How to switch left & right audio channels in AC3, AVI fi

[Ronaldus]

After capturing and creating some DVDs, I finally listened carefully on a good stereo system instead of normally going through the TV where the speakers are right next to each other. I was depressed to find out that even though I hooked up everything correctly (using the color coded cables), my left and right audio channels are backwards in everything I've captured so far.

I have a few of my AVI source files, but I deleted most of them and only kept the .M2V and .AC3 components due to a lack of hard drive space.

Could someone please tell me what tools, if any, can switch left and right audio channels in .AC3 (2.0 stereo) and in .AVI format files so that I can correct this problem?

[daamon]

Hi Ronaldus,

I've seen Goldwave recommended as a good audio editor (mostly by Tommyknocker I believe), you might want to check that out. The info with it in the "Tools" section mentions both AC3 and AVI so it might do the job...

Good luck.

[hudsonf]

Have you tried switching the plugs for the speakers?

[Ronaldus]

Daamon, I'll take a look at Gold Wave. It appears from the description I will have to convert AC3 to WAV, reverse the channels, and then convert WAV back to AC3. I hope there isn't too much quality loss doing that, assuming I can locate the option to reverse left and right channels.

hudsonf, I have reversed the plugs, but that only helps me on future captures -- not on past ones which need to be fixed.

Does anyone know for sure which tools support a switch/exchange left and right audio channels function? I guess I'll have to look through the features of Cool Edit 2000 and Gold Wave and hope one of them has it.

[hudsonf]

I'm confused; are you saying your sound capture device is reversed or your sound playback setup reversed? Sorry I can't help with a software solution.

[Ronaldus]

My sound capture was reversed for no good reason that I could figure out, so I reversed the plugs into the camera adapter so the color coding is now wrong but the audio capture is right. I need to fix the sound on previously captured stuff which I no longer have the source material for (so I can't recapture).

It looks like I'm on my own with the software. Sometimes posting in these forums gets excellent help and responses, but I guess I shouldn't always expect someone here to know the answer and post it. I only wanted to know which tools might support reversing AC3 and WAV audio channels.

I found out that Cool Edit will let you reverse channels in WAV format by using the Channel Mixer. I don't know about Gold Wave, and I don't suppose any tool supports reversing channels in native AC3 format without re-encoding.