What is Up With ULead Workshop

[cai]

I am trying to burn an mpg file using ULead Workshop (uwks), however I cannot get the sound to play in a stand-alone DVD player. When I get to finish and I click on make disk, I get the message that mpg audio is not a compatible audio file for DVDs. I am using the option that gives me 6 hours of DVD recording. Uwks does not accept demuxed files, m2v or vob, it only accepts MPG. It seems to accept WAV files, to be added as background, but the recording does not seem to be compatible with stand-alone players - the file does play with sound in the computer.

I am using a Kenwood 5900M as a player, does anyone have any ideas as to how to make ULEad record so that the sound is recognized by the player. Is there a 6 hour option with ULead Movie Factory? Can one record directly from ULead Movie Editor?

Thank you.

[thredworm]

Mate, you want to get hold of VirtualDub and Tmpegenc. Use VirtualDub to save the audio from your mpeg file to a seperate WAV file. Then encode the new WAV audio file and the original video file together with Tmpegenc.

Tmpegenc then makes you a new file which is a mix of the two files. Use this new file in Workshop and it should be fine for both audio and video.

Hope that helps.

[solarfox]

Technically, DVD Workshop's warning is correct -- for NTSC DVD's, the "standard" is PCM audio, not MPEG-layer audio. Most set-top DVD players seem to support MPEG audio streams anyway, but you may have been unlucky enough to get stuck with a model that doesn't... in which case, playing games with VirtualDub and TMPGenc isn't going to help, since what you'll get is still an MPEG file with MPEG video and audio streams.

Before you start trying all kinds of convoluted schemes involving multiple software packages, you might try the following experiments:

(1) Try one of the DVD's you've already made in someone else's DVD player and see if you get sound from it. (The fact that you get sound when playing it in your PC's drive would seem to indicate that it was encoded properly, but it can't hurt to double-check it.)

(2) Have a look in your player's manual and see if there's anything in the setup options about selecting different audio streams. Maybe the Kenwood has to be explicitly told to look for MPEG-audio. (Which would be stupid design on their part, but then again, a lot of consumer-electronics are full of stupid design decisions. )

(3) Pick a short video to burn to disc as a test, then pick the "VBR Video, PCM Audio" encoding option and let DVD Workshop re-encode it according to "standard." If this plays properly in your set-top unit, well... you'll either have to live with only being able to get 1 - 2 hours per disc, or go buy a new DVD player that properly supports MPEG audio.

[cai]

Thank you Solarfox and Thredworm. I agree with you Solarfox and will try the recordings in another stand alone DVD player. When you say " Pick a short video to burn to disc as a test, then pick the "VBR Video, PCM Audio" encoding option and let DVD Workshop re-encode it according to "standard." What you mean is among the recording options that come up when in "finish" and the "make disk" is clicked. I am a bit confused with some of the lower options which seem to be the same thing being repeated. The first few are high to low quality, the next ones are 2-6 hours, but the next ones must be the ones you are talking about. I do not have the program in front of me but I think they do refer to VBR and PCM audio. Are those the ones you are thinking about?

Thank you.

As for encoding with TMPG, I have demux with that program to m2v and wav files. However, the program will not accept wav files when I try to recombine them again; even though it is its own demuxed wav files.

[solarfox]

Cai -- that's correct. The options down at the bottom of the list are the ones you want.

(As to what DVDWS considers "high" or "low" quality, I'm afraid I can't say... I do all my encoding in ULead Media Studio Pro 6.5, where I can directly control the audio and video bit-rate settings, then burn in DVDWS with "do not convert compliant files" set.)

[Robert Simandl]

Meantime, go to your player's setup menu, find the audio options, and change its output from "bitstream" to "PCM" before playing your DVD-R's. That worked for more than a few friends of mine.

Just remember to change it BACK to bitstream when listening to studio DVD's, or else your 5.1 channel Dolby Digital system will give you plain ol' Pro Logic.