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View Full Version : Need advice re: AC3 authoring problems


Syndrome Zed
1st October 2003, 21:58
Hi all,

I'm having a problem with my sound. I was taking an old divx recording and turning it into DVD. I used TMPGEnc to encode the video, but everything I've read said not to do the sound in it, so I transcoded the MP3 of the audio track (48 KHz 2 channel stereo track, originally AC3) back to AC3 using AC3Machine/BeSweet - no errors reported in the logfile. The AC3 plays in Win Media Player without a problem, but it won't play in PowerDVD. Actually, it will play, but there's no sound, even with the volume cranked to maximum - PowerDVD doesn't report any errors with the file either, just doesn't actually play any sound. I thought maybe it didn't support separate AC3 files (it says it does but you never know), so I proceeded with the authoring anyway.

I did all the "fun" stuff in SpruceUp (full version) - menus, etc. etc. SpruceUp imported the video file and seemed to successfully import the audio file as well (the little speaker symbol on the clip asset was present). When I compiled the disk image for burning, no errors were reported. But when I played the image in PowerDVD it still had no sound. So I used DVD Decrypter to extract the AC3 from the new disk image, and it extracted the stream successfully, including playing it again using WMP. Just as another test, I took a DVD from my collection and it played normally using PowerDVD. It had the same kind of AC3 format/bitrate as the one I encoded that didn't work.

So does anyone know where the kink is in all this? Why am I not getting sound in PowerDVD with that particular file, when other programs will play it? I'm at a loss right now, and I don't want to burn a DVD until I find out the problem - I'm inexperienced, but not stupid :rolleyes:.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

scissors
4th October 2003, 07:00
Aren't there 2 settings? Motorola and intel? I don't know the difference but i remember the one gave me probs. You should be able to drop an ac3 file onto the powerdvd shortcut and it will play it. So if you just do a 1 minute encode that would be a must easier way of testing rather than go thru all that which you have done...

DonBerg
4th October 2003, 09:48
Besweet's AC3 encoding is not recommended - its not compatible with some DVD player software and hardware. Use a certified AC3 encoder or just use MP2 audio at 48Khz sampling, its supported by all DVD players I've tried.

scissors
4th October 2003, 17:46
wow! that's a bolt out of the blue for me.

To be honest it's worked on all machines i've tried.

Mpeg audio is not spec for region 1 i believe. R2 is okay.

DnGermany
8th October 2003, 13:57
Try sonic foundry's vegas4.0 for converting audio files to Ac3, works like a charm.