Audio Problems

[pogotc]

Hi

i'm still new to vcd authoring so this may be fairly straight forward.

I'm trying to convert an avi into a vcd format file using TMPGEnc but the has no audio. I tried it again but this time after selecting the video file i chose the audio file and get an error saying the file cannot be opened or it is unsupported.

I've tried opening it in virtual dub and trying to save the audio as a wav but i get an error saying that a compressor cannot be found which is strange because it must be there since i've used it before and it worked fine.
Also if i go to file information under Audio compression it has unkown which is probably whats causing it.

thanks for any help with this.

[pogotc]

one more thing if it helps after opening the program in GSpot i got the following info :

Video : DivX 3 Low-Motion

Audio : ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc
Bitrate : 448 kb/s (5 ch) CBR
Fs : 48000 Hz

[mats.hogberg]

Ah - TMPGEnc can't talke AC3 as audio input.
Use VirtualDub, and select Direct Stream Copy under audio, then Save Wav under file.
Then take the output from VirtualDub (that will end in .wav) and rename to ???.AC3
Convert this AC3 to wav with HeadAC3he, and use it as audio source in TMPGEnc.
Beware that there may be some "skew" between audio and video track in the original AVI, so you may experience some off sync problem after extracting the audio track. Correct this in TPMGEnc using the source range setting under Advanced tab - Audio gap correct.
Encode a short clip and check for sync problems.

/Mats

[theDruid]

another (very easy) way of getting the audio out of an AC3 avi file is to open the whole avi in GoldWave, then Save As.., and GoldWave will save the audio as a 16-bit PCM wav.

TMPGEnc will then accept that as an audio input.

You may want to normalise it as well, as they often come out very quiet from the conversion.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[pogotc]

thanks for the help guys, mats suggestion worked perfectly

One more thing though, i've noticed this with other vcd's i've made. After tmpgenc has finished encoding it changes the dimensions of the video, i was just wondering why it does this and if i can keep it at the original settings

thanks again

[theDruid]

If you're using the TMPGEnc templates, it will resize the video according to the standards for whichever format you're going into. (see the What Is... section of this site).

You can change the way it resizes (keep aspect ratio etc..) by going into the settings for Clip Frame in the template wizard, and going to Arrange Setting.

If you don't allow TMPGEnc to do the resize (by using the unlock template), you'll most likely end up with a non-compliant mpg, which you'll have trouble with if you try and make a (S)VCD and play it on a standalone.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[mats.hogberg]

it changes the dimensions of the video

Well, as VCD, SVCD and DVD each have it's own resolution "written in stone", (take a look under What Is) it's a good thing it does, or else the final (S)VCD/DVD would probably not work.
If you have a 16:9 source, you can either resize the whole picture to 352*288/240 (squeeze it) when encoding, and then switch the TV to display it as 16:9 to get it back to its normal proportions (I usually do this) or add a black border top and bottom to keep it at the correct aspect ratio (16:9) even when played back at 4:3. 352 wide would make a 16:9 movie 198 pixels high. The rest will be just black borders - a waste imho!

/Mats

[pogotc]

thanks again for the help guys