Converting WAV/MP3 to DVD-compatible sound file

[Erasmus]

Hi all.

I'm trying to burn a video to DVD with two audio tracks. One audio track I want to be the regular audio for the video, and I want the other one to be commentary that I recorded. The DVD is sound is non-standard, so using MPEG 2 for the sound is fine. I had thought that converting my recording to an MP2 sound file at 48kHz would be enough for it to work, but when I try to multiplex it with the video, mplex tells me it can't recognize the sound file. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[jman98]

MP2 audio may not be accepted by some authoring applications. I am unsure if it's even legal for NTSC DVD. I know that if it is legal for NTSC DVD that it cannot be the only audio type on the disc. The standards demand that you also use either PCM (this is WAV) or AC3 in addition to MP2. So I'd guess that whatever you are using to mux it doesn't want you to use MP2 audio either at all or without there also being a separate AC3 or PCM track. Like many new members, you unfortunately tell us little about what you did. Telling us what program you used for muxing would have been helpful as would be what you used to create the MP2 file to begin with.

You can use a variety of tools such as BeSweet GUI to convert MP2 audio to AC3 if you wish.

[Erasmus]

I'm running Windows XP, using the command-line mplex.exe utility to multiplex my .mpv video with the .mp2 sound file, and then I plan to use DVDAuthor to author the final disc.

I used DIKO to convert my original AVI file into DVD compliant files, and that worked out okay. It generated an MPA file for the regular audio track, and I've been able to use mplex to multiplex that with the MPV video. From the log that DIKO created, it looks like the MPA is encoded with MPEG 2, but when I try to use mplex to encode my MPEG 2 file, it gives me that error. This is strange, because if it works with one MPEG 2 file, you would think it would work with another. That's why I'm confused.

To create the MP2 file, I first recorded it in Audacity and saved it as an MP3. Then I used Xilisoft Audio Converter to convert it to an MP2 with a bitrate of 48kbps to save space.

[redwudz]

You would be better off outputting from Audacity as a WAV again. Using MP3 as a intermediate format serves no purpose. You could convert the WAV output to a AC3 file with ffmpegGUI or AFTEN or other programs. Then try muxing that with the video file. The newest 1.3.6> versions of Audacity can also use ffmpeg to directly output a AC3 file, though I haven't tried that.

And I haven't used DVD Author (The command line version or one with a GUI?) for a while, but most authoring programs can mux the audio tracks in during the authoring and I find that easier. MP2 should work with a NTSC DVD, though it's not officially recognized. It is with PAL DVDs.

You can find out more about the DVD structure in 'WHAT IS' DVD to the upper left on this page.

[Erasmus]

Thanks. I tried using ffmpegGUI and it worked. Thanks for your help.

[redwudz]

AFTEN is reported to give a bit higher quality file, but ffmpegGUI is very easy to use, and it's my choice most times. Glad you got it working.

[AlanHK]

The newest 1.3.6> versions of Audacity can also use ffmpeg to directly output a AC3 file, though I haven't tried that.

I have; it works. You do have to spend some time installing the ffmpeg plugin, but it also gives Audacity the ability to directly import and export many more formats, so it's worth the trouble. You can just open a VOB or AVI, for instance.

Also you can pipe the output through a command line, so you can use Aften there if you prefer, but that didn't work too well last time I tried it (in a previous version, so it may be fixed now).

[redwudz]

Thanks. I have yet to try Audacity for AC3 conversions, but it sounds like a major improvement. I've used Audacity for several years. I particularly like the new version of the noise filter. It works great for problematic audio files. Much better than the old versions.

[AlanHK]

Thanks. I have yet to try Audacity for AC3 conversions, but it sounds like a major improvement. I've used Audacity for several years. I particularly like the new version of the noise filter. It works great for problematic audio files. Much better than the old versions.

Yes, the 1.3 version has a lot of good stuff, with the latest updates most of it actually works.
The 1.3 noise filter has vastly improved over 1.2. It can get rid of most noise without leaving the weird "seashell" effect.