How do I encode with AC3 passthrough

[waldo22]

So, I must be doing something stupid.

I have tried to compress my virgin IFO/VOB DVD rips with both h.264 and xVid, using the .mkv container, and I can't seem to get the audio in AC3 5.1

What do I need to do?

MediaInfo reports:

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Codec/Info : Dolby AC3
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Language : English

for all my compressed .mkv files, but this is supposed to be a 5.1 track.

When I try to play them on XBMC (Xbox Media Center), it reports AC3 mono.

Handbrake reports track 1 as: "1 English (AC3) (5.1 ch)"

However, the settings on the audio tab are still set to 160 kbps bitrate and 48khz sample rate, which definitely doesn't seem right to me. I don't want any bitrate set, I just want to preserve the track as-is.

Track 1 mix is set to "automatic", but the only choices are "Stereo", "Dolby Surround", and "Dolby Pro Logic II".

How do I set this up to do AC3 5.1 passthrough from the GUI? Or do I have to use the CLI?

Thanks,

Wes

PS, I have searched, but either I'm not very good at it or nobody else is having this problem.

[/b]

[jbrjake]

How about you actually tell us what an amp detects, instead of basing your assessment of the file's contents on its metadata? Mediainfo reporting 2 channels means nothing other than that a little info field for the number of tracks is listed as 2 -- a reported, acknowledged bug that's already been fixed in development code. But it's just cosmetic. The real test is always how many discrete channels your surround receiver actually reports after decoding the AC3.