noob needs help authoring....Audio related.

[wtyslee]

I just got a Pioneer DVD burner and a new DVD player that plays all formats. Now I am trying to take an avi file and put it on DVD. Using TMPGenc I have encoded it to MPEG2. And it plays great on my PC as a file. Then I use TMPGenc author to author it and burn it to DVD. But once authored there is NO audio in the audio file and if I burn it(now using rw's cause I've wasted like 4 or 5DVD's already) there is no sound. Great picture but no sound.

I am getting really frustrated now cause I can't seem to fix the problem. I have looked at so many tutorials on this site and others and I can't quite seem to find a fix. I have done many VCD's but like I said I am new to DVD's. So am I missing something really basic or is this more complicated than I originaly thought?

Please help before I go crazy.......


Also a little off topic...does encoding video use more RAM power or CPU? I have a AMD 2500+ barton and 512mb of ram. I would like to speed up my encoding process. Would I be better off buying more ram or a faster CPU? I was thinking of adding another 512mb of ram if it will help.

[funkhouse]

I'll attempt to address the first part of your question, ... the veterans will correct me when leading you astray.

** Maybe you are doing what I had done?
If you are exporting your audio from say Premiere into a WAV file, and then you export your video (no audio) (I use the FrameServer AVISynth between Premier and tmpgenc) ... some reason you also generate a wav file from the video export. If you are not careful, ... you COULD be overwriting your TRUE audio. When you attempt to author you are utilizing a wav file that overwrote your audio and contains no sound because you turned off the audio option when exporting?

** then again, you are probably much much smarter than me

[wtyslee]

I don't get it.......
So are you saying you encode your audio seperate from your video?
But TMPGenc encodes the audio as well doesn't it?
Should I encode the vid & aud with 2 different programs them select 2 different sources when authoring?

[Gazorgan]

TMPGEnc can make 'DVD' audio sort of. That is it can create complient MP2 audio. The question is: did it? When you opened the video, was there something in the audio line? If the original file confused TMPGEnc (happens all the time) it won't encode the audio, because the audio source is blank.

Most people actually convert the audio seperately, and use AC3/AC5.1 to save space.

Try the process again, and look and see if anything is in the audio source line (you don't have to acutally encode again).

[wtyslee]

The Audio source is the same as the video source.
The audio is there after encoding to mpeg2.

So i should JUST encode the vid in TMPGenc.....so what should I use to encode the audio after the vid is done?

[Gazorgan]

BeSweet.

Take a moment to read the DVD standards here: https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

In NTSC land, standard Audio is PCM or AC3/5.1 . TMPGEnc creates MP2. See the problem? While nearly every DVDPlayer will play it, there is that small percentage that won't. Have you tried your coasters in another player? Have you tried the settup on your DVD player: ie forcing the audio track? Some players won't play the Audio because it's not marked as whatever the default language the player is in.

It may well be your player and not your work!

[wtyslee]

Yeah. It won't even playback in my pc DVD burner. It is like the audio is just gone.

K I'll try to encode seperately. Then author.

Thanks for the help and quick responses.

[Gazorgan]

You original question was specific, as opposed to the numerous "HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP I GOT NO AUDIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" posts. You should be able to get your problems resolved by today.

[wtyslee]

Ok I tried BeSweet. I can't figure it out.

I am trying to encode audio from an avi file to a pcm or ac3 file right. So i select BeSweet in the GUI. then I try to select the avi file but it only wants to select a audio file. BUt the problem is I don't have an audio file. I have an avi file with audio in it.

I am confused.

[Gazorgan]

Hmmm.

Try this. Think of 'AVI' or 'MPG' as a container. It contains Video and usually 1 (but sometimes more) audio tracks. BeSweet only does audio.

So, an easy way to get the audio out of an AVI is a program called AVI2WAV. It will take you AVI and spit out a WAV file you can then convert to whatever you want. DVD Audio needs to be 48 Khz (not the 44 most MP3's have).

Alternately you can use VDUB (virtual dub or v-dub) and save the audio out. I suggest a vdub guide on extracting audio, it can get a little confusing when you first start using it, which is why I suggested it #2.

You can try Goldwave ( https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/160649.php ) also, it's pretty good for audio conversions.

Here's every guide on audio conversions: https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?howtoselect=4;15
Which seems to be your only problem.

Th

[proggy]

At least on my system, encoding takes more CPU than RAM. I have 1 gig of RAM and it is never full! However, when encoding, it is always 100% CPU usage. It would be nice to know how to make a server farm with TMPGenc to utilize all the computers in my house.

[funkhouse]

intriguing ...

I have been (as stated at beginning of thread) splitting my AVI's audio and video.

Since I use Premiere, I've been pulling the audio into a wav by exporting the audio separately first.

Later I'll export the video (and as I stated earlier, ... I still generate another wav file, ... but it contains no audio) I delete the new wav, ... and when I author I use the original wav that I derived from my audio export.


Question.
My DVDs have been SUCCESSFULLY turning out.
What throws me is why the AUDIO_TS side of my DVD creation always contains ZILCH. I know I need to read up on VOBs ... but can somebody explain to me in a nutshell if the VOB for movies contains the audio as well. Is that where my audio is stored ? and the AUDIO_TS would be for a audio ONLY track?

[MOVIEGEEK]

"What throws me is why the AUDIO_TS side of my DVD creation always contains ZILCH"

The AUDIO_TS folder is used for DVD-AUDIO not DVD-VIDEO,it's on your DVD for compatibility reasons.The audio stream is multiplexed to the video stream during authoring of the VOB,a VOB is basically an MPEG file with special headers that allow multiple audio tracks and subtitles.

[wtyslee]

So in TMPGenc is there no way to encode the video but NOT the audio? Because now I have a mpg file and a wave file andI go to author the DVD with them and suddenly the two files together are too big.

[wtyslee]

So I encoded the avi file with TMPGenc. Then I extracted and encoded the audio with Goldwave. The audio was encoded at 16bit/48000hz. Then I used TMPGenc Author to author and burn. And still NO AUDIO .

I don't get it!
What am I doing wrong?
Should I just try another authoring program?
I heard this was one of the best though.

[energy80s]

You seem to be getting confused. TMPG will produce either elementary streams of video only or audio only. It can also produce multiplexed video/audio streams. Unfortunately you appear to be in America and DVD players over there can't always handle MPEG2 audio. This means you are either stuck with a large wave file or will need to convert it to AC3. Besweet will convert to AC3 apparently (never used it but others say it does!), so all you need from TMPG is an elementary video stream. This can be produced by clicking on the "video" radio button beside the file input boxes in the lower part of the TMPG screen. The file will also encode considerably quicker without the audio portion, and will be labelled .m2v

[wtyslee]

Yeah I think I am getting really confused.

But after your post I think I've got it.

So I use TMPGenc and encode only the vid.
The I use something like Goldwave to extract and encode the audio into a wav.
(I had stopped here before then authored in TMPGenc author)
But then I use BeSweet to re-encode the wave to AC3.

THEN I author.

Right?

(God I hope so)