conversion loses sound half-way through

[santino_avi]

So . . .

I have converted a DVD to a DVD compliant MPEG2 using TMPGEnc:



The problem is that the sound disappears about 20 mins into the file.
The original DVD plays fine, and I even have a DVDDATA file (which is what TMPGEnc encoded from) that plays perfectly in VLC and media player classic.
I even tried encoding into a similar format with the same result, and at the same time in the video (which is at a scene change).

Further background:

This DVD is home video that was originally shot with a SONY miniDV camcorder. I transfered the original miniDV to a DVD via a standalone DVD recorder (I know this is not the best way to go, but it was all I had at the time, as this was several years ago). I need to convert these into a format that I can edit with - I am only have VideoStudio 11.

I have edited several videos in the past in the mpeg format under VideoStudio with no problems. The only difference with the other videos is that I was originally putting video from only one miniDV on each DVD disc. But, then I got cheap and began putting two miniDV's on one DVD. I have had no problem playing these DVD's in other players or on my computer. But, as soon as I try to convert them to mpeg I have had problems. I have tried simply renaming the VOB's as mpeg, which is the process I used flawlessly with the earlier DVD's. But VideoStudio will not handle some of the mpeg files. I even tried using Womble to edit the mpeg files, but I have not found it to be that great of a program. The problem could simply be that my standalone recorder is not too great.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas? Thanks[/img]

[redwudz]

My guess is you have a break in the audio track and your encoder doesn't continue with the audio. Basically a bad join of the parts. VLC, and probably MPC, just ignores the missing audio, but encoders are much more particular.

But I am confused about several things. Apparently the original video is now in DVD format, but you want to edit it, then re-author it to a new DVD? It should already be DVD compliant and there would be no reason to re-encode it with TMPGEnc. Re-encoding will only reduce the quality.

Renaming a VOB to a .mpg is a poor practice, but may work with simple VOBs. It would be better to extract the .mpg from the DVD with a program like VOB2MPG or use a editor than can handle VOBs directly. Extracting it to one large .mpg may give you a complete audio file. Or maybe not.

Your real problem seems to be with the audio file. If properly extracting the .mpg from the DVD doesn't fix it, I would demux it and see if you can repair it, then mux it back with your extracted .mpg, then re-author it to a DVD format. No re-encoding should be needed if your files are already DVD compliant.

[t0nee1]

Maybe cuz your audio is 44.1 KHz, instead of 48 KHz.....

[santino_avi]

Thanks for the quick reply. This has been driving me insane, as I have tried several methods.

To clear up some confusion - hopefully - VideoStudio will not handle VOB's, so I simply renamed the earlier videos. As this has not worked with this video I thought that I could use TMPGEnc to do sort of a transcode to an mpeg. But, this obviously hasn't worked.

My main goal with these videos is to edit each scene into a separate clip and save each clip as a separate mpeg file for editing later. I have multiple family members always hounding me for videos, so this has been an efficient way for me to add clips into the editor to create a new file to author into a DVD.

I will try VOB2MPG. This program sounds promising. If it doesn't work then I will have to give VirtualDUB or something, but I am not too adept with that program. Do you know of any editors that can handle VOB's directly - I had no idea they existed.

Thanx again!!!

[santino_avi]

So I tried VOB2MPG and it only worked half way. I have the folder with 4 VOB's inside - VTS_01_2 though 4. The program extracts the first two VOB's into one new MPEG file, leaving the other two untouched. I put those two into a new folder, but the program says "finished processing 0 vobsets". Are there any other extractors or another way of doing this?

HELP !!! PLEASE!

[santino_avi]

Also tried editing VOB's directly with TMPGEnc. Some of the video works, but some lose sound at a point or have no sound. I tried opening the original file in pgcedit, but it would not open. So, I guess the real actually is the audio.

I am not too familiar with fixing audio after demuxing.

So . . . the real question is if anyone can point me to some good guides on fixing audio.

Thank you.