Weird Toast and .ac3 5.1 problem

[Direwolf]

Hi,

I'm having a problem in trying to make a dvd from a recorded tv program. I'm using Toast 7 and I transferred the show to my mac (.m2t).

After editing the commercials out using MPEGStreamClip, I saved the file (.ts) and then I used MPEGStreamClip to convert it to MPEG so that I can drag that into Toast.

Here's where the weirdness starts:

If I do a test encode of a short clip (5 seconds long) from that MPEG file, Toast keeps the 5.1 track intact. So far so good.

If I encode the whole MPEG file (85 minutes long), Toast doesn't keep the 5.1 audio track. It converts it into stereo. At least, it seems like stereo because when I drag the created .vobs into MPEGStreamClip, the info box says "2/0" for audio instead of "3/2". I used the "Automatic Best" encoding option in Toast.

Thoughts?

[Frobozz]

That is odd because Toast doesn't do any re-encoding of an ac3 audio track. It only multiplexes it. If you look in the Roxio Converted Items folder when Toast is re-encoding the video you'll see there is only a m2v file and no ac3 file being written. That's because the audio is not being re-encoded.

You might do a test where you export the TS video from Streamclip as elementary files (separate .m2v and .ac3 files. Add the .m2v to Toast and it automatically matches the .ac3. Now try again by choosing Save as Disc Image. You can have Toast describe the contents by adding the VIDEO_TS folder to the VIDEO_TS folders setting or use your method with Streamclip.

[Direwolf]

Yeah, I agree, that is very odd.

For some reason, it re-encodes the audio for the whole show but not for a test clip (of the same show). Weird.

Anyways, instead of re-encoding all over again (several hours), I ended up finding a workaround to this problem. I demuxed the finished (encoded) .vobs, then I remuxed the .m2v with the proper .ac3 from my original .mpeg file using Sizzle. Surround sound intact now.

Thanks for your suggestion, Frobozz!