Multiple Audio Streams

[LPeng327]

Looking over the forums and net, I know this is a common topic. Apologies if this has been explained to death elsewhere, but nothing I tried worked.

First, what I'm trying to do. A site had video files for download in m4v format. These were, as far as I know, non-protected- I renamed them to mp4 and was able to open them and view them, etc.

These files were 2 versions (in 6 files) of the same video- one with the original audio, and one with commentary.

I want to, as is probably obvious, make a dvd with the option to choose between audio streams using the player remote. Ideally I'd like to have a menu option to choose which to use, but that's secondary to getting it to work at all.

As a last resort, of course, I could just toss both versions on there but that's rather sloppy and I'd really like to learn how to do it right, if it is possible.

So far I have the original files, but I also used Nero Ultra 7 (Recode) to convert the originals to mp4 files without audio (these will not play in quicktime, but as I understand that's due to an incompatibility between Nero's mp4 and QT's, and since they DO play in Nero Showtime, it shouldn't matter when they get burned to DVD). Using SUPER, I made AC3 files of the audio, which I joined into 2 full length tracks using the good 'ol DOS command.

It seems really strange to me that Nero wouldn't offer support for multiple, selectable audio tracks- so I'm hoping that it's in there and I just don't know how to get at it.

Anyway, I've been working with this junk for 3 or 4 days now and I would greatly appreciate advice on where to head next.

OH, I should add- I tried the tutorial here about using Ifoedit to create a VOB with multiple audio tracks (after I used VOBedit and SUPER to create VOB files and then demux them)- but when I burned it using Nero, it ended up as a coaster. I don't know why- Nero warned that it had failed the compatibility test but I proceeded anyway just to see if it would work- as I said, it didn't, so I don't know what happened with that.

If possible, I'd like to stay as close to the source as possible- m4v/mp4 files, without lots of conversion and quality loss. I'm obviously not very knowledgable about this stuff, so bear with me. Thanks for reading and again, I'll greatly appreciate any directions on where to head next.

[redwudz]

For multiple audio streams in a AVI type format, you might want to look into the latest version of the Divx codec, it's about the only one I am aware of that will handle more than 2 streams. But not many standalone Divx players can use that newer format.

Otherwise, just use MPEG-2 and a authoring program that will give you selectable streams. DVDAuthorgui for one should be able to do that and it's freeware.

And welcome to our forums.

[guns1inger]

I have used virtualdubmod to add second streams to Divx and Xvid videos and they play back happily on my stand alone player.

For fast, easy 2 stream conversions, ConvertXtoDVD is a good choice. You still have to use the audio button on your remote to switch tracks, but it encodes both.

For more than that you need to look at proper authoring tools like DVDAUthorGUI, DVD WS2 or DVD Lab Pro

[LPeng327]

Thanks for the responses. I'll be giving some of it a shot soon, but DVDAuthorGUI requires m2v input which I don't have right now. I'm looking for a way to get that from a mp4 without having to use something to convert it to VOB first- unfortunately seems like the one thing SUPER can't do. I used SUPER to make a VOB, but that forces a change to the resolution and I think that might have contributed to the coaster I made the first time, so I'd like to avoid that altogether if possible. I'm going to be searching around but if anybody knows an easy way to input mp4 and get m2v out, that'd be great, too. My audio is converted to AC3 already so hopefully that will work out okay.

Thanks again for the info.

[guns1inger]

If your mp4 does not have a DVD compliant resolution, then it will have to be changed. See What is DVD (top left corner of this page) for details.

SUPER can also output mpeg instead of VOBs, but regardless, if you need elementary streams, use Rejig to demux your VOBs or mpeg video from SUPER, and use this to author.

[LPeng327]

Just an update.

Again, thanks all for the help, especially for DVDAuthorGUI! After learning how to use it, it saved the day.

I used Movie Joiner (unfortunately not freeware, but the trial did the job) to link the 3 video files into one, then SUPER to convert that one into a VOB with no audio, which I demuxed with VOBedit. After that, I put the m2v stream and the AC3 streams (which I had gotten from SUPER) into DVDAuthorGUI, designed my menu and authored it, then finally burned it with Nero.

It appears to be a success- I haven't watched it all the way through, but the menu loads, the video plays, and audio streams switch just like they should with the remote. The video quality leaves something to be desired, but I expected that- it comes from a VHS tape anyway, and having to convert to such a high resolution can't help. I left the bitrate in SUPER at around 5 thousand something... But, I'm not complaining. If there was a way to convert directly from the files to m2v, or something I missed in SUPER to greatly increase the quality I'd do it, but if not I'm still pretty happy.

Thanks again- while this worked, I'd be interested to know if I did anything backwards or strangely- while I don't think I'll have to do anything like this in the near future, might as well learn to do it right.

[guns1inger]

Your process, eventually, was pretty sound. Improvements would come from changing tools. ffmpeggui uses the same engine for encoding AC3 as SUPER, but is smaller and easier to use. HCenc is a far better mpeg encoder and can give you .m2v (or .mpv, cant remember which) output, but requires an avisynth script to load the video. While this initially may be daunting, if you are working with VHS source, it opens up a whole range of tools to improve image quality that are not available elsewhere.

You should also check out GUIforDVDAuthor, which uses the same authoring engine as DVDAuthorGUI, but allows to visually create menu layouts etc. more easily.