu-ray player I have is the one I use for the TV (both my PCs are DVD-only). However, a friend of mine reports that the discs play fine on his own Blu-ray player. So it seems the source of the problem lies with my player. Yet it has no troubles playing my other Blu-ray films. That's what's bugging me, perhaps more than anything else. 

[fiveworlds]

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Yet it has no troubles playing my other Blu-ray films. That's what's bugging me, perhaps more than anything else. 

Audio codecs are a mess there is no standardization each company has their own format unfortunately. Your Blu-ray player isn't broken it just doesn't have whatever codec is used on that dvd installed.

 

[GeeKay]

Certainly seems to be. One question, though: how come the the discs and/or the player have started playing up like this? I say this because they always played okay in the past, using the existing player. It's only now I've started having this problem here.

Thanks for getting back to me, by the way. 

 

[fiveworlds]

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they always played okay in the past

Then maybe the Blu-ray player had the codec in the past but it doesn't anymore. Data can be lost overtime and even a small change (such as a faulty circuit) will break it completely. 

[Phi for All]

Could it be something as simple as having accidentally toggled "Audio: OFF"? That's what it sounds like, since neither the disks nor the machine have changed. The previews and the merchandizing would still be aurally active, but the movie sound wouldn't play. 

[Memammal]

Hi GeeKay, maybe I can help you with this. From what you are describing the movie content is defaulted to a high-res audio codec (with this move it is DTS HD Master Audio), while the other parts are not (they would be in standard PCM or DTS/Dolby). So your player or decoder (the Audio Video Receiver or the TV) cannot decode this codec. There are a couple of things that you can do:

Set your Blu-ray player's audio output to PCM (aka LPCM) not bit stream. This *should* resolve the issue as it then outputs in a digital format that your AVR or TV can decode;

But if your Blu-ray player cannot decode the original codec (which would be strange, as the player should automatically read the disc in a format that is compatible - all players & discs are backwards compatible), you need to change the movie's audio format in the disc set-up to PCM or DTS/Dolby Digital. In order to do so, you could try the movie's own menu (each movie at its start should give you the option to change the audio format according to choice), or by pressing the audio set-up button on your Blu-ray player's remote and then toggle through it until you get the desired codec that works. 

I trust that this would resolve the issue. If not, there is likely something wrong with the way that the discs were encoded/written. 

[GeeKay]

Hi 

Yes, I'm looking forward to trying out these ideas once I get the offending discs back from a friend of mine whose been investigating the problem. I'll start with Phil for All's solution - this being a likely cause, given my tendency to fumble around with the player remote when watching films in subdued lighting. Failing that, I'll attempt to change the movie's audio setup in the discs' formating options (thanks, Memammal) and see what happens. Again, thanks for all the helpful advice - I've learnt a great deal from it