Out of sync audio only on some mkv's

[muckypup]

Looking for some suggestions. Bought a copy of the second series of primeval and been ripping it to store on my PCH.

I used DVDDecryptor to extract the vob of each episode. This plays fine with audio exactly in sync.

I then used MeGUI to index the vob to a d2v, and avs. Encoded with x264 and finally muxed in the original AC3. The audio is off by over a second :confused:

How can the vob play fine, yet the muxed mkv be so far off?

I tried DGindex separate from MeGUI and then mkvmerge gui to mux the ac3 back in but this made no difference.

Exactly the same process on series 1 of primeval was fine. I have come across this on a couple of discs.

Any ideas anyone?

Steve

[Inspector.Gadget]

Did you preserve the delay in the name of the audio file demuxed by DGIndex? You'll get an audio stream name like VTS_02_PGC_01_1 T82 2_0ch 192Kbps DELAY 18ms.ac3, where 18ms is the delay. You must then apply that delay on muxing with mkvmergeGUI.

[muckypup]

Yep.... the delay is 0ms

Primeval s2e1 T80 2_0ch 192Kbps DELAY 0ms.ac3

This sort of leads me to believe that there is something in the vob that is legal but is confusing the demux software into thinking the delay is 0ms.

Steve

[muckypup]

mmm... in addition I tried MeGUI -> avi(xvid) same, and DivX 6.8 encoder and same there. Yet when I play the vob direct it's perfect. Something odd going on there.

S.

[Inspector.Gadget]

Is this disc PAL or NTSC?
What's your field operation in DGIndex (honor, ignore, force film)?
Are there possibly some odd cells like separate credits or video-only cells at the beginning of the VOB?

[muckypup]

Hi, the disc is PAL.

As I don't know what DGIndex operation modes do I left it on "Honor Pulldown Flags".

>Are there possibly some odd cells like separate credits or
>video-only cells at the beginning of the VOB?

I have single stepped through the beginning of the video. There seem to be 50 blank frames before the first frame with video which is the start of the actual video. I tried muxing in the audit with a delay of 2000ms (50 frames at 25fps = 2 seconds) but that was still way off.

Steve

[muckypup]

It's something that confusing software that relies on playing the file through indexing first. I tired Avidenux which can open VOBs but it indexes them first and sure enough the delay is there.

Steve

[unskinnyboy]

Try redoing the ripping process with DVDFab HD Decrypter or the RipIt4Me package. It's possible that all of the copy protection hasn't come off, just by using DVD Decrypter.

[Inspector.Gadget]

I have single stepped through the beginning of the video. There seem to be 50 blank frames before the first frame with video which is the start of the actual video. I tried muxing in the audit with a delay of 2000ms (50 frames at 25fps = 2 seconds) but that was still way off.

Steve

Try placing a later start point for your d2v project and audio in DGIndex using the leftmost "bracket" button on the bottom toolbar. Try seeking to the last black frame before the first video frame and setting that as a start point. In theory, this should fix your problem if the desync is caused by silent frames.

[muckypup]

Actually been using AnyDVD to remove the protection and DVD Decryptor as a nice gui to pick the correct episode off the disc and concat the vobs together. I decided to start again and installed DVDFab, turned off AnyDVD and re-extracted with DVDFab. This actually works fine. The problem seems to be this disc and DVD decryptor interacting (and a couple of other multiple episode discs).

So.....

Extract With DVDFab
Index with DGIndex (cos MeGUI indexer doesn't seem to support multiple vobs)
Create AVS Script with MeGUI
Encode to mkv with MeGUI/x264
Mux audio back in with Mkvmerge GUI (cos sometimes MeGUI muxer gets the aspect ratio wrong and you can specify it in mkvmerge).

Phew... If it wasn't for the fact that the result was very very good indeed I would stick with drag'n'drop divx6.8 :) ... and the fact I can have multiple audio tracks in an mkv.

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

Steve

[setarip_old]

@muckypup

Hi!

Instead of going through all of those steps and using all of those programs, try simply using "MakeMKV" alone ( does NOT require AnyDVD or any other program) to select, rip, and convert to MKV each of the desired episodes...

[muckypup]

@muckypup
try simply using "MakeMKV" alone ( does NOT require AnyDVD or any other program) to select, rip, and convert to MKV each of the desired episodes...

Thanks for the suggestion. I had a look at the MakeMKV website but as far as I can tell, it's too simple.

I want to encode a DVD with the video as high a quality as possible (I use the insane x264 MeGUI profile), and transfer unchanged the AC3 5.1 english audio unless the DVD has an english DTS track in which case I want both the DTS and 5.1 audio channels but the DTS as defaut. All subtitles and other audio should be discarded.

I'm not sure from the website that MakeMKV can do this.

It also seems like it copies the MPEG video stream rather than encoding it to h.264? "preserving most information but not changing it in any way. "

Also it says it's only free during the beta :)

Steve

[setarip_old]

Instead of making a lot of assumptions based on a cursory reading of the homepage I'd suggest you actually try it. It can do EVERYTHING you've questioned, except convert to h.264 - and if you're seeking high quality video (and filesize is not an important consideration), there's certainly nothing "wrong" with saving the original format.

as far as I can tell, it's too simple.If you'd make the effort to actually explore and use the program, you'll discover that it's an extremely powerful program that has a masterfully designed, easy-to-use GUI...

[muckypup]

Are you associated with this app? You seem very keen! :)

Encoding apps are 10-a-penny, some good some bad, some freeware, some commercial. I only have a finite time to investigate these and quite frankly the web page does not "sell" the app very well. Nowhere does it list the features what it can do, not even screen shots of the options that will do those functions so indicate it can do them. You should invest more time in it.

I totally agree that there is nothing wrong with having the mpeg2 in the mkv container - Any re-encoding is going to leave it's mark on the quality. HOWEVER, it's not what I am looking for. With a good sized DVD collection, disk space is at a premium and with a blueray drive tugging at my wallet - even more so.

This is why h.264 encoding is an absolute must. I'd rather keep the AC3/DTS soundtrack intact than the video. Others of course will have different opinions.

Steve

[setarip_old]

Are you associated with this app?Absolutely not - and if you track down the FIRST thread started at Doom9's forum by "Mike Chen", you'll see that I'd really taken him to task about the then new and unknown "MakeMKV". The program has since developed very nicely and is extremely useful (and easy to use). Presently, it is unique as the only product that can by itself (No need for "AnyDVD") both rip standard DVDs, BluRays, and HD-DVDs and convert them directly to .MKV format.

You should invest more time in it.The only time I "invest" in MKV is when I use it. Tell that to the author, not to me ;>}