AVI to VCD Audio Problem

[cvaughn2x]

Hello,
I am a newbie at this so please bear with me. I have been able to use a DVR (it uses a DivX codec) to film baptisms at my church and I have been able to successfully burn the AVI videos to a VCD. Side note: I'm still looking for a good VCD authoring program for a small budget (I didn't like Nero or Sonic MyDVD); suggestions are appreciated.

The problem: Recently, we added sound to the recording, and when I playback the recorded file on the DVR while it's connected to a TV, the sound is audible. However, opening the file on my computer in WMP or the DivX Player results in no sound even though the physical settings are correct (speakers on, mute off, etc.).

Next, opening the AVI file in GSpot says that there are No Audio Channels present, as if the sound wasn't included in the file? See attachment.

Not sure if it helps, but when a recording is created and I copy it to my USB drive, there are two files with the same name but different extensions: AVI and SMI. What is the SMI file?

Any ideas? Thank you.

[jman98]

VCDEasy (http://www.vcdeasy.org) is a very good authoring program for VCDs. I don't think it supports menus directly, should you care about that. Do a web search or look in the VCDEasy forum and ask about that if you care. Personally, I think menus are almost useless for VCD/SVCD, but you would not believe how many people get REALLY REALLY bent out of shape at the idea of creating a VCD/SVCD without a menu (gasp!).

I don't know anything about DVRs, but how exactly did you add the sound to this film? I've never heard of SMI, so I don't know what that is, but it's bad that Gspot thinks you have no audio. That may mean that the audio you added is actually in a separate file, maybe this mystery SMI file. If your audio was actually part of the AVI file, Gspot would find it.

[cvaughn2x]

The audio was added with our sound equipment. Basically, a wireless mic is picking up the sound, it goes into a mixer, then goes to the DVR, then out to a TV to monitor it. We can hear the sound on the TV, but nothing on the AVI file on the PC.

The SMI file is created with every recorded AVI file, even before we started adding sound.

Thanks for the ideas on VCDEasy. I was coming to the same conclusion.

I appreciate all your help.