DVD to H264 with Triple Audio (Vorbis) - results only in lag when playing

[Dannyramsnes]

Hey

So, I've been really killing myself this time. Using Handbrake I got the movie (PAL) converted to H264, which was very simple, but since it didn't support more than two audio inputs, I chose none. Therefore I opened up AviDemux, and extracted out the AC3-files from the VOB-files. Then I converted them to Ogg Vorbis with 5.1 Channels, using MediaCoder, since neither BeSweet or AviDemux was able to. BeSweet just opened a black DOS window, but closed it again instantly. The Ogg Vorbis file from AviDemux was impossible to even play.

But hey, I now have one MKV-file with the movie in, and three audio-files in Ogg Vorbis format, ready to be muxed together in MKVmerge. So I did that. But damn, the result is GREAT, but the video is lagging! I'm using ZoomPlayer, but also tried with VLC, and it lagged even more there. But it's not some "normal" lag, as I know my computer can play H264-files, without lag, it can even play HD in H264 with He-AAC.

The problem lies with the audio-files, because the movie plays SO SMOOTH before I mux the audio in. It lags even with only on audio inside the MKV. I've tried to convert the audio to MP3 also, but same problem still. Also directly use the untouched AC3-files, but noooo. I've noticed also the the movie has listed the FPS as 29.976, but the ACTUAL FPS is 25, as ZoomPlayer says. But the audio says only 29.976 as the listen fps, but is blank on the actual one. So that may explain the "out-of-synch" problem, but not the lag problem. But I don't understand, because I haven't changed the FPS during the conversion :/

Any help would be appreciated^^ How would you rip a DVD to H264, with triple audio in Ogg Vorbis format, included 5.1 channels? I can upload a short sample, but don't know if I am allowed. It's Lady and the Tramp II - Scamp's Adventure.

[jman98]

What is your reason for wanting to use Vorbis 5.1 audio? AC3 offers good compression and is well supported on a variety of playback devices. Only PCs support Vorbis. There's some small chance that in the next few years we may get some high def DVD players that will play H.264 files on disc like we can do now with Divx on some DVD players. Vorbis audio will NEVER be supported on such players. I think MKV supports AC3. Why don't you just leave the audio alone? I hope you understand that Vorbis is a lossy audio format. It's a very good one, but converting a file from AC3 to Vorbis won't make it sound better and I'm having a very difficult time believing that Vorbis 5.1 produces smaller files than AC3 at the same bit rate (although I've never tried it, so I might be wrong here). I'm just not understanding what the benefit is to make something work that isn't working for you and seems (to me) to only be worse in a variety of ways than just leaving the audio alone as AC3.

[Dannyramsnes]

Well, the only reason is what you said, its a very good format Thought that 448 kbits in AC3 format, would be better to convert to 192 kbits in Ogg Vorbis. Not better quality, but you know, lesser space. But it's really the same for me, because diskspace is actually the least problem for me now, but I see your point, and being able to play AC3 on a variety of playback devices is a huge benefit.

But I have also tried to mux in the audios, only in AC3 this time with the movie, but it still lags when playing. It always starts to lag when I add sound to the movie :/ Anyone know why?

[poisondeathray]

When using mkvmergegui, did you specify 25fps in the format specific options tab, when highlighting the video stream?

Is the vorbis conversion successful? Can you play it back separately with winamp?

If zoomplayer is a directshow player (not sure), you need to enable vorbis in the ffdshow audio configuration (it's disabled by default, and I get lagging playback until it's enabled), but this doesn't explain VLC

[jman98]

You may have encoded the video incorrectly. If your source is a PAL DVD, then you should have 25 fps as your output. The fact that some players are reporting 29.97 fps to me suggests that your video encoding changed the frame rate and if so, your audio will be out of sync.

[Dannyramsnes]

When using mkvmergegui, did you specify 25fps in the format specific options tab, when highlighting the video stream?

Is the vorbis conversion successful? Can you play it back separately with winamp?

If zoomplayer is a directshow player (not sure), you need to enable vorbis in the ffdshow audio configuration (it's disabled by default, and I get lagging playback until it's enabled), but this doesn't explain VLC

When using mkvmergegui, I couldn't change FPS. The field was grayed out.

Yes, I can play the vorbis in Winamp.

I enabled the vorbis in ffdshow now, but still has the lag problem. But indeed, it doesn't explain the lag in VLC.

You may have encoded the video incorrectly. If your source is a PAL DVD, then you should have 25 fps as your output. The fact that some players are reporting 29.97 fps to me suggests that your video encoding changed the frame rate and if so, your audio will be out of sync.

It may be the video, but I doubt it, since both VLC and ZoomPlayer says the actual fps is 25. But in ZP it also says that the listen fps is 29.976. I chose 25 fps too in Handbrake. Here is a pic of what VLC and ZP says:


But the sounds are in 29.976 says Zoom Player, even though I have demuxed the AC3-files without changing anything:


So I'm doing something wrong with the sounds, I believe. Or?

[poisondeathray]

If the fps field in mkvmergegui is greyed out, it usually means you tried to merge a video stream inside a container (it sets the fps to the one set by the previous container)

You can try taking the raw stream out of the previous container with mkvextractgui, then remerging the raw video and new audio with mkvmergegui, and specify the fps in the format specifc options tab

Jman could be right, but I don't use handbrake, so I don't know if you may have encoded the video improperly

Audio doesn't have an "fps" per se, it just has a duration and sampling rate. If you shrunk/expanded the audio it could cause a discrepancy as well.

If you use mediainfo (view=>text), what does it say?

If you still can't figure it out, maybe have someone look at your handbrake settings and\or mediacoder settings; or cut a small sample from your .mkv with mkvmergegui to post on a free hosting site (like megaupload or mediafire) and have someone look at it.

[jman98]

The fact that "Listed FPS" and "Actual FPS" differ is very troubling to me and does seem to indicate that something is not right. I've never used Handbrake, but I'm pretty sure that your problem is some kind of botched encode where somehow, some way you have changed a 25 fps input video to 29.97 fps on output. The only other explanation I can think of would be that your AC3 audio has an offset other than 0 ms that you aren't including in your mux and that's throwing things off. Various decryption tools such DVD Decrypter can be used to tell what the audio offset, if any, is in your audio.

[Dannyramsnes]

Okey something horrible happened just right now My PC just shut itself down, and now it won't even start! It's like there's no more power on it, since my wireless networks card has always glowed green, but now it ain't. Noooooooo I've lost like 1.2 TB now My whole lifework, but I sure hope the disks aren't destroyed, because then I can just plug them out and in onto another computer^^

So, damn, I don't have access to the ripped files anymore :/ Sorry, so I can't take an mediainfo test, or anything as suggested till now. Don't have any samples either. But looks like you guys are right, and I WILL try, no, I MUST fix this problem (I just have to find the answer^^) when my computer is up and running again. But for now, it seems like I have to buy another computer...

But in the meantime, why don't we just start over? Rip and convert the DVD with Triple Audio (5.1 Channels, maybe), from the start? Then we can do it the successfully way

It doesn't matter what OS you're talking about, I'm thinking of software, because I have 'em all, almost^^ I'm running TripleBoot right now on my laptop with Leopard, XP and Ubuntu.

And thanks for the great help so far!

[Dannyramsnes]

Yay I did it Using OGMRip I managed to get the movie ripped in MKV with x264 and Ogg Vorbis, with TripleAudio! AC3 also worked. But I couldn't have triple audio if I chose theora in an OGM-container, and got an uknown error when merging if I used MKV with theora instead, strange...

The program is only for linux though :/ But hey, access to linux is both free and simple^^

Edit: I still haven't fixed my other PC, if anyone wondered.