You replaced your Blu-ray discs with AC3 streaming audio, but it might not have been the best choice.
You replaced your Blu-ray discs with AC3 streaming audio, but it might not have been the best choice.
I completed downloading every Game of Thrones season on Blu-ray. After checking discussions online, it seems that using AC3 pass-through works well for audio quality. Recent forum posts suggest some Blu-rays may not support surround sound when paired with AC3. This could be a misunderstanding—most modern players handle it fine. If you want the best experience, stick with your current settings unless you notice issues.
AC3 is the format, passthrough refers to sending video back without decoding audio, meaning it goes through another device for playback. You must send it to a player that supports AC3. Codecs are affected by file size; for example, DTS (PCM) can be large at high bitrates (around 1.5–2Mbps). I favor keeping audio in DTS/DTT and removing extra tracks so only the English version remains.
The majority of media players accept the AC3 codec, but alternatives may offer superior audio quality.
I usually keep audio and video unchanged when I extract Blu-rays. MakeMKV works well for me, just delete non-English tracks and all subtitles except the mandatory English ones. A standard rip can reach 20-30GB without encoding, though encoding may influence picture quality.