Xvid with AC3 audio Help

[Puggsley456]

I have a Xvid movie with ac3 audio and I was just wondering if I should use the "Convert a Divx with AC3 to vcd" guide?

[0 kewl]

Yes, the procedure with AC3 remains the same whether DivX or XviD, you might need to frameserve your video using Virtual Dub though (or use this guide for TMPGEnc (if that is your preferred encoder) settings to accept XviD if you don't want to use frameserving).

[Puggsley456]

Ok, I followed the guide but when I tried ot load the audio into HeadAC3he It came up "Could not find data chunck".
What does that mean and where do I go from there?

[0 kewl]

Did you rename it to *.ac3? Check that Windows hasn't added the *.wav extension to it.

Or try this prog to convert AC3 to WAV.

[Puggsley456]

I have managed to get it to work. Now I have a wave file that is layer2 48000Hz 192 Kbps. Can I use that to make a Svcd or does it have to be 44100 Hz to work?

On another note, I now have no sound in the original file. And I dont know why. Virtual dubb says its still there in the file but now it wont play.
Any ideas?

[0 kewl]

Yes, you can use it - TMPGEnc (if that is what you are using) will convert it to 44100Hz for (S)VCDs automatically.

Regards the missing sound - check that you haven't installed/uninstalled some codecs since the last time you successfully played your XviD AVI.

[Puggsley456]

Now that I've encoded it, the audio seams to be a little scratchy. Could this be caused by the change from 48000Hz to 44100 Hz?

[0 kewl]

No, most of the time it is caused by odd framerate or wrong template (different to source file's standard).

[banjazzer]

Now that I've encoded it, the audio seams to be a little scratchy. Could this be caused by the change from 48000Hz to 44100 Hz?

TMPG is not recommended for resampling. Get a small prog called SSRC http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Audio/ssrc-1.29.zip and run from a DOS window.

ssrc --rate 44100 input.wav output.wav

(Or use this as TMPG's external resampling program.)

[GUTB]

The only reliable, gaurenteed-good-results for doing this is to first rip the AC3 track using whatever method you want (Nabub, etc). Next, use Azid to transform the AC3 track to a normal 2-channel stereo track. Once you've done that, you will HAVE to check the audio volume levels as I have yet to make Azid adjust the volume to a proper level -- you can do this and make changes in TMPGEnc's built-in Audio editor, so don't worry about it. And finally, if you are planning to re-sample the audio, please do youself a favour and use a good re-sampling utility for this, as TMPGEnc's built-in re-sampler is pure garbage, as has already been mentioned!

Do *NOT* use HeadAC3che, the program is trash. If you are lucky and can make it work, good for you. Otherwise, don't waste your time and just use Azid.

So remember:

1. Rip AC3 stream to file
2. Use Azid to transform
3. Use TMPGEnc to fix the audio

Presto! High-qaulity, WORKING stereo track from an AC3 original.

[banjazzer]

Do *NOT* use HeadAC3che, the program is trash. If you are lucky and can make it work, good for you. Otherwise, don't waste your time and just use Azid.

Just because you cannot get something to work - this does not make it trash. You need to have the correct .dlls to suit your CPU. Did you bother to read the FAQ? I find it an extremely stable piece of software. And, incidentally, it uses Azid.

Generally, there is not a single correct way of doing something.

[GUTB]

HeadAC3che is trash.

The programmer is one of those guys who knows about multimedia codecs, but couldn't develop a solid software routine if his life depended on it. It is trash because it halts on common AC3 errors that Azid simply skips. It is low-life garbage that forces the user go download the right DLLs, and the developer has stated that he doesn't intend to ever fix these issues. That's fine, he doesn't have to release anything at all -- which all the same to me.

[banjazzer]

That is hardly worth responding to directly. Readers can decide for themselves whether you know what you are talking about.

[homerpez]

One more vote for HeadAC3he.

I use it, it works fine (the only "fatal" errors I ever got from it was when I had D/L'ed a corrupt source file - I was actually grateful it told me)...

Plus, I noticed that it seems to do almost the fastest Sample Rate conversion + .mp2 conversion I've seen from most any program...