Newbie avi file conversion messes up the sound - help needed

[asharon]

I have soem avi files and have the same problem with all of them.

I have tried large files such as 700megs and smaller ones such as 350megs.

When I convert them using TMPEG or movie factory or any way, the picture is fine but half way through or there abouts the sound either cuts out or jumps back to a previous point and makes them unusable.

The avi files all play perfectly on the PC but I am just unable to convert them to MPEG to be able to burn them.

I have tried everything and must be missing something so hopefully somone can help.

[Grimey]

What is the audio format of the files? you can check this in Gspot. you probably need to extract the audio and convert it into a wav file, then use that in TMPGEnc as the audio source when encoding. theres guides on this site i think about converting audio.

[asharon]

Gspot says it is an mpeg 1 layer 3

I have tried that, but the audio is always badly out of synch.

Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec

This is the audio codec and I have tried replacing them as I did once manage to convert an hour and a half file that was ok, but since on the longer files the sound cuts out completely after a while.

[fritzi93]

You didn't specify if it's VBR or CBR. TMPGEnc hates VBR and it's not necessary or even desirable to let it handle the audio anyway. Load the AVI in VirtualDub, go to Audio>Full Processing Mode>Compression>PCM (No Compression)>File>Save WAV. Load the WAV in ffmpegGUI and convert to AC3 or MP2. It'll take you about 5-10 minutes or so to get to this point. Cheap insurance to avoid audio problems, don't you think? You've wasted a lot of time already, right?

Load the AVI in TMPGEnc. (I have an old version- no wizard, you don't need no stinkin' wizard). Hit load, select a DVD template, either PAL or NTSC, whichever applies to you. You might want one modified template of each. Hit load again, select Extra, then unlock. Now hit Configure. Now you can change the settings to suit yourself and save a new template. Default Rate Control Mode CQ65 isn't bad, and it's fairly fast. Specify Video Only under output, hit Save, and name your template.

Use the m2v output from TMPGEnc and the ac3 from ffmpegGUI as your elementary streams to feed to your authoring program. Or if for some reason you want plain MPEGs, just multiplex them in TMPGEnc. Better this way, IMHO. Good Luck.

[asharon]

Thanks, I'll give it a try

[asharon]

I'm probably being blind but in VirtualDub I can see video but I can't see where you go to audio so I can't save the audio file.

Any hints ?

My version is 1.5.10.1

Edit -

Another thing I have just noticed is that in TMPGEnc it registers some of the avi files as being double the lenght thye should be, so 1hr 20 mins for a 40 mins one. But not all of them. I take it this is not normal ?

[dafreak]

I'm probably being blind but in VirtualDub I can see video but I can't see where you go to audio so I can't save the audio file.

Any hints ?

My version is 1.5.10.1

Edit -

Another thing I have just noticed is that in TMPGEnc it registers some of the avi files as being double the lenght thye should be, so 1hr 20 mins for a 40 mins one. But not all of them. I take it this is not normal ?

do you see streams?
if you do, you probably have virtualdubmod installed, which is basically virtualdub with a ton of plugins.
go to streams | list streams
you should see the audio stream you want there.



about tmpgenc displaying the length incorrectly. this is most likely due to the vbr mp3 audio. make sure when, you're encoding the audio, you're only encoding the video portion of it and you should be fine.

[andyp1]

If TMPGEnc says that the video time / runtime is way too long
TMPGEnc keeps encoding after the end of video with only a black screen
Try change the directshow reader priority, in TMPGEnc under Option->Environmental settings->VFAPI plug-in and right click on the DirectShow Multimedia File Reader and increase the priority to 2 or to the top of the plugin-list and reopen the video.
If that doesn't help try convert the audio to WAV audio before converting and use the wav as audio source.
And if all that didn't help you can always use the source range to select exact what to encode, under Settings->Advanced in TMPGEnc.

[dafreak]

or what andyp1 posted. hehe

[Floydscruffy]

I think you have to do a left mouse click on the streams in virtual dub to get the audio part out. anyways once you get the ac3 through ffmpegui usde ac3 fix or bslice to fix it, I've had trouble with some dvd standalones (freezing) if you dont fix the ac3.