TMPG Author: AC3???

[gator222]

I have been having trouble with some files ripped using DVD Shrink; when authoring with TMPG I get no sound, and it appears to be only those files that have only AC3 streams. Is it true that I will need the AC3 plug in to put together those clips? Why do some DVD's have several different types of audio, but some just have AC3? Or can I convert them easily? I don't see the optional streams in Shrink....I also ripped one file and when I tried to put it in Author I got an error message saying it was an illegal linear PCM stream. I assumed this program would allow the use of multiple kinds of audio files, but I guess not.....

Also, what to do when the combined bitrate on a clip is larger than it should be?

[trapvector]

Hi. DVD Shrink will use VOB files as its final output. TMPGEnc DVD Author will take mpeg streams and turn them into VOB files. So you can't take an already created VOB file & run it through TMPGEnc DVD Author. AC3, I think, is an audio stream that's Dolby Digital 5.1
DVD's will have different audio streams because of the different audio options, like Stereo, DD5.1, DTS, etc.
Also, in Shrink, under ReAuthor you should see all available audio streams and their descriptions. You can select the ones you want to keep. The message about the illegal linear PCM stream has to do with sampling khz. A regular wav file is 44100 khz. Compliant DVD's use 48000 khz.

--I think most all of this information is correct--someone feel free to jump in and post if it isn't--

[gator222]

Thanks....the Author will definitely take VOB files....the option for selecting files is "Add DVD video" as opposed to "Add file". It just seems to be inflexible in terms of adding files with different kinds of audio. One would expect that it could use any popular audio stream on commercial DVDs....

[trapvector]

Hi. Yeah you're right...I forgot about the "Add DVD Video" function being able to add VOBs from the hard drive:p
Have you tried using BeSweet to transcode the AC3 to an acceptable audio format?

[gator222]

No, but I guess that's next...although the AC3 plug in would be nice, if I can get myself to buy the authoring program. Just wanted to try it out, and it seems OK...spent a few hours figuring out how to get the menus to work the way I wanted, and I still haven't figured out how to avoid the high bit rate error, but that doesn't seem to bother the recording.

[Happygolucky]

Originally posted by gator222
I have been having trouble with some files ripped using DVD Shrink; when authoring with TMPG I get no sound, and it appears to be only those files that have only AC3 streams. Is it true that I will need the AC3 plug in to put together those clips? Why do some DVD's have several different types of audio, but some just have AC3? Or can I convert them easily? I don't see the optional streams in Shrink....I also ripped one file and when I tried to put it in Author I got an error message saying it was an illegal linear PCM stream. I assumed this program would allow the use of multiple kinds of audio files, but I guess not.....

Also, what to do when the combined bitrate on a clip is larger than it should be?

You do not need the AC3 Plugin to use AC3 audio that is already encoded. I regularly encode all my audio to AC3 using BeSweet then use that as the audio for my authoring. If the filename is the same as the video, TMPG sees it automatically and uses it. The AC3 Plugin is only required if you want DVD Author to do the AC3 encoding from some other format.

[echooff]

For NTSC compliance audio must be either ac3 or pcm at 48,000 hz. Pal includes both of these and also mp2 also at 48,000. Most ntsc stand alone machines will play mp2 audio. DTS is not yet dvd compliant (it's relativly new). Most older players will not play DTS. Happygolucky is correct, you don't need the ac3 plugin, but it is nice to have if you can afford it. I'm quite happy with it.