toast error code 223

[snuffy51]

Trying to convert avi to dvd. I get errors when trying mpeg2works and error 223 with toast 6. The avi plays perfectly with Mplayerx. DVIX Doctor2 said it contained AC3 audio which it would dump, then said no movie found??? Anyone know whats going on here? Thanks

[Riot Nrrrd]

I assume you meant "Result Code = -223".

This should be a FAQ. (Galactica?)

By default, Toast Titanium 6.0.7 does not grok AVI files, nor does it grok AC-3 audio.

To get it to grok AVI files, you need to have the "3ivx D4 4.5.1 for OSX" QuickTime™ component installed, from www.3ivx.com.

The AC-3 audio stuff, unfortunately, is a bit trickier.

If you have Toast 6.0.7 with Jam 6.0.2, then Toast will understand AC-3 audio. In the Video tab, you'll see an extra pull-down menu choice (under the choice of NTSC or PAL for the video and the Video Quality setting) that says Audio Format. The choices are PCM and Dolby Digital (a.k.a. AC-3).

Jam 6.0.2 comes with an AC-3 encoder as well as an AC-3 decoder. You can see these if you open up the Jam application with a Control-Click and do Show Package Contents, and navigate down to Contents/PlugIns. You'll see AC3Dec.bundle and AC3Enc.bundle.

Now, here comes the fun part. When Toast with Jam is asked to encode an AVI video that has AC-3 audio (shows up as audio codec type A52 in VLC's Info window), you'd think it would use the AC3Dec decoder it comes with, or just pass the audio right through to the final output (if one selects Dolby Digital for Audio Format), right?

Well, it doesn't. I've verified this by tracing the Toast execution; it references the AC-3 encoder several times, but the decoder is never opened/loaded! It seems to demand that QuickTime™ be able to handle the audio, for reasons beyond me. (Toast needs ffmpegX's audio "pass-through" mode, methinks.)

Now it becomes hit or miss. There is an AC-3 codec component for QuickTime™ out there:

http://www.insaneness.com/ac3.html

If you install that, then QuickTime™ Player might be able to play your AVI with audio; and, in turn, it might be able to be encoded in Toast. But I've seen AVI's that have AC-3 audio that, despite being able to be viewed in QuickTime™ Player (with audio), immediately crash Toast when it starts to encode - there's a bug in the codec component (or, more likely, a glitch in the AVI that causes the codec to go haywire). In that case, you're pretty much screwed - unless you can use some other tools like ffmpegX, which are a lot more complicated and prone to error.