DVD to WMV - Audio out of sync.....Sometimes

[Number Six]

I use AoA DVD Ripper v5.1.9 to convert my episodic TV DVD's to WMV9 format to use on my Zune. The parameters are 500 Kbps for video, 96 Kbps or 128 Kbps for audio, and 29.97 frame rate. When I converted The Prisoner series and the Banacek series, everything was perfectly in sync.
I am trying to convert the Columbo series, but the audio will not be in sync no matter what I do. It starts off OK, but the audio sync gets really out of whack by the end of each episode. The program has 4 choices for dealing with audio problems - NONE, AUTO, ENHANCE, AND FORCE - with the FORCE mode doing the best job, but still out of sync by the end of the episode.
I was using v5.1.8 for the last year and just upgraded to v5.1.9 to see if the problem is corrected, but there is no difference. Now here are a few weird things that this software does - but they do not seem to cause any problem with the conversions:

1. - The 29.97 frame rate setting outputs a file with a frame rate of 29.00 - I have to use the frame rate setting of 30 to get an output of 29.97

2. - Sometimes the 96 Kbps audio setting gives an output of 128 Kbps, Sometimes the 128 Kbps audio setting gives an output of 96 Kbps

The above info was reported via using MediaInfo.

The original DVD's play perfectly. I rip the DVD's to a Secondary Hard Drive (D) before processing - this is also where the output files go. The conversion program is installed on the Primary Hard Drive (C) with the operating system (Windows XP +SP3). CPU = P4 2.66 ghz with L2 = 512k, 1GB RAM. All of this is the same no matter what I am converting. The only variable in the equation is the way the original DVD's are authored, and I am assuming that this where the problem lies.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated .

[Baldrick]

Maybe try something else for just that serie. Like use VOB2MPG on the ripped DVD and then convert the MPG(s) to WMV using Encode360.

Or doesn't the Zune support H264 with AAC? Then can you use a lots of free software like the very good Xvid4PSP!

[Number Six]

Thanks for the fast reply Baldrick

The zune only "eats" WMV files

I downloaded Encode360 - I'll give it a try

[poisondeathray]

The zune only "eats" WMV files

I'm certain Zune supports h264 (only the baseline profile)

[Number Six]

The zune only "eats" WMV files

I'm certain Zune supports h264 (only the baseline profile)

I just checked the Zune.net website:

Zune will play media compressed with the codecs installed on Windows or the Zune software, including

WMA Standard
WMA Pro
WMA Lossless (available for Zune 30GB with version 2.1 firmware)
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3
MP4pt2 (not available for Zune 30GB)
H.264 (not available for Zune 30GB)
MPEG-2 (available for Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate only and is converted for play on the Zune device during sync)
WMV9
WMV Photostory (available for Zune 30GB only)

Note
Your Zune device doesn't use as many codecs as the Zune software does. However, any media that can be stored in your collection will be converted to a playable format when it's synced to your Zune device.

I have a Zune 30GB. I also want to do only 1 conversion from DVD directly to WMV - The Zune software will transcode many formats to WMV before syncing to the Zune device, but that will take forever!

[poisondeathray]

Another option for the conversion would be Free Zune Video Converter

Your sync issues might be from not decrypting it properly (even though the VOB's appear to be normal) - you could try anydvd or dvdfab hd decrypter

[Number Six]

Another option for the conversion would be Free Zune Video Converter

Your sync issues might be from not decrypting it properly (even though the VOB's appear to be normal) - you could try anydvd or dvdfab hd decrypter

I use AnyDVD for all my decrypting - It worked OK for the other TV series and movies that I did. The ripped files play perfectly from my HD in PowerDVD and VLC. I convert my DVD movies using Cucusoft DVD to Zune - this program does a terrible job on TV shows, the output is jumpy when the scene pans left or right.

[Number Six]

Much thanks to Baldrick and poisondeathray for all your help - you gave me a much better system for converting my DVD's to Zune format, and it is much quicker than AoA DVD Ripper!

Baldrick - Instead of using VOB2MPG, I used Videoredo TV suite to convert each episode to a single MPG stream because I already had it. Total conversion time is less than 10 minutes because it does fast frame copy - I don't think it is losing any resolution because it is not encoding or transcoding.

poisondeathray - I am using Free Zune Video Converter to compress the MPG into a WMV file with all the correct parameters. It converts at approximately 100 fps - which is 4 times faster than AoA @23 fps - and the audio is in perfect sync.

I transferred the new file into the Zune - It was 100% compliant, and did not need any further conversion.

I am going to try this process on movies too, and if it works just as well, then I will no longer need AoA or Cucusoft.