Transcode surround sound to stereo

I would love the ability to watch media with surround sound to devices that only support stereo. I don’t see why this couldn’t be done with OTF transcoding or even keeping surround sound and stereo at the same time. I know it will use more space, but I think some people would be willing for that.

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The tuner chip that the Tablo uses can only output one audio stream at a time. That’s why they had to do it the way they do. OTF audio transcoding may be possible, but it’ll take a tuner just like the bandwidth transcode does.

Do HLS files allow multiple audio tracks?

The Android ota2GO app supports this when you download shows and use an external player like MX Player.

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I took a quick look at a format description, and I think it could. But the tuner won’t generate it, so doesn’t help.

I’ve seen the example of HLS alternate audio for language but not alternate audio codecs. As in section 8.6 of the standard for the audio only m3u8 that is matched up against the various video file which specify the audio format.

I’m just curious. If I choose stereo on Tablo and I have a prologic capable receiver, wouldn’t I get everything in prologic surround? Would this save me a lot of bandwidth?

@Tim_K tl;dr: It’s not the same, but pretty good.

ProLogic II uses algorithms to figure out what content is likely surround from the 2 channel stereo channels and moves it to a fake 5 channel (and sub) audio/speakers.

DD 5.1 uses the discrete 5 surround channels (and sub), and outputs each channel on it’s own physical discreet speaker.

It’s like upsampling an image. I can fill in the blanks, but it won’t be 100% accurate, but it’ll be decent.

Yes I understand how Prologic II works. TBH, sometimes I like the sound of Prologic II over DD 5.1 but that"s just person preference. Just thought it might save bandwidth or processor speed. Anything to make the thing faster.