DVD Lab Question

[J3M]

I've created two home video DVD's using DVD Lab (current version). I get no audio on my standalone player yet it works fine on my PC. My standalone is a Toshiba SD-3750. The same movies I've created using Roxio's DVD Builder worked just fine. I'd rather use DVD Lab though, since it gives me way more flexibility. Anyway, the MPEG file I'm importing is 720x480 MPEG2 with the audio set at 48khz 16 bit.

Any ideas why the audio works on the PC yet my standalone only gives me the video?

[bugster]

Any ideas why the audio works on the PC yet my standalone only gives me the video?

I would guess that the audio on your 'bad' DVD;s is mp2 format and your DVD player does not handle that format. You need to convert the audio to either PCM (uncompressed) or Ac3.

[J3M]

That would make sense. Ok, next question. I'm using MMC 8.8 to do the capturing. Does it record the audio in MP2 format? Is the reason DVD Builder discs work because it converts the audio for me without my knowledge? DVD Builder really sucks, so it's important to me to get something like DVD Lab working and I've only got a few days left on my evaluation.

Also, any suggestions on software to convert my audio from MP2 to PCM? I know I can use DVD Lab to demux my files, but will it do the convertion for me?

Thanks for your input!

[bugster]

That would make sense. Ok, next question. I'm using MMC 8.8 to do the capturing. Does it record the audio in MP2 format?

Don't know about that but quite possibly. If you are capturing to direct to mpeg then almost certainly.

Is the reason DVD Builder discs work because it converts the audio for me without my knowledge?

Again I don't really know but would guess so. Probably to PCM. Is the total content of the DVD much bigger than the source mpeg?

Also, any suggestions on software to convert my audio from MP2 to PCM? I know I can use DVD Lab to demux my files, but will it do the convertion for me?

DVD lab will not convert audio types for you. Best bet for converting mp2 to PCM is probably besweet. Remember though PCM is uncompressed and takes up loads of disk space. If this is a problem for you then you may want to look into Ac3.



Thanks for your input![/quote]

[J3M]

I am capturing directly to MPEG. So by doing so, the audio is MP2, correct? If I start capturing to AVI instead, would the audio then be PCM? The only problem with AVI is file size. I'll have to play around with this more this weekend since I think we're on the right track.

As for DVD Builder file sizes, I'm not absolutely sure. When it compiles my discs, it almost always complains about the project being too large, yet even it's own guess is usually wrong. I've stopped using it because I found out that the discs I thought worked with it start freezing on me about halfway through the disc. It's also not very flexible. DVD Lab seems to be the way to go, and I'm probably going to buy it if I can resolve my audio issues.

I'll look into besweet, thanks! I'd probably go with AC3 rather than PCM, but not because of disk space. I have plenty of that. Like I said, I'll do some playing around this weekend and see what works.

Thanks again!

[indolikaa]

ATI MMC 8.x captures MP2 audio by default. To select PCM you have to select 'MPEG-2 DVD' (NOT MPEG-2, as shown below) as your format from the 'Video Stream Properties' screen...



... and then you can select the PCM version of 48kHz 16-bit audio from the 'Audio Stream Properties' drop-down select. The one you see selected in the image generates an MP2 file, but the LPCM option becomes available once you go from MPEG-2 to MPEG-2 DVD.

(Image from www.lordsmurf.com)

[J3M]

Excellent! Thanks for the info! I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Good thing I still have my original home video footage on miniDV since I'll have to re-capture it. Sucks, but I'm still in that learning stage.