MKV2AC3 - development thread

[Delta2]

Hi Delta2 - this happens with both aften and eac3to.

but what do you want to do ? give me an example

[scottie83]

I've done a lot of searching before posting here as your time is I'm sure quite valuable to you, but I can't seem to figure out what's happening on my machine. I recently upgraded to Windows 8 Pro (clean install) and can no longer use MKV2AC3. It used to work flawlessly with the aften mode (I didn't even know there was two modes until I had the issue).

When using aften mode the it seems to go in to an endless loop with the message "ERROR ! Try the other method of conversion." I've never seen this before, so I tried eac3to as well. With that method, in about 1 second it gives one "ERROR ! Try the other method of conversion," message and then it say it was a successful, obviously without actually converting the file.

I'm stuck here and I'm really missing my videos with AC3. I've tried multiple MKV files (specifically with ones that have worked in the past as well.) and get the same result every time.

Aften method:


eac3to method:


PC Spec:
Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.8GHz
16GB RAM

Delta2, I greatly appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction with any troubleshooting ideas.

Cheers,
Scottie

[scottie83]

Well, you can call off the dogs. After playing with this for a week and finally creating an account on the forum, I figured it out 5 minutes after posting...

The source file being converted with MKV2AC3 cannot be kept on a Windows Storage Space partition. As a last resort of playing around, I copied the MKV file I needed to convert to my C: drive and tried the conversion and it worked on the first try. (Also note that you can output to a storage space, just not read from it).

I doubt it's worth updating the app to take Storage Spaces in to account, but at least Google will index this for search results in case someone else runs in to the same issue.

Thanks again for making a great app! It's a life saver for those of us in the Windows Media Center community.

Thanks,
Scottie!

[RappinRod]

Hello: I was just going to tell you the (1) in the title of the movie looked odd to me,,it was telling me it was a copy or a recode of some kind and that you needed to find the original copy you downloaded of Django 720p so that you can change the audio...Its funny but I encoded that same exact file a couple of weeks ago without a glich..Try using eac3to 640k normalized all the time (aften hasn't be updated in years) when you have 1500k dts files unless you want to make the files even smaller by lowering the ac3 bitrate even more..Ill tell you something else you might want to try in case you dont already know..After you recode the audio you may want to make the file a true 16/9,,not all files are a true 720p or 1080p they maybe like 1280x536 or 1920x800 and most of these are not 16/9 all of the time,but your tv will scale them automatically and put in the black bars..I dont like fiddling with a remote to zoom the black bars out..If you run these files through mkvmerge you can make everything 16/9 and it only takes a minute or so to convert and the finished file is superb and then your tv will display them fullscreen and perfectly sized without the black bars and loss of quality..And if you really want to save space with very little loss of quality use tx264 encoder to reencode the 1080p or 720p files to 1024x576,,16/9 aspect,,audio ac3/6 640k and make the bitrate 3689 superfast,profile,high,level 4.1 and tune to film..I play these files on a 55"LED with a middle of the road Onkyo 6.1 surround system and these small HD files look and sound so good..I now encode everything 576p now..All my files will be around 2 to 3.5 gigs depending on the length of the file and it takes about 30 to 40 minutes to complete depending on your processing power of course..Geez im running mouth too much but I hope some of this may help you in what your trying to do..Anyway, Im glad you figured out your problem in win8..I do all my encoding in win7 and xp...~

[Delta2]

Well, you can call off the dogs. After playing with this for a week and finally creating an account on the forum, I figured it out 5 minutes after posting...

The source file being converted with MKV2AC3 cannot be kept on a Windows Storage Space partition. As a last resort of playing around, I copied the MKV file I needed to convert to my C: drive and tried the conversion and it worked on the first try. (Also note that you can output to a storage space, just not read from it).

I doubt it's worth updating the app to take Storage Spaces in to account, but at least Google will index this for search results in case someone else runs in to the same issue.

Thanks again for making a great app! It's a life saver for those of us in the Windows Media Center community.

Thanks,
Scottie!

Thanks for that info, it will be helpful to many with the same problem

people should check this thread for solutions taken from the community since it is the only available official support for this program, besides my personal email of course but I don't know everything in all systems, I need your experiences

I can't debug or solve Win 8 issues since I don't use or have that system

[Spioszek]

Hi, Wheare download 64Bit version MKV2AC3?
my version is bad, is name 64bit and if you install windows i have istall to x86 folder program files not programfiles (64bit).
My version its not work for my Win7 64Bit .

[Delta2]

it works in win7 64 bits

https://www.videohelp.com/download/mkv2ac3_1_03_04_64bits.zip

[lazyn00b]

I'm having EXACTLY the same issue as scottie83 with Windows 8 Storage Spaces! When Staxrip tries to process blu-ray audio with eac3to, the process fails immediately if the source files are on a Windows 8 Storage Space. Moving the same files to my C drive solved the problem, too... but that's not such a great solution, you know what I mean?

[Delta2]

but that's not such a great solution, you know what I mean?

yes, but I don't have windows 8

I use Windows XP and Visual Studio 2005, it is a .NET application

since this works under windows framework that is distributed for all systems, I can't understand why it fails

[Rico3]

Hi,Delta2.
First of all thank you for making such an awesome and easy to use program.
Here is my awkward problem:
I had been using this program for a long time.After i formatted my computer now aften method fails.I had been using 1.03.03 version and installed it again.
Now after the program extracts the audio with success(according to log) it says "ERROR!Try the other method of conversion" and an error box comes up saying "The process cannot access the file xxx/dolby.bat because it is being used by another progress."Then i've downloaded the new version.the same problem occured only the error box didn't come up.I've downloaded ac3filter and avisynth btw.I didn't adjust any setting.Do i need to?
Eac3tomethod works fine but the sound is very low with that method,almost half of the original sound.Tried both ac3 normalized ticked and unticked,didn't have much effect.
2 things i want to ask to you.
1.Do you have a recommendation for me to do for aften method?
2.Is there a way to increase the volume with eac3to method?A seperate program maybe?
Hope you can answer.And thanks again for making this program.

[Rico3]

edit.

[Rico3]

d

Hey delta2,may i get an answer to my question?
Thanks.

[Delta2]

Did you tried to change the source to another location ?

Aften method needs codecs + avisynth, can you play avisynth scripts ?!

I personally prefer the EAC3TO method because is faster and it is not codecs dependant, it is the method used by Popcorn AudioConverter.

You should listen the results in you TV, because if you have AC3Filter not well configured the sound in your PC can be very low

[Rico3]

Did you tried to change the source to another location ?

Aften method needs codecs + avisynth, can you play avisynth scripts ?!

I personally prefer the EAC3TO method because is faster and it is not codecs dependant, it is the method used by Popcorn AudioConverter.

You should listen the results in you TV, because if you have AC3Filter not well configured the sound in your PC can be very low

I watch the films on tv but i've also tried it on pc.Both sounds very low.

[Delta2]

I watch the films on tv but i've also tried it on pc.Both sounds very low.

Aften method gives more liberty to normalize the audio

I don't know the cause of the error

"The process cannot access the file xxx/dolby.bat because it is being used by another progress."

keep the temporaries, and when the error emerges, close MKV2AC3 and try to launch that BAT file in a Dos Command Window and see what happens

it is something related with your system

[onedot3]

When converting multi mkv's at a time with keep tempories.
The log reports that all is OK
But when I look in the folder some of the MKV's have not been remixed.
If the program created a separate folder named after the MKV converting and put the files in it or named the output files with the original MKV name I could then use MKV Merge to add the AC3 file.
I did ask in October 2011 and in November 2011 you said you could off the record.
I see other people have been asking for other changes any chance of them being done

Thanks for the great program

onedot3

[Delta2]

When converting multi mkv's at a time with keep tempories.
The log reports that all is OK
But when I look in the folder some of the MKV's have not been remixed.
If the program created a separate folder named after the MKV converting and put the files in it or named the output files with the original MKV name I could then use MKV Merge to add the AC3 file.
I did ask in October 2011 and in November 2011 you said you could off the record.
I see other people have been asking for other changes any chance of them being done

Thanks for the great program

onedot3

Forgot that issue with temporaries for multiple files

must see if I get some time

[theo2f]

Ola, Delta2.Tu já pensou em tornar o projeto como código aberto e colocá-lo no GitHub?
Muita gente poderia ajudar, inclusive eu!
Pense nisso.

[Delta2]

Ola, Delta2.Tu já pensou em tornar o projeto como código aberto e colocá-lo no GitHub?
Muita gente poderia ajudar, inclusive eu!
Pense nisso.

Look at the rules, I'm portuguese but here is not allowed

As for make this open source I don't like that people look inside of my spaghetti code LOL

seriously, this is only a GUI and you can make your own if you have basic knowledge about AV Conversions, not a big deal

I made this only for fun, primarily for helping my portuguese friends only then I decided to publish in here ( see first post )

but now I have little time, I confess

[theo2f]

Delta2,
The proposal is not "look your code" but to help to improve it.
Anyway, this is your project and you have the right to choose the best for you and the software.


Thank you for your good job.

[onedot3]

Delta2

Up to now when converting MKV's I have only kept the AC3.
I have now started to keep the DTS as well (Keep Original Stream).
When I play them back on the TV via Seagate Media TV I get no sound (PC OK, USB on TV sound OK)
If I remux the MKV with MKVMerge 6.3.0 the sound is OK via Seagate Media TV
I have tried aften and EAC3to Keep Original Stream and there is no sound via Seagate Media TV (PC OK, USB on TV sound OK)
Next tried
Don't Keep Original Stream and Keep Temporaise then remux with MKVMerge 6.3.0 the sound is OK via Seagate Media TV.
MKVTOAC3 uses mkvmerge 4.4.0

onedot3

[Delta2]

Delta2

Up to now when converting MKV's I have only kept the AC3.
I have now started to keep the DTS as well (Keep Original Stream).
When I play them back on the TV via Seagate Media TV I get no sound (PC OK, USB on TV sound OK)
If I remux the MKV with MKVMerge 6.3.0 the sound is OK via Seagate Media TV
I have tried aften and EAC3to Keep Original Stream and there is no sound via Seagate Media TV (PC OK, USB on TV sound OK)
Next tried
Don't Keep Original Stream and Keep Temporaise then remux with MKVMerge 6.3.0 the sound is OK via Seagate Media TV.
MKVTOAC3 uses mkvmerge 4.4.0

onedot3

in your mkv2ac3 installation folder there is mkvtoolnix subfolder, you can update all contents to use mkvmerge 6.3.0

[onedot3]

Delta2

Up to now when converting MKV's I have only kept the AC3.
I have now started to keep the DTS as well (Keep Original Stream).
When I play them back on the TV via Seagate Media TV I get no sound (PC OK, USB on TV sound OK)
If I remux the MKV with MKVMerge 6.3.0 the sound is OK via Seagate Media TV
I have tried aften and EAC3to Keep Original Stream and there is no sound via Seagate Media TV (PC OK, USB on TV sound OK)
Next tried
Don't Keep Original Stream and Keep Temporaise then remux with MKVMerge 6.3.0 the sound is OK via Seagate Media TV.
MKVTOAC3 uses mkvmerge 4.4.0

onedot3

in your mkv2ac3 installation folder there is mkvtoolnix subfolder, you can update all contents to use mkvmerge 6.3.0

Delta2

Have tried replacing
mkvextract.exe
mkvinfo.exe
mkvmerge.exe
mkvpropedit.exe
mmg.exe
After extracting DTS using aften I get message to try other mehod
Tried with eac3to don't get error message but still have to remux to get sound.
In the mkvtoolnix folder there are a lot of dll's non of which are in mkvtoolnix 6.4.1

onedot3

[Delta2]

I downloaded the full package

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/MKVtoolnix


renamed mkvtoolnix folder inside mkv2ac3 to mkvtoolnix_old
created a new mkvtoolnix folder


during setup I set the destination folder to that inside mkv2ac3


made a simple conversion and everything went fine


can you give me a sample of that movie ? put it in mediafire

[Delta2]

sorry for long time waiting, I'm currently very busy at office

I tried your sample in Windows XP with Keep Original Stream


In my PC the sound is OK, I looked to the contents of the MKV and it ended up with 2 sound tracks : DTS and AC3


and in the correct order, AC3 first and DTS second, the AC3 has the Default Track Flag and Forced Track Flag set to true


I don't see anything wrong


try to compare the contents of the MKV the one that works and the other that doesn't work

[hesido]

Hi Delta2, thanks for the excellent tool. This works superbly.

I'd like to report a bug, I'm using Win8, and if there's any spaces to where the executables are, mkv2ac3 doesn't work, with constant errors flooding in log. It seems to happen because quotation marks seem to be forgotten in dolby.bat, where you pipe the results of audio extraction into the converter.

[onedot3]

Delta2

Have just noticed that you are using XP.
I use Win 7 64 bit on both Desktop and Laptop.
If I replace the mkvtoolnix folder with the latest version.
Using aften
I get the message audio extracted with success
Then
I get message to try other method.
In output folder
dolby.bat
scripta.avs
Tried with eac3to don't get error message.

As to the sound not working have done a few tests
Original file DTS, works on PC, WD TV Live connected to TV Via HDMI, Seagate Media TV connected to TV Via HDMI
Converted don't keep original stream so AC3 only,works on PC, WD TV Live connected to TV Via HDMI, Seagate Media TV connected to TV Via HDMI
Converted keep original stream so AC3 first DTS second works on PC, WD TV Live connected to TV Via HDMI, no sound Seagate Media TV connected to TV Via HDMI
Makes me think that there is something wrong with Seagate Media TV.
But if I remux using mkvtoolnix the sound is OK on PC, WD TV Live connected to TV Via HDMI, Seagate Media TV connected to TV Via HDMI

I cannot see any difference looking at the mkv's with media info so will send you a copy of them to look at.

Onedot3

[Delta2]

This is a .NET Framework based program, it does not depend on windows version because it runs over the .NET Framework layer that is installed, it doesn't matter

What matters is folder protections and some other system configurations that differs from older windows versions


some posts above there was problems with the storage folders in win7 or win8, whatever....someone gave the solution

[mri]

One question from a fellow portuguese!


I've had this program for ages, and it works real good, however in the past i've had to change the conversion to eac3to since it stopped working for some weird reason. But even after that worked great (thumbs up for that btw ).


Ever since i formatted it a couple a weeks back i cant get it to work.


I have even tried reinstalling both 32/64 bits versions, but i get this error while addding a mkv, wich i am not even quite aware of what it exactly means:



[Attachment 22673 - Click to enlarge]

I get the error on every single file and after hitting "ok" on the error dialog the mkv is added to the list with empty info.

Im running Win7 as ive allways been when it worked.
Any clues how i can possibly get around this?

[Delta2]

put a sample of that movie in mediafire