Panasonic DVD recorder & timecode breaks / audio dropouts

[webstar]

i've recently bought a panasonic dmr-rx85 recorder and i'm finding all the dvds i burn from its hard drive have timecode breaks.

after burning a disc on the panasonic i use mpeg streamclip on my powerbook to open the vob files. i get the fix timecodes message & do that & find that there are breaks every 15-25 seconds of the file.

after demuxing the files i import them to dvd studio pro (to author with a menu)

and they invariably have audio dropouts at about the same frequency (maybe there are image dropouts too, but this is not so apparent when viewing).

is there anything i can do to fix these problems ?

thanks,

mark

[lordsmurf]

Panasonic uses a faulty AC3 encoding method. You need to import the file into something like Womble MPEG Video Wizard (I know, it's Windows, do it anyway), chop off at least 1 frame somewhere, and then export the stream using MP2 audio. Womble is the only software I know of (VideoReDo might do it too, not tested) that will fix the mess.

Yet another reason Panasonic recorders are big pieces of crap.

This problem is annoying.

There is nothing on Mac that works for this that I have seen. You will have to use a Windows machine for this task, and I suggest using Womble MVW.

[trhouse]

I have tested quite a large number of recorders and have clips saved from all of them. I downloaded Mpeg-streamclip for Windows and tried clips from a JVC M10S, an RCA 8030N, and a Panasonic DMR-EH55S. Here are the results,

JVC M10S


RCA 8030N


Panasonic DMR-EH55S


The RCA records in +VR mode. Mpeg-streamclip balked at opening it but an option popped up for "open anyway" and it did.

[webstar]

thanks for this info lordsmurf, though it's tough news for me to take. i bought the panasonic because it had consistently good reviews, and now you're telling me i need to buy a windows PC to fix the problems with panasonic's software !

does anyone have any experience of fixing this encoding problem on a mac ?

and if panasonic's are big pieces of crap, which machine should i have bought ? (i'm in the uk).

thanks,

mark

Panasonic uses a faulty AC3 encoding method. You need to import the file into something like Womble MPEG Video Wizard (I know, it's Windows, do it anyway), chop off at least 1 frame somewhere, and then export the stream using MP2 audio. Womble is the only software I know of (VideoReDo might do it too, not tested) that will fix the mess.

Yet another reason Panasonic recorders are big pieces of crap. :evil:

This problem is annoying.

There is nothing on Mac that works for this that I have seen. You will have to use a Windows machine for this task, and I suggest using Womble MVW.

[trhouse]

The problem is the software not the recorders.

[webstar]

without good software, the recorder is useless !

m

[trhouse]

Yes, I was hoping Mpeg-streamclip would be something useful until I tried it with vob's from several recorders. They all gave the time code error. I actually tested vob's from two different JVC's, one RCA, one Panasonic, and one LG. The Tmpgenc software products are good and reasonably priced but not free. None of their products gave any errors with any of these recorders.

[webstar]

so do you think there is a tmpgenc program that i could you use to demux discs burned on my DMR-EX85 without having the audio dropout problem ? (if so, which one ? are they mac compatible ?)

thanks,

mark

Yes, I was hoping Mpeg-streamclip would be something useful until I tried it with vob's from several recorders. They all gave the time code error. I actually tested vob's from two different JVC's, one RCA, one Panasonic, and one LG. The Tmpgenc software products are good and reasonably priced but not free. None of their products gave any errors with any of these recorders.

[webstar]

after some further investigation, i am finding (so far) that discs burned on the dmr-rx85 are being demuxed ok using mac the ripper.

mark