How to preview after encoding

[BALLOONHEAD]

I've burned a couple of dozen movies on dvd mostly from .avi files. I stopped for awhile and when I got back into it I discovered that all the new movies I tried to burn did not have sound! I've always used the same VIRTUALDUB to convert the sound, TMPGENC for the video and then TMPGENC DVD AUTHOR to author and burn the movie.
First of all I can't figure out how to preview the converted movie (video with audio) so I'm wasting countless DVDs by burning them and finding out they have no sound. So how to preview to make sure I've done it right before burning is my first question.
Second is what am I doing wrong? I've followed the guides from this site and advice from all of you and after all that I'm still stumped. Any help or links to helpful pages would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx

[Baldrick]

If the mpg converted with tmpgenc has sound should also the tda dvd output has sound.

You could also output the dvd to a iso or folder with tmpgenc dvd author and play it with a software dvd player.

Or switch to an all-in-one tool that supports most downloaded avis like divxtodvd / convertxtodvd.

[redwudz]

How did you convert the sound with VD? Save it out as a WAV and convert to AC3 with ffmpeggui, then add the sound back in when authoring with TDA? That's one method I use.

You should be able to play the encoded MPEG-2 or the VOBs from the DVD file or just about any format video file with VLC media player. It will also play a DVD from an ISO file.

If you want to preview the complete DVD files similar to the way a regular settop player works, use a software DVD player like PowerDVD.

[BALLOONHEAD]

You guys rock! I'll give it a try and post if you're interested in how it turns out.

Thanx again

[BALLOONHEAD]

Got the preview. Used TMPGENC DVD AUTHOR, saved it and opened the audio portion of Volume 1 in PowerDVD and it plays perfect. However I burned the DVD and again no sound. So I got it narrowed down to burning the DVD. Any ideas on why I lose the sound during this process?

Thanx