Audio problem - not quite sure what to call it! :\

[generaljoy]

Okay, so I'm re-authoring a DVD a friend made on his stand-alone burner. I'm making menus and such for it.

It's a concert and then some back stage stuff. So, I've broken apart the concert from that, as it was all one track on the raw disc.

As I was making the DVD using TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 I put the main concert on the first track, and the backstage stuff on the second - when I was cutting it up into chapters I noticed the audio keeps sorta looping every time you start at a new chapter. I used separate audio and video sources for both tracks.

There are five chapters on the backstage stuff and every time you click to the next the audio starts from the beginning of the audio file. When you forward and reverse a bit the first 5 minutes of the audio is there, the last 15 or so minutes either loop back to the start or are silent.

Everything ripped properly, all the audio is present on the original files and DVD, and even on the rip. The first track is perfect, everything is working properly in that. I even listened to the whole audio file and all 20 minutes of audio are present. So, why is this happening?

[borax]

What kind of audio? AC3, MP2, DTS or PCM?
For AC3 you may try to use AC3Fix, sometimes it helps...

[generaljoy]

What kind of audio? AC3, MP2, DTS or PCM?
For AC3 you may try to use AC3Fix, sometimes it helps...

The file is PCM. I used Re-jig to rip it from the original disc. And Gold Wave to make it a wav file.

[borax]

And Gold Wave to make it a wav file.

Why? I would keep the audio as it was in the original DVD (after demux with Re-jig)

[thegeeman]

I would guess that its something that was done in Goldwave. If source audio is 'high quality', then keep original.

TDA will NOT take DTS.

[generaljoy]

I've tried all, I've used the original, I've used a wav, I've even re-ripped the section again and tried it from scratch, audio included, nada.

I don't really think it's Gold Wave, as the audio ripped with Re-jig also is doing the same thing.

This is really quite annoying.

[thegeeman]

You say you've used the original and still no luck! Are you saying that when played back from the original disc that its looping?? If so then its gonna be a major job to rip it all out demux, isolate audio, re-edit and then put back together-certainly no easy task; audio sync nightmare i can assure you. That'll be just ONE of the problems.

Sorry for making it sound worse. If the source dvd plays fine, then try a really simple step just as a trial. Seeing as you have TDA; i would add the disc and 'copy clip to HD'. This will create one single mpeg file (video and audio). You could then test the audio and possibly edit and then re-author. Shouldn't take too long at all.

[generaljoy]

I don't think I'm being very clear let me try again, I'm just so annoyed at the moment. I've been working on this for over a day.

The original DVD is fine. It does not have any menus at all. I want to add menus and proper chapters to it.

The main proformance is perfect. It's flawless. However the behind the scenes stuff is really messy but only when I complie it using TMPGEnc.

The audio portions, ripped using Re-jig and converted using Gold Wave, both ways the re-jiged ac3 and the wav file all have the complete and total audio file. It's 19.45 mins. The audio and video are both that total length of time. However only about 6 minutes of the audio is present on the re-authored DVD. I've even burned a copy to watch to see if it was just the PC being weird. It's not.

I've re-ripped everything from the original about four times, and each rip is doing the same thing. I've even tried to make the backstage stuff on it's own DVD and it's still doing it. I do not understand why this is happened, I wouldn't mind to put the work into it as long as it works out at the end.

[generaljoy]

And I thank everyone for their help and advice!

[thegeeman]

When re-authoring with TDA and putting files back together did you turn OFF the default settings within TDA for the audio? Go to 'Options'/'Enviromental Settings'. See what is ticked there. Could be some conflict. Doubt that it could be this but seeing as you've said you've tried everything it was just a thought.

Please note that if your original source audio was AC3/LPCM then you can use that in TDA without re-encoding!! Just select it as a separate audio file once video is added. I'm straying a bit now.
Maybe try using VirtualDub to first isolate the 2 parts that you require; i.e the main performance and then the backstage stuff. Save these 2 files accordingly. If you demux, then save audio as 'source' (it will be given the file extension .wav). You can now add this to TDA. You do NOT need to encode to .wav as LPCM is an uncompressed version of wav anyway. Just do NOT touch audio at all-just demux into separate streams and put back together how you want. Hopefully this helps.

[thegeeman]

Something just sprung to mind. I am pretty sure that this is an AC3 issue!! Your source audio maybe LPCM but if TDA converts LPCM to AC3 by default, then i'm sure it can trigger problems with their 'headers' and cause loss of sound on second half. I have had something similar with an avi file that came in 2 parts. It may the reason as to how your original was put together, i.e 2 parts-main performance and then backstage stuff-while re-encoding TDA may come across this and create the problem.

Not sure-this is just a thought-but now it comes to mind its very similar to what i've experienced. Give it a try-just untick the convert LPCM to AC3 by default. May work???

[generaljoy]

Aha I found this after a bit!

I put the project away and revisited it later. I still have no clue why it happen, it's not happened again, thankfully.

This is what I did to fix the problem -

I ripped just the video of each chapter of the backstage part of the DVD. I took the audio and clipped it to the chapter length.

I then added each down the line in one track in TDA. This worked. The tracks all play wonderfully. It took work, but I honestly can't figure out what the problem could be.

I've favorite placed this topic now and I'll be able to get back to it easily should it happen again and my method doesn't work.

Thanks again!