Headac3he is right -- pulling ac3 audio from Divx file.

[trump]

Please don't assume this is the same question that has been posted to the forum about 200 times... I've checked all those out and none has fixed my problem.

I am having trouble getting the audio off of a divx avi file for tmpgenc to use. I've used virtualdub and about five different variations of it to try to get a good ac3 file for conversion to wav, but all of them give me errors, or a file that doesn't seem to be usable in headac3he or other ac3 -> wav converters.

Following the tutorial provided on the subject I get a 'direct stream copy' wav, rename it to ac3, and load it up in headac3he. Headac3he doesn't want to follow the tutorial though, and gives me an error- "could not find AC3 header".... which means nothing to me, unfortunately.

I've also tried a number of different methods posted on this forum, including ac3tool, and a number of other programs, as well as some from just searching google. None of them have succeeded in any way to bring me closer to the objective (a stinkin' wav file).

Now, I know you are thinking "codecs baby! It's gotta be the codecs!"... but I'm pretty sure thats not it. I installed nimo codec pack once again to be sure, and the audio plays fine when I view the file from my computer.

I don't even know what to try now. Nothing has worked. Please help me figure this one out

[bugster]

have you tried ac3fix, a command line tool, should be in the tools section.

Also, just to check, when you extract it with virtualdub, you do use direct stream copy don't you?

[trump]

Following the tutorial provided on the subject I get a 'direct stream copy'

... yep, it's the direct stream copy.

... and I did try ac3fix already. I can't remember what came from it, but I did.

BUT, as I should have figured would happen, as soon as I bug you people with my questions I find an answer on my own (or rather remember an answer). Goldwave. I remembered I was going to try Goldwave like someone suggested, and it seems to have worked.... absolutely nothing else would work, but Goldwave seems to. I'm going to see how it ends up working out for the SVCD and write back here to report.

Thanks for your responce, hopefully I won't need another

[Craig Tucker]

When using direct stream copy to save out an AC3 file in vdub it saves it with wav extension and corrupts the file header. Hence the problem you had trying to load that file into headac3he. Running the file through ac3fix should solve the problem though, and allow the file to be accepted by headac3he. Most of the time though if you are encoding a divx file to VCD or SVCD with ac3 audio using TMPGenc you can use the avi file as the video and audio source without having out of sync issues.

[trump]

Here is the problem with the ac3fix, it doesn't work at all for me. The exe file loads a dos window for a fraction of a second before it disappears. I don't know what the deal is, it never gives me an opportunity to even see the opening text.

[Craig Tucker]

You need to run the exe file from a command prompt in a dos window you cannot run ac3fix from within windows. So for example in xp you would click start, all programs, accessories, command prompt.

I have just been having a discussion on ac3fix that may help you

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=558789#558789

[trump]

Aw shoot!.... I think I'm just going to have to give up on this one. I THINK I got the audio pulled right and now the video is all mucked up. Over half the screen is covered in solid green, sort of fuzzing off about 2/3s of the way up. I searched the forum for a solution to THAT now, but I didn't find one in my brief scan.

Is there any way the two problems audio/video are related and have a codec solution outside of Nimo.... or something else I may not be aware of?

[Dutch Coder]

Try this.......... use Ac3 Tool, it's in the download section. Very easy to use.

D.C.