AC3 Issue

[yashblade]

Heres my problem. I downloaded a movie that is encoded in AC3. The sound is horrible. It has a very bad hiss, and you can't hear it unless you turn it all the way. Of course this just makes the hiss worse. What I want to is remove the AC codec and re-ebcode it to wave so that I can load it all up in TMPGenc to encode it to VCD. I tried opening the movie with VirtualDub, but was unable to.

Any thoughts?

[Ironballs]

Use VirtuaDub verion with the AC3 Mod. Demux the AC3 Stream. Use AC3Fix to check the AC3 file, sometimes they get corrupted. Then use HeadAche to convert the AC3 track to WAV. TMPEnc can then use this wav file.

As a side note, if anyone can help me out. I just rebuilt my PC and I'm sure I used to be able to handle AC3 tracks in TMPEnc, any ideas what could be missing, or is my memory just bollocked up.

Hope this helps

Ironballs

[Chief Engineer]

As a side note, if anyone can help me out. I just rebuilt my PC and I'm sure I used to be able to handle AC3 tracks in TMPEnc, any ideas what could be missing, or is my memory just bollocked up

It depends on the version of TMPGEnc and whether you want to encode or decode.
Ver 3.0 will encode/decode with the AC3 plug-in.
Ver 2.5 will decode avi's containing AC3 audio with the AC3ACM codec installed.

[Ironballs]

Cheers Chief, tried a few AC3 codecs, I'll give that one a go

[yashblade]

Well, I downloaded everything you thought I needed...so off I go. Wish me luck!

Use VirtuaDub verion with the AC3 Mod. Demux the AC3 Stream. Use AC3Fix to check the AC3 file, sometimes they get corrupted. Then use HeadAche to convert the AC3 track to WAV. TMPEnc can then use this wav file.

Hope this helps

Ironballs

BTW, thanks much.

[yashblade]

"Use VirtuaDub verion with the AC3 Mod. Demux the AC3 Stream."

Opps...one other thing. Is there a guide somewhere for this? Not to sound like a newbie or anything, but you kinda lost me with "demux". :P

[mats.hogberg]

demux=Demultiplex=the reverse of multiplex=separating 2 (or more)streams, in this case separating the audio from the videio in the Audio Video Interleaved

/Mats

[yashblade]

Ok that makes sense. Now I know how to seperate everything using VirtualDub, but I can't find the same settings in VirtualDubMod. When I do try and seperate everything, all I have left is the video. No Audio.

[yashblade]

Ok...I'm getting closer. Managed to get everything separated. So now I have a .avi file and a .wav file. But (theres always a but isn't there) when I put it in TMPGenc (v2.521.58.169) it freezes up. Any thoughts? Or perhaps I should move to the TMPGenc Forum.

[Drakng]

Yashblade... did you save your wave file as Direct Stream Copy.. You have to do that. Although the name is wave, it's still an ac3 file. VirtualDub/Mod saved the wave with the wrong header.

Ac3Fix is a commandline program, not so convenient. The easiest is AC3 Machine, Gui for Besweet. Saved the file as AC3 and the header is corrected...then loaded into HeadAC3he and you get a true wave file

Hope this is useful

[yashblade]

Thanks everyone for your help. I actually was able to fix it this way; I found the AC3 plugin for VirtualDub. After installing that, VD allowed me to save the file as a .wav. Then I just put everything into TMPGEnc. Simple.... :P

Thanks again everyone.