help with scratchy audio - howto mute a few seconds?

[realbrew]

I've been using dvddecrypter and autogk for a long time, choosing Xvid and VBR MP3. I have encoded lots of stuff this way. A few times I have had a problem with the first few seconds of a video having loud static noise instead of silence. What can cause this problem?

Also, is there an easy way to mute the audio of such an avi for a few seconds? I've used virtualdubmod to resync audio that was out of sync, so I know how to do some simple fixes, but it isn't obvious how to mute a few seconds of the audio without having to simply trim both the audio and video. I don't want to alter the rest of the file. Suggestions?

[Baldrick]

What it your source dvd ? commercial or home made? For commercials try rip using dvdfabdecrypter.
And are you opening the vob or ifo in AutoGK?

To fix the audio you can extract the mp3 from the avi using virtualdubmod(streams->stream list and choose the mp3 and click demux) or avidemux(audio->demux).
Then edit the mp3 in audacity and silence the first part or it might work with mp3DirectCut to avoid reconverting. Save as a new mp3.
Last add back the mp3 to the avi using VirtualdubMOD again(Open avi, Stream->Stream List and click Add to add the the audio. Select Video->Direct Stream Copy and last File->Save AVI ).

[kimco52]

Why not just put the avi in Premiere or similar editing program, trim audio track or pull audio level down for those few seconds, Remake/save the avi and you are done. Except for saving, shouldn't take more than 20 seconds or so.

Really, a simple task.

[Baldrick]

Most editing programs will reconvert the entire video.