AC-3 Import problem in TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6

[bigdog660]

I have created a AC-3 5.1 file using BeSplit from a DDWAV I pulled from a Laserdisc. The AC-3 file is 384kbps and plays fine in any media player that supports AC-3.

The problem I am having is importing the AC-3 file into TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6. It says this:

*Illegal audio format.

Illegal audio format.
For a standard DVD you can only use the following audio formats:
Dolby Digital (AC-3), MPEG-1 Audio Layer-2, or Linear PCM.

I also tried using TMPG MPEG Tools to mux the M2V and AC-3 files together. It also gives the following error:

Invalid MPEG audio stream.

Any idea what is causing this, and how to fix it?

Any help will be appreciated.

[mikiem]

maybe try other methods besides bsplit for ac3 creation, or try fixing ac3 using delaycut & similar?

[mats.hogberg]

...or AC3Fix?

/Mats

[bigdog660]

Hey, thanks a lot for the suggestion, Mats! AC3Fix seemed to cure the problem! Final test will come when I play the DVD, but everything looks good.

I think my problem was a result of appending Side B to Side A of the captured AVI file; however, I have no choice in matter to make my DVD to look good.

Mikie, what other software beside BeSplit can convert a Dobly Digital WAV file to a 6 channel AC-3 stream? Just curious.

[mikiem]

"Mikie, what other software beside BeSplit can convert a Dobly Digital WAV file to a 6 channel AC-3 stream? Just curious."

In your case sounded like you might have had a captured ac3 stream, which in my understanding can be a bit difficult to record & manage. From what I've read (never been able to record with my hardware), it's recording basically an electrical signal and treating it as if it's normal audio input. Besplit removes some of the dead space if say the stream was recorded from cable broadcast, because the audio is sort of pulsed to not get ahead of the mpg2. Sometimes have to go to wav I imagine when it doesn't work, either converting to or capturing wav or recording PC decoded audio, & go from there.

For converting a wav file, lot of folks use besweet (besweet GUI, belight), though there have been more then a few posts about problems with the created ac3. There's a lot of posts where folks swear by FFmpeg (https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=434). Adobe has plugins for prem & Encore, same as Sony (SOFO), TMPGEnc, & even Nero. There's probably more I've overlooked.

When/if an ac3 is broken, I've used besplit, ac3fix, & delaycut successfully, but recently had luck with delaycut where nothing else would work. Again there's more programs that I'm not mentioning, and more then a few methods.

Glad you got it working