Audio Transcoder for Mac?

[gael]

Hi there, simple question, probably all ready know the answer but thought I'd try. Just found a program last night called BeSweet. Does anyone know of an equivilent for the Mac platform? Thanks

[tgpo]

Not to be mean to yell at you, but

You you ask the the mac equilivant of a PC software please describe the software. I have no idea what BeSweet is and what it does. It would really speed things up if you just asked for software that does "...................." instead of, what is the mac version of "................." Make since?


I looked on macupdate and saw these:
YAAC
Sound Grinder

[gael]

tgpo[/url]]Not to be mean to yell at you, but

You you ask the the mac equilivant of a PC software please describe the software. I have no idea what BeSweet is and what it does. It would really speed things up if you just asked for software that does "...................." instead of, what is the mac version of "................." Make since?


I looked on macupdate and saw these:
YAAC
Sound Grinder

Sorry, as BeSweet is one of the programs provided on this very site, I figured most who used it would already know what I was referring to. BeSweet is like a video transcoder (coverts from one format to another) but for audio instead of video. I'm trying to switch a PAL video to NTSC and having a horrible time of it with sync problems. Unfortunately, Mac doesn't have the required tools it seems to make this possible.

I've tried my Final Cut, ffmpegX, and others always with the same out of sync results.

[major]

The audio (almost) never goes out of sync. It is the video which goes out of sync.

[gael]

The audio (almost) never goes out of sync. It is the video which goes out of sync.

Yes I realize that. However, on the Mac anyway, even when the Video is correctly converted, it still remains out of sync, and the audio usually cannot be modified since it is not frame rate based. It can only be sped up or slowed down. At least that's what I thought until I saw BeSweet.

[thoughton]

However, on the Mac anyway, even when the Video is correctly converted, it still remains out of sync

That's a pretty sweeping statement which doesn't match my experiences. I've converted countless videos on the Mac from 25 to 29.97 fps and vice versa without losing sync. I virtually always use ffmpegX to do this. I also convert a lot of videos from 23.976/25/29.97 fps to 10 or 12.5 fps, also without losing sync.

[gael]

That's a pretty sweeping statement which doesn't match my experiences. I've converted countless videos on the Mac from 25 to 29.97 fps and vice versa without losing sync. I virtually always use ffmpegX to do this. I also convert a lot of videos from 23.976/25/29.97 fps to 10 or 12.5 fps, also without losing sync.[/quote]

Well, your experiences are all very well and good, however they don't change facts. And the simple fact is I've used ffmpegX 9.0.0s and my videos are out of sync. No sweeping statement, just reality.

[maetel99]

I have to say I agree with major. If you are seeing sync problems, then I would be willing to bet money that your video was not properly decoded. You might THINK it is properly decoded, but in fact it isn't.

Usually programs like ffmpegX screw up when variable frame rates are used. Good examples of this would be well-known stand-alone recorders and "advanced frame rate" encoding on well-known DVD camcorders.

You can search around for some other freeware programs that work better, but the problem is that almost all of them are using the same open-source MPEG decoder, and it doesn't do a good job on variable frame rates. The only free program I've found that works is DiVA from 3ivx, but it creates screwy variable frame rate QuickTime movies that don't work well in editing programs.

[gael]

Usually programs like ffmpegX screw up when variable frame rates are used.

How would you tell if the frame rate was variable? ffmpegX's characteristics window shows no such item.

[alph]

There seems to be a lot of confusion here. I'm still not sure what it is you are trying to convert and to what.

It sounds like you have a movie, not only sound, that you want to transcode to some other format. FFMPEGX with a little experience can do a lot.

If you provide us with a little more detail about your original movie and what you hope to achieve then possibly we can help you better.

Cheers,
Alph

[gael]

If you provide us with a little more detail about your original movie and what you hope to achieve then possibly we can help you better.

Cheers,
Alph

Certainly, I have a PAL mpeg ripped from a DVD. I'm trying to convert to NTSC. However, after all the options I've tried; the more into the movie you go, the more out of sync the audio/video becomes.

With ffmpegX I converted using the mpeg2enc engine, Quicktime encoding, NTSC Film with 3:2 pulldown. It didn't work, the audio/video is still out of sync. I also tried a down-and-dirty PAL to NTSC (25 to 29.97) no special options, same thing.

Perhaps you could tell me where I'm going wrong?

[maetel99]

How would you tell if the frame rate was variable? ffmpegX's characteristics window shows no such item.

ffmpegX probably just reports the information from the MPEG sequence header. Variable frame rate is implemented at a lower level and you can't find it without scanning through the video data and looking for it.

[alph]

Hmm, what I would try is this. I'm not guaranteeing anything, but...

Being you ripped this from DVD I'm assuming you have a VOB file

Split your movie at least in 2. By shortening the clips you limit the amount of sync that is lost.

In FFMPEGX use the DVD ffmpeg preset, set your framerate to NTSC film, ie 23.976, leave Normalize audio on, leave decode with quicktime off and use manual letterboxing if needed, and I turn on Trellis quantisation for a bit of extra quality at little cost.

When part one is finished, assuming you cut the vob in 2, change the extension of the .mpv file to .m2v and run the pulldown tool on it. When that is done mux the pulldowned file with the ac3 audio. Repeat for part 2. When you have your 2 final mpegs join them together with MPEG Streamclip.

In Streamcliip. Open both file at once. holding the command key as you select them both. Run the "fix timecode breaks" command and then Save as... , or convert to MPEG.

(You might want to first test this on a 15 minute clip or something to see if it works before you do the entire movie.)

Cheers
Alph