DVD author 5.1 AC3 = silence!

[Oggie]

OK, After getting the hang of basic DVD authoring I am now trying to author with a soundtrack other than the stereo mp2 file that gets created when using TMPEnc to encode from AVI -> DVD.
Idealy I am trying to use the 5.1 AC3 audio track that is contained with the original AVI, I have stripped the AC3 using VirtualDubMod then run the AVI through TMPEnc and created an elementary video stream, the AC3 track I have run through AC3 Machine to create a track that is accepted by my DVD authoring programs (48khz, 256k bitrate, 5.1).
However when I use either TMPEnc or DVD Lab to author the DVD I end up with no audio track or one that is silent (neither program complains about the AC3 track being invalid or anything).
Apolagies if this is something amazingly obvious that I am missing but after a couple of days of fiddling around and not seeming to get anywhere I have really reached a dead end!
If anyone has any suggestions muchly appreciated
Thanks

[AmuroRay]

bump

I'm having the same problem, exactly as described save for I do all of my authoring with DVDLab.

[Baldrick]

Does the ac3 created with ac3machine play on your computer?

[Oggie]

Thats a really good question and I did kind of expect it, however the answer is I don't know! I have actualy given up and accepted the stereo audio given by TMPEnc and deleted all the relevant files due to limited h/d space, I'm really trying to find some answers for next time this happens!
What can I use to play the AC3 next time to test this out? I did use the 'Play AC3' option within AC3 Machine and no it didn't play anything however that option hasnt worked within BeSweet for other audio tracks that have been ok post authoring so i had kind of assumed it either didn't work or something wasn't configured correctly, if I play the AVI file in WMP9 though the audio is there.
Thanks

[Drakng]

I supposed you have muxed the ac3 with your m2v file to get an mpeg dvd compliant file. Try playing it in PowerDVD. If you can hear it and TMPGDVD cannot, it 's OK to proceed to author. The final disc will be able to played in your standalone. You may need an ac3 capable soundcard

[KaRRiLLioN]

I've been having similar issues.

I captured a VHS tape with my Dazzle DVCII into DVD compliant MPEG2. I then used Virtual Dub MPEG2 to save the audio track as a WAV file. I then took BeSweet and converted it to AC3. I then authored the DVD folders with TMPGenc DVD Author.

When I tried to play it on the PC with PowerDVD it was silent. The computer that I use for video editing, etc. is pretty bare-bones, so the sound is integrated on the motherboard. It's an NForce 2 chipset, so I thought that those could play AC3...maybe I'm wrong. My normal gaming rig has a SB Audigy so I'll try to play it on that one and see if there's sound.

[Oggie]

I supposed you have muxed the ac3 with your m2v file to get an mpeg dvd compliant file. Try playing it in PowerDVD. If you can hear it and TMPGDVD cannot, it 's OK to proceed to author. The final disc will be able to played in your standalone. You may need an ac3 capable soundcard

Think you've hit the nail on the head there, guess my soundcard isn't AC3 compatable, I used TMPEnc to author the DVD using the M2V and the AC3 audio, burnt it and voila, its fine when played on my standalone! Sound card is a relatively old Soundblaster Live (Value) card.
What does confuse me though is that the original AVI file containing the AC3 track does play fine and with audio via WMP9 however once de-muxed I get no audio at all from the AC3 file.
I guess this is the way i am going to have to do things in the future, my only concern here is being unable to check the audio sync before commiting it to disc.
Well unless anyone has any workarounds for this?
Thanks

[Drakng]

you can't hear ac3 sound by itself unless you have an ac3 soundcard. There are alternative cheaper ac3 soundcard other than soundblaster. You need ac3 card if you want to work with ac3 sound simply for lip syncronisation checkout > You may not faced this problem yet.

[trojanrabbit]

I could not hear the AC3 on my PC either, but I did a quick DVD-RW burn and it played fine on my Sony DVP-NC600 standalone. I made a "test" dvd with multiple sound tracks (MPEG-2, MPEG-2 with the volume down 4dB, AC3) and tried it on my sister's standalone (I think it's a Cyberhome but I'll have to check on the exact model), and the AC3 track wouldn't play.

I still have two more family members to try the "test" DVD on. Who knows what I'll find.

[KaRRiLLioN]

I tried playing an authored dvd that I used an ac3 track on but I couldn't hear any sound on my SB Audigy.

I created the ac3 by ripping the MP2 audio from an MPEG-2 I had capped in DVD quality using a Dazzle DVCII. The audio was ripped to Wav by Virtual Dub and then converted to AC3 by BeSweet. I even tried running ac3fix on it but that didn't seem to work. I also tried playing the ac3 file alone in PowerDVD, but that didn't work either.

[Drakng]

Karrillion and oggie.. your problems I try to explain, though I am no expert in this..

First Karrillion.. is you SB Audigy ac3 capable? I don't have an audigy so I don't know. I know not all sb audigy is ac3 capable. The card must have a decoder chip on it or else you cannot hear when you played an ac3 DVD disc . It's different playing from a software on your pc and playing from a DVD disc. You can hear an ac3 vob on your pc but not a dvd disc because the software itself decode the ac3 to stereo pcm then output to your card, whereas a DVD disc output directly to your card.I hopr this answer your query.

Oggie.. you have a problem in checking sync because you cannot hear the sound!!! Right? One simple solution for you.I have this same problem before because I don't have an ac3 card, so I figure this solution..Defintely in sync.

You use TMPG to encode the video, choose LPCM. You end up with a m2v file and a wav file.Next convert your your wav to ac3 with besweet.This is straight forward. Don't throw away your wav yet.

Next use TMPGDVD to authored. In the audio file..select the wav and not your ac3 file!! This is for testing purpose. Played it and you will hear the sound with your normal card. If it is in synced, go back and replaced with the ac3 file. 100% in synced. Now you don't have to buy an ac3 card!!! Good Luck.

P.s. Pardon my broken english
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[Oggie]

What seems weird now is that if I use PowerDVD then I can play movies with an AC3 track and hear them on my PC, I can even drag and drop AC3 files to PowerDVD and they play, all I ever got in WinDVD was silence? Was WinDVD mising something?

Is that normal ?
Thanks

[Drakng]

Yes it's normal . To hear ac3 you have to install the ac3 decoder codec. POwerDVD can auto select the ac3 deocder to played your file . In winDVD I supposed you have to manually select the right decoder. I don't use winDVD.I don't know. Not all software can played ac3 even though you may have installed the codec e.g TMPGDVD Author etc..