Keep original AVI sound when doing AVI2DVD

[gusarapez2000]

I would like to ask the community if it is possible to use the AVI2DVD capabilities of the new DVD2DVD 1.2.1 to obtain a DVD video that retains the original sound of the AVI file.

I have been doing in the last days a few AVI2DVD conversions, and I was surprised to see that the program still converts the mp3 or AC3 track of the AVI file into mp2 and that this is the format that it is incorporated into the DVD. I would have expected that, since both AC3 and MP3 are suitable audio formats contemplated by the DVD video specification, they would be the default choice for AVI2DVD. This would result in a better sound quality of the DVD as well as it would save all the processing time used to encode the audio. In the audio tab in DVD2DVD there is a box saying "do not convert audio (use source audio)", but this is greyed out and can be ticked only when the source is a DVD and not an AVI file.

Does anybody know if it there is any possibility of configuring AVI2DVD to do have this done or alternatively, if is there any workaround (like playing with crash recovery)?

Thanks a lot.

[Barix]

up -- so I want to convert an divx with AC3 audio to dvd with the same audio stream .. there's no way??

[Manngo]

Hi!

Here is a solution, long in written but not difficult.
First of all: DVD supports AC3, MP2, and DTS. MP3 is not included in the standard, should not use it.

You have to do this:
1. Disc space calculation.
Your AC3 file size can be different, than the mp2 created by D2S. You have to calculate the difference, and smaller the disc size with it.
This way: 4470MB-(<AC3 size>-<mp2 size>)=target disc size
Where:
<mp2 size>: the size of Your mp2 file, that will be created by D2S.
can be calculated this way:
(<audio bitrate in Kb/sec>*<movie length in sec>)/8/1024=<mp2 size in MB>
<AC3 size>: decompress it with Virtualdub or virtualdobmod.
In the bitrate tab set the disc size to the target.

2. Launch D2S as usal and let it work. When Scenarist opened and import finished and multiplexing started, stop D2S. Stop multiplexing in scenarist also, pressing cancel, but dont close it.

3. Launch besliced, and drop extracted_audio.ac3 to it. After let it work (few minutes). After You will have a file extracted_audio_fixed.ac3.

4. Go to scenarist, to the tracks tab. Double click the track icon (the icon shows the firs frame of video, and called encoded_video...), and you will see the track inside. (at least one video and one audio). Click on the audio stream and press del to delete the audio play, and click and del again, to delete the audio stream also. After this You can see only video and subtitle streams.
Now change to the first tab (data), click on the audio file (encoded_audio.mp2) and delete it also.
Keep on working, we amost finished...
Drag and drop the file created in step 3 (extracted_audio_fixed.ac3) to scenarist data tab. It has to say in the log view, that the audio stream was accepted, and the icon of the file has to be appear on the workspace. Grab this icon and dag it to the tracks tab, to the video stream.
Now change to the layout tab, check the 'create DVD video' and the 'create Disc image' checkboxes. Press start.
Finished!

Let us know, how You managed!

[Barix]

**edit**

I reported an error, but I found the solution (and was very very very elementar :-)

[Barix]

I finished the first round and I'm here with my results ..

during the conversion process avi2dvd hangs, but CCE continues the conversion. At the conversion end avi2dvd was still locked, so I close it.

Then I opened scenarist by hand and I tried to create the project by hand.

I got success, but on the first run I get the audio completely out of sync (anticipates about 1 sec) so now I have to re-try with scenarist and try to fix this ..

But why in a very nice program liek DVD2SVCD there's no way to copy the AC3 stream directly from avi to dvd ??

[Manngo]

Hmmmm...
Something seems to go wrong. When You say AVI2DVD you mean DVD2SVCD set in input=AVI, output=DVD mode?

In this case D2S should not hang.
ToDo:
1.Please post Your log file.

2.If you want to restart the project, what is the last process, that D2S offers? I hope 'DVD Authoring'.

3.Check, if there are any error messages, when opening Scenarist from start menu. Something, that waits to press OK button.

D2S should do the process, open Scenarist and build the DVD project, as I written.

[Barix]

saying AVI2DVD I mean DVD2SVCD with input=AVI, output=DVD.

here's my D2S log:



WNASPI32.DLL 4.6.0.1021
--------------------------------------------------------
- 13/02/2004 19:19:34
- AVI to SVCD Conversion
- AVI2DVD ver. 1.2.1 build 3
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing
- D:\Movies\WIP\La maledizione della prima luna.avi
Initializing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 13/02/2004 19:19:36
- Free on drive D: 49142.57 mb
- AUDIO Extraction
--------------------------------------------------------
Audio extraction finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 13/02/2004 19:20:50
- Free on drive D: 49142.50 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
- 13/02/2004 19:20:51
- Free on drive D: 49142.50 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------

Encoding Audio. Filename: D:\Movies\WIP\Extracted_audio_1.ac3
Executing BeSweet. Commandline:
"C:\Programmi\DVD2SVCD\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe" -core(
-input "D:\Movies\WIP\Extracted_audio_1.ac3"
-output "D:\Movies\WIP\Encoded_audio_1.mp2" -logfile "D:\Movies\WIP\Encoded_audio_1.log" )
-azid( -L -3db -l 0db -c normal -s surround -g max ) -shibatch( --rate 48000 ) -2lame( -e -b 192 -m s )
Audio conversion of D:\Movies\WIP\Extracted_audio_1.ac3 finished.

Audio conversion finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 13/02/2004 19:31:23
- Free on drive D: 48953.90 mb
- Video Encoding using Cinema Craft
--------------------------------------------------------



D2S started the compression with CCE then I get the program window blank. when the conversion process was finished the main window of D2S remains blank. After awaited some minutes the program seems not unlocking so I killed it.

Scenarist was never started from D2S. I used it manually and it worked properly (except for the A/V sync totally wrong)

The video seems to be ok, now I only want to dub audio and video and burn it, there's a way to have D2S making the project for scenarist using audio and video files that already are on my hard drive?

[Manngo]

D2S was created to spare a lot of handwork for you, such as creating a scenarist project. As far as I see, there is some problem with CCE in this case, such as D2S could not locate CCE running. D2S should show encoding parameters in the log, that is missing in your log. It should be in the following lines. Instead it freezes.

Which version of CCE do You use? Maybe something between 2.67.00.11 and 2.67.00.21?
You use EclCCE?
Could D2S ever continue after CCE encoding? Or, could it list the encoding parameters?

[Barix]

I'm using CCE 2.67.00.13 with EclCCE 1.7a.

when I started the encoding process after the audio processing eclcce asked the file and I choosen it by hands .. now retrying I discovered that eclcce auto-select the ecl file.

maybe D2S locked for my intervent??

now that I learned the lesson there's a way to have D2S re-creating the scenarist project? Or I have to recompress the entire movie?

[Manngo]

I.
Yes, EclCCE is for loading files to CCE, so it's main aim to autoselect the file, that D2S specifies. Should not intervent, it makes D2S to loose control of CCE. Thats why it stops.
Let's fix the problem, without encoding again:
1. Move Your ready .mpv video file to an other directory.
2. Recover the project from video encoding, and wait till CCE starts.
3. After CCE starts to work, wait a few minutes, and then close it. D2S will continue the project, such as the whole video have been encoded. Dont mind, close it also.
4. Now You have a new .mpv file, quite small in 'D:\Movies\WIP\'. Overwrite it with the old one, that You moved in step 1.
5. Restart again, but now from DVD Authoring, which should be the last in the list box.
6. After the project has been created, You can edit as I wrote before.

II.
Audio desync will remain, unless you change CCE version. Upgrade to newest version, 2.00.67.23, this works for me, or downgrade 2.66! 2.67 is not a stable version right now, however for me works that version fine.

[gusarapez2000]

I have thought of an alternative way of obtaining DVD starting from an AVI file and which contains the original AC3 sound.

First I let AVI2DVD to extract the AC3 track from the avi file. Tne I run the small utility AC3fix on the extracted_audio_1.ac3 track, in order to obtain a corrected ac3 track which I call corrected_audio_1.ac3 (I don´t know why, but if I do not use ac3fix, the original ac3 track does not give any sound in the compiled DVD).

Then I wait until AVI2DVD has finished with video encoding and I interrupt the scenarist part of the program. I open DVDlab and I use the encoded_video_pal.m2v and the corrected_audio_1.ac3 files as assets for a new compilation.

This method has the advantage that DVDlab does not care whether the input video file meets the DVD specifications (720 x 480/576), so I normally create SVCD video streams (480x480/576) at the highest bitrate possible for SVCD, which allows me to do a single pass CBR encoding, thus saving a lot of time. This gives me a huge file which is no problem since I burn it onto a DVD anyway. PLease note that not all DVD standalone players are able to recognise these hybrid DVDs. The diswadvantage is that, since DVDlab has no subtitle support, the only way to have subtitles is to incorporate permanent subtitles during CCE encoding.

[Manngo]

This is also a good solution. After having the video and the audio, You may use any DVD authoring program. I use subtitles, so I choose Scenarist.

[xp_eric]

There is a MUCH easier solution : the GREAT mdvdauth plugin from Jsoto. (see sticky topic in the DVD2SVCD advanced Topics). It automates the WHOLE process using CCE, it's own audio conversion and IfoEdit to author the DVD. AC3 is supported as are external subtitles.

Eric

[Barix]

I tried using mdvdauth. It seems to be a really great plugin but in the final DVD image I have the audio totally out of sync .. The audio anticipates the video about 1 second.

How to understand where is the problem?

Tnx all

[jsoto]

@Barix
Post mdvdauth_log.txt (in mdvdauth thread, please.) And take a look into delayac3 log files
jsoto

[Barix]

Problem solved (it was depending from an idiosyncrasy of my avi file).

I want to reccommend mDVDauth to all the people who doesn't want to be bored with scenarist.

mDVDauth works greatly with MP3 & AC3 avi files ..

[mjgeuze]

Possible solution for creating a DVD + selectable subtiles + AC3 sound with DVD2SVCD 1.2.2 by using dvdauthor.
---------------------------------------
1] Use DVD2SVCD (AVI2DVD) to convert the AVI to DVD. Note the following:
- Select dvdauthor in the TAB "CD Image", unselect ISO image
- Select Rip Subtitles + DVD Subtitles in the TAB "Subtitles"
- Open the AVI-file and the external subtitle file (.srt? file) in the usual way
- In the TAB "Audio", set the audio bitrate as close as possible to the audio-rate of the AC3 file included in your AVI file (probably 448kbit/s in case of AC3 5.1)
- Adjust in the TAB "Bitrate" the CD-size in such way that the difference between the selected bitrate in the TAB "Audio" and the bitrate of the AC3 file is taken into account.

2] Remove the VIDEO_TS file as it will be overwritten further on

2] DVD2SVCD has extracted the AC3 file from the video. Use AC3Fix to fix this AC3 file for possible errors.

3] Open the log file "Dvd2svcd_log.txt" and search for the mplex command line (video/audio multiplexer). Execute this commandline with the difference that you enter the fixed ac3 file instead of the DVD2SVCD encoded audio file (e.g., use <PATH>/<AC3FILE> instead of
<PATH>/Encoded_audio_1.mp2)

4] Run spumux (subtitle muxer) by using the exact same commandline as in the DVD2SVCD_log.txt file

5] Run dvdauthor by using the exact same commandline as in the DVD2SVCD_log.txt file

6] Now you will find in the VIDEO_TS file the .vob files for your
DVD with selectable subtitels and AC3 audio.

Notes.
* It is possible that you need to select the "Don't delete any files" box in the TAB "Misc."
* Use your DVD-burn/ISO-builder program of your choice to get the data in the VIDEO_TS map on a DVD.

Feature request for DVD2SVCD:
-----------------------------
I would like to have the possibility to mark/unmark the "Do not convert audio (use source audio) for AVI2DVD in case the video contains an AC3-file. When DVD2SVCD also would also fix the extracted AC3, DVD2SVCD would really become a one program solution to convert an AVI to a DVD with AC3 and selectable subtitles and all these manual steps will not be necessary any longer

[tickey]

Feature request for DVD2SVCD:
-----------------------------
I would like to have the possibility to mark/unmark the "Do not convert audio (use source audio) for AVI2DVD in case the video contains an AC3-file. When DVD2SVCD also would also fix the extracted AC3, DVD2SVCD would really become a one program solution to convert an AVI to a DVD with AC3 and selectable subtitles and all these manual steps will not be necessary any longer [/B]
Ya put that in.
Or have an option create .m2v only.
The program wasted a lot of time today on audio and muxing I have no use for.

[Nick]

Ya put that in.

Easy as that. Just put it in! You make it sound like it's a five-second job. The author of the software says it's on his "to do" list and this feature will be coded when he's good and ready. In the meantime read the forum - there are workarounds you can use.



Or have an option create .m2v only.

IMO this rather defeats the object of DVD2SVCD. Converting from one AV format to another is a multistage process. The software utilities have long existed to carry out each individual stage. What DVD2SVCD does is launch these utilities in a chain, removing the need for user intervention between stages.

If you only want to do one stage of the process, eg video conversion, just use the tools for that part instead of DVD2SVCD.



The program wasted a lot of time today on audio and muxing I have no use for.

Don't let it. Use your time more fruitfully reading the guides on how to frameserve and encode video outside of D2S. Then you'll get the results you want every time. Or if for simplicity's sake you want to use DVD2SVCD for the mpv only, just shut the audio tools down as soon as they open. Then close DVD2SVCD down after video encoding and it won't waste your time with muxing and authoring. It's not exactly rocket science is it? Just a simple workaround.



Howver I must say you saved the best for last. Now don't get me wrong, new features can only ever come from new ideas. So if you think of a specific feature you'd like to see in DVD2SVCD there is no harm in a polite request. But then three hours after this post, you posted in another thread and you_accused_the_author_of_begging for having the audacity to accept donations towards the very real financial costs of bringing this free software to you.

Wow! You know how to get your ideas put into fruition don't you?! :rolleyes: I don't know, maybe you wrote these posts not thinking of how they would read back to others but I assure you they do not show you in a good light. They are suggestive of an attitude far more likely to earn you a strike than get your thoughts put into practice.

No real harm done I guess, but take this as a friendly warning.

Cheers
Nick

[tickey]

Originally posted by Nick
Use your time more fruitfully reading the guides on how to frameserve and encode video outside of D2S.
I already do that with ease and fantastic results.
I wanted to check out the new version. Not much different than the old one: which I also found unusable. Not much different than most of the homemade "One Clickers". The exception is of course is the work art that AutoGK is. Unfortunately only MPEG4 so I don't use it often.

Originally posted by Nick

They are suggestive of an attitude far more likely to earn you a strike than get your thoughts put into practice.

No real harm done I guess

.

[Nick]

Fair comment. Glad to hear you are a competent encoder. I didn't really mean to imply otherwise. If you're getting the results you want with or without DVD2SVCD you don't have a problem.

Liking the software is not compulsory to post here :) . Clearly no piece of software is going to be to everyone's taste. If you find it unusable, don't use it!

However, the tone of some your posts these past couple of days has been inflammatory and when that happens you can soon end up with a flamefest on your hands. We don't want to allow this forum to degenerate into any sort of slanging match, so I should be grateful if we can nip this in the bud right now.

No-one forces anyone to come here, but it appears you choose to, so you must see this as a good forum. All I'm saying is let's chill out and keep it that way :cool: