PixeDV, MPEG audio & Toast

[Frobozz]

Awhile back I posted some instructions on burning DVDs and SVCDs with PixeDV-created MPEG files and Toast 6. One thing I noted is that although it saves time compared with using CAPTYDvd, there is no opportunity for chapters.

I've discovered that Toast does create DVD chapters at 5-minute intervals if the audio track is AIFF rather than MPEG.

This started when I used the ADS USB Instant DVD for Mac to make some DVD's for my daughter and my son. My daughter's DVD players had no trouble with them, but my son's DVD player produced no sound even though the audio display recognized the MPEG audio track. I tried the DVDs on my DVD player and found that the MPEG tracks are only played through the standard analog jacks but not through the digital audio connection.

I decided to find out if PCM audio plays through the digital audio jack. This required using Cinematize to extract the video and audio streams from the DVDs. Then I dropped the MPEG audio track into bbDEMUX. Lastly, I used MPEG2 Works to convert the demuxed audio to WAV (I tried using iTunes to convert the mp2 to AIFF but it didn't work out).

Finally, I dropped the video track created by Cinematize into Toast 6. Toast asked for the audio and I selected the WAV file. Toast then did it's authoring (which goes rather quickly when you start with MPEG video) and burned the new DVD.

The PCM sound indeed plays through the digital audio output of my DVD Player, plus I now have chapters at 5 minute intervals. That was a nice surprise.

In the future I'll do the audio conversion before creating the DVD. PixeDV will export to separate MPEG2 and AIFF streams.

By the way, please tell me what application takes separate m2v and AIFF tracks and combines them into a single MPEG2 file (which can be dragged into CAPTYDvd when I want to use it's menu features).

[mhar4]

I tried the DVDs on my DVD player and found that the MPEG tracks are only played through the standard analog jacks but not through the digital audio connection.

I had this problem on my Panasonic RV20 DVD player, but found an audio setup menu item called "Output MPEG Audio" (or something like that) which directed mp2 audio through the digital optical output to our surround sound amp. I'm pretty sure the amp thinks it's hearing PCM audio, so the player must be converting it before sending it to the optial cable.

[Frobozz]

Right you are. There is an option for my DVD Player to have the player convert MPEG audio to PCM and I didn't have it selected. Thanks for the tip.

Can anyone help with my question about what application will make a single MPEG2 file from separate m2v and AIF (or WAV) files?