No sound in WMP

[Sion]

I've used Auto-GK to back up a few of my DVDs. The resulting .avi is very nice, however I have to play it in media player classic to get sound. Not that I have a problem with this (although I'm not a HUGE fan of MPC, it's okay) but I'd like to know why I can get video but no sound when I play the .avi in MS WMP.

I'm using Auto-GK ver. 2.27, with the included XviD codec. I pretty much left all options at default, so I guess that means the resulting audio is mp3.

Also, a corrolary question: If I were to keep the original 5.1 AC3 sound files, do I need to install a special filter to get that sound on my pc, or do MPC and/or WMP have ac-3 filters already? I can play regular dvd's on my pc (dvd's that have ac-3 sound) so presumably the proper filters are somewhere... Just wondering what's required to do this.

Reason I ask, is that I don't currently have a stand alone mpeg4 capable player, but I plan to get one soon, and when I do, I'd like to burn my .avi's to cd and play them on the stand alone, with ac-3 sound. But in the mean time, I'd like to encode the .avi's with ac-3 and be able to play them on my pc.

Thanks for any help... I did read the AGK FAQ, but didn't find these answers (possibly missed them?)

[CWR03]

You may already be creating them with AC3 audio - to let them work in WMP you only need to install AC3Filter.

[jggimi]

I've had two .avi players; both would play .ac3 audio tracks just fine.I did read the AGK FAQ, but didn't find these answers (possibly missed them?)You may have overlooked Q2.12.

[Sion]

I did read 2.12 in the FAQ, but that didn't apply to me, since I encoded the audio to mp3, not ac3/dts. That's the whole reason why I'm asking here, is that the audio is supposedly mp3, but there's no sound when I play it in MS WMP. I *do* get sound in media player classic though, which seems odd to me.

Update: I recently encoded another dvd of mine. I still left the destination audio setting as default (auto) which (supposedly) results in mp3 audio in the final .avi file. However, as the source audio I chose ac3-2ch instead of ac3-6ch (I had used the ac3-6ch audio track as the source on the previous, problematic encode). The resulting .avi file, which used the ac3-2ch track as the source, had sound when played in WMP.

Anyone know why this might have occured? :confused:

:thanks:

[jggimi]

Auto will leave the sound track in .ac3 format OR convert it to .mp3, depending on file size. You can determine what your soundtracks actually are by using GSpot -- and more importantly, you can find out if the tracks are renderable or not.

[Sion]

Thanks...

Off to find this "GSpot" you speak of...

Searching for the gspot... such fun! :D

[CWR03]

Just out of curiosity, did you install AC3Filter?

[Sion]

:rolleyes: not yet .... :o

[Sion]

jggimi: "the northwest corner of Lake Erie"... uh... hard to define a northwest corner of that lake, since it runs NE to SW... are you in the Detroit area? Just curious... :)

[jggimi]

Its a good guess, based on your symptoms alone, that installing AC3Filter will solve your problem. Both AC3Filter and GSpot are available from Doom9's download

I live at 42 degrees, 8 minutes north, 83 degrees, 9 minutes west. Approximately. :)

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jggimi/nw.jpg

[Sion]

I live at the far opposite corner of Lake Erie from you! :D

I am out of town until Friday. I'll post my findings when I install AC3Filter.
Thanks for the tip, my wife will be SO happy that I found the GSpot... ;)

[Sion]

Installing AC3Filter did the trick! :D

But my question is WHY?

Why could I play AC3 dvd's in WMP just fine, but not an .avi with AC3 audio? Why did I need an extra audio filter?

Thanks for all your help!

[CWR03]

There's an AC3 decoder built into your software DVD player, but it's not an independent codec.

My question is why would you come here to seek advice only to resist it for so long? Your "rolls eyes" smiley was rather rude as an answer to my earlier question.

[Sion]

Sorry, you misinterpreted my "rolleyes"... I was rolling them at myself, for STILL not getting around to installing the AC3Filter as you recommended. i.e. I was a flake, and embarrased that I had forgotten to do it. I was not rolling eyes at your repeated request. Thus the sheepish/embarrased pink smiley at the end of that post, right after the rolleyes.

So, when WMP uses the dvd codecs from winDVD to play a dvd in WMP, it also uses winDVD's AC3 codecs too? Interesting.

Thanks.