No Audio on Toshiba 4800 - DVD Burning

[Mtnsummit]

Hi Folks,
I have struggled like many to get my &&^%&* DVD player to simply play sound when I burn a picture slideshow to DVD. My DVD player is a Toshiba 4800, my Burner a Sony DRU-510A, and my receiver is a Harmon/Kardan AVR-525. I have used atleast 5 slidehow programs to create slideshows for play on TV. (ULEAD PictureShow 2.0, Magix Pictures to CD/DVD, Sonic, etc..

I found out thru trial and error that apparently only those programs that burn the audio portion of my slideshow in a PCM format play on my Toshiba. If the audio is encoded as MPEG, (which my receiver says "MPEG" on its display) by the software, I get no sound on my DVD player (yet when playing the disc on the computer, there is sound).

I have the sound from my Toshiba to my receiver hooked up via digital cable.

I have played around with the settings on my Toshiba to see if I could set an option differently, and maybe have the sound play, but no luck. The DVD player has options for "PCM, BITstream", stereo, etc which I do not entirely understand. HELP Please !!! It has been a frustrating experience on something that seems should be easy. Plus I now have concerns if I make copies of the DVD for family , will their players play it?

Or should I get another DVD player?

Any help VERY appreciated.

John

[laserheart]

Yes, I have had the same problem. This is apparently due to the way that the software is creating the files for the DVD.

Something with the Toshiba is not compatible, when making slide shows. It has something to do with the way PCM is encoded on the disc.

I have had success with NeroVision Express and Adobe Premiere in creating the slide shows. NeroVision Express is limited to 99 slides per slide show, which is quite frustrating. Also, I had trouble playing the discs on other DVD players other than the Toshiba.

Adobe Premiere 6.5 is probably the fastest software for creating slideshows because if a frame doesn't change, it doesn't take the time to re-render it. Therefore, it is a lot faster in creating the MPG files. It will do a 10 minute slide show in about 10 minutes. As opposed to a lot of other software, which will take 45 minutes for the same thing.

Some software allows you to specify whether to use PCM sound or Dolby Digital. In this case, always specify Dolby Digital.

[Mtnsummit]

It's the little things in life that count. Well, after being frustrated for months on finding the right slideshow program to burn pics to DVD for play on the TV, with the audio portion not working on certain slideshow software programs, and not having a clue why, I have finally discovered the the simple answer.

Quick back ground - I had tried many slideshow programs, all seeming to have faults on one way or another, the biggest being that the audio portion of the show would not play on my DVD player with certain programs. Technical support on these programs from the vendor was useless. I knew the problem must lie in either my DVD player or receiver, as the sound would play on the shows through my computer. Yet, I had quality DVD player and Receiver.

The only programs that would give me sound would be those that burned the audio via PCM, rather than MPEG.

THE ANSWER - The only audio connection I had between my DVD player and my receiver was via a Digital coaxial cable. AHH - Digital versus Analog - there in lied the problem. I started to think and learn more about these, and thought I would in addition to wiring the Digital Coaxial Cable, also hook up a Red/White Analog cable from the DVD player to the receiver - IT WORKS!!!. Evidently, the MPEG audio needs a analog source to go through rather than digital?

Here I was going to go out and buy another DVD player thinking the fault lied there. I wish the support crew at the vendor software sites had thought about this - would have saved me a lot of waisted DVD discs

Now, I am one happy camper