Audio Sync Problems in different players

[nanite2000]

Hi,

I've been having trouble converting some DVDs to DivX AVIs. I converted one recently, but no matter how hard I try I cannot get the audio in sync.

I realise that audio sync issues are a bit of a sore spot with DivX vids, but this one's particularly weird.

If I play the video in Media Player Classic or DivX's own player then the sync issue is hardly noticeable. But if I play the same file in Windows Media Player 10, then the sound is very noticeably out of sync (by around half a second). Why would these players exhibit different behaviour? Do they use different codecs? The DivX watermark shows up in all players, so I assume the same codec is being used.

I realise that WIndows Media Player has its shortcomings, but I need it to work properly because I use Media Center Edition for vids.

This is a new DVD and I used DVD Decrypter to extract the VOBs.

Does anyone know why this may be happening?

Thanks!

[Baldrick]

try play with vlc media player, it has it own codecs. do you get same problem?
how do you convert to divx after using dvd decrypter? what tool?

[nanite2000]

how do you convert to divx after using dvd decrypter? what tool?

I used Dr Divx 2.0.

After a bit of experimentation, I have found the problem is due to converting the audio track to MP3 instead of preserving the AC3 track. If I preserve the original AC3 track, the sound remains in sync. However, if I set Dr Divx to convert the audio to MP3, the sound goes way out of sync.

Oddly enough, if I open the MP3 track in a sound editor (like Goldwave) the length of the MP3 track is identical to the video, yet it gets progressively more out of sync by the end of the episode - up to 3 seconds out! But it's the video that falls behind the audio, and yet there are no noticeable dropouts in either the audio or the video.

Huh?!?