DivX ac3 5.1 Audio Problem

[cHooBe]

I have 2 avi files that I wanna convert to DVD (starting with virtualdub then on to headac3he for the audio) but I am having big problems with the 2nd file. 1st half of film converts to WAV ok, but when I put the 2nd file into headac3he (after virtualdub from the guides) it tells me:-

'Bad syncword at frame 106521! The ac3 stream is probably corrupt'

Headac3he tells me on the last line when finished:-

'AC3 decoding cycle [00:56:48.608] E7: CRC error'

should I cut the file to a couple of frames b4 that with good ole' virtualdub? Would that work?

I have all the codecs etc etc required and I also used goldwave etc etc (just as the guides advise). I've also tried joining the 2 files together and headac3he gave the same kind of error!
1 thing I have noticed though is the 1st file has a data rate of 196kbps and the 2nd file has a data rate of 198kbps, everything else (codecs, resolution etc) is matched up the same apart from that!
Could that be the cause?
If so, how can I fix this 2nd file so that it has the same data rate as the 1st?

Any help is very much appreciated,
Thanx

[swoop]

I have the same problem. I'll explain why is that. Maybe my explanation will have some technical flaws, but in general it should hold.

Thing comes with DivX spliting. When you split video file, video Keyframes and audio "keyframes/packets" are not at the same position. Thus (by default) there is short part of sount missing in 1st cd file (you can not notice that, thanx god). Then ofcourse in 2nd cd should be more sound, but because of compatibility, that abundant frame is purged. That is no problem for player - it will get synchronised when first valid audio "keyframe/packet" comes.

And HeadAC3e will regognise this missing frame as an error and will not continue... You can force VirtualDubMOD to keep that frame, but no one ripper does it. And maybe players will refuse play that kind of video...

One of possibilities is to use BeSplit (or one of those "BeXXX" tools) that can fix AC3 files. But it just skips all "invalid" frames until first valid group of frames is found. That can mean you lose 1/100 second of sound or even 5(?) sec of sound. Then you have your sound not synchronised, or you can play with it and you will get synchro, but will have iritating silence.

Moral is: If you see peole keeping 2 CD DivX movies in one piece - do not tell them they are stupid - they are not

I'm still trying to find out how to escape this problem tastily... If I'll find some way, I'll write it here.

-=SWooP=-

[2man]

try AC3Fix to resolve the bad frame