No audio after authoring... help

[Pisces225]

In general I use Vdubmod and save my sound to a .wav file no matter what, and use AC3Machine to convert to the properly spec'ed AC3. However, recently I've been having a problem...

I save the wave, and the sound is fine. I convert to AC3 using AC3Machine and author with DVDLab Pro and the resulting VOBs have no sound whatsoever. The wave is fine and the AC3 encodes with no errors resulting in an "as expected" file size (usually around 150mb), but after authoring, nada. The only thing I'd like, but don't seem to have is a way to play the .ac3 file and see if it went from .wav --> .ac3 properly.

The odd part is simply trying it again seems to work, I'd like to know if anyone else experiences this random 'no audio' after using the aforementioned software. If possible I'd like to figure out if the problem is with AC3Machine or DVDLab Pro. I'm sure I can encode my audio with something other than AC3Machine if that's my problem, but it came highly recommended and works fine 99% of the time (BeLight worked like crap for me). I really love DVDLab Pro though and am addicted to the menus and such I can make with it and would rather not give it up if I don't have to...

[Soopafresh]

Are you playing the DVDs back on your PC or TV ? If you're testing on your PC, the fact that you can't play your converted AC3 file also means you can't hear the AC3 when you've created a DVD with it either.

Test this theory by playing the DVD in your DVD player.

[Pisces225]

Unfortunately yes, since I have no way to test the AC3 I have no choice but to do the actual DVD burn and put it in the player and see what happens. The result is me being unhappy when I have no sound as I personally hate making coasters.

Is there no app out there that will play my .ac3 directly to make sure I'm not having issues in my .wav->.ac3 conversion?

Thanks for the help Soopa, you've been popping into all my threads lately

[jimmalenko]

Unfortunately yes, since I have no way to test the AC3 I have no choice but to do the actual DVD burn and put it in the player and see what happens. The result is me being unhappy when I have no sound as I personally hate making coasters.

That's why RW DVDs were made

Is there no app out there that will play my .ac3 directly to make sure I'm not having issues in my .wav->.ac3 conversion?

PowerDVD will, Windows Media Player will if you have an AC3 Codec installed (AC3Filter is available in the Tools section).

[Pisces225]

I wonder if me uninstalling AC3 filter could cause soundless VOBs? Man I feel stupid this morning. I have both the mentioned players, but I was going through and ripping out many unnecessary codecs last night. I pulled AC3filter and left what I thought was a full fledged AC3 codec, but apparently it's not.

My AC3's are associated with PowerDVD and it popped up when I tried to play it, but I got no sound. I'm sure thats why... doh! Thank you.