how to link two wave files together: LPCM audio

[Modify_inc]

I just ripped Black Hawk Down and the audio is LPCM which is fine. The problem is it made two audio files. How do I link them together so I can load it up in TMPGEnc Xpress? I've never had two audio files generaataed from TsMuxer.

[minidv2dvd]

are you sure it isn't 2 different audio tracks? audacity should be able to join them if needed.

[Modify_inc]

are you sure it isn't 2 different audio tracks? audacity should be able to join them if needed.

yeah I checked the other file and it has the remaining 20 minutes of audio on it. I thought for asecond eac was going to link them but it errored out and said Source file joining currently doesn't work for WAV files.

Looks like TsMuxer would have a fix for this or something when it demuxed it. The first file is 3.99 Gb and the second is 662 Mb. I know vista doesn't have a file limitation, so why did it make two audio files I wonder instead of just one big one?

[Cornucopia]

Vista has nothing to do with it. Any 32bit or 64bit OS wouldn't have trouble with the filesize. It's really a matter of 2 things:

1. Disk Filesystem (FAT vs. FAT32 vs. NTFS vs. ?)
2. File format (WAV vs. W64 vs. other)

If your disk is NTFS, you don't have a limit to worry about (even NT v3.51 would be fine). FAT might be a problem, but probably not FAT32.

More likely your problem is the file format. While WAV files have undergone some internal restructuring to enable expansion of some of its parameters (higher samplerates, higher bitdepths, multiiple channels, additional compression formats), NONE have expanded its maximum file length, which is 2GB (or under certain circumstances, 4GB). That's it! Any more and your app will be unable to seek, play, open beyond that maximum, SAVE, etc.

To go beyond this limit, you MUST use a fileformat that supports greater lengths. The nearest successor to WAV is the W64 format as promoted by Sonic Foundry/Sony. You could also use AIFF (but it might have similar, if larger, restrictions to WAV). Then there's FLAC, WMA-lossless, or similar losslessly compressed format. Or you can use a lightly-lossily compressed format like AAC, AC3, DTS, or VERY HIGH bitrate MP3 or WMA.

Scott

[Modify_inc]

Vista has nothing to do with it. Any 32bit or 64bit OS wouldn't have trouble with the filesize. It's really a matter of 2 things:

1. Disk Filesystem (FAT vs. FAT32 vs. NTFS vs. ?)
2. File format (WAV vs. W64 vs. other)

If your disk is NTFS, you don't have a limit to worry about (even NT v3.51 would be fine). FAT might be a problem, but probably not FAT32.

More likely your problem is the file format. While WAV files have undergone some internal restructuring to enable expansion of some of its parameters (higher samplerates, higher bitdepths, multiiple channels, additional compression formats), NONE have expanded its maximum file length, which is 2GB (or under certain circumstances, 4GB). That's it! Any more and your app will be unable to seek, play, open beyond that maximum, SAVE, etc.

To go beyond this limit, you MUST use a fileformat that supports greater lengths. The nearest successor to WAV is the W64 format as promoted by Sonic Foundry/Sony. You could also use AIFF (but it might have similar, if larger, restrictions to WAV). Then there's FLAC, WMA-lossless, or similar losslessly compressed format. Or you can use a lightly-lossily compressed format like AAC, AC3, DTS, or VERY HIGH bitrate MP3 or WMA.

Scott

My is disk is most defintaly NTFS so there should be no limitation on file size. It just seems strange that the wave file was divided at 3.99 Gb. Most LPCM audio stops at 2.99Gb for the complete audio, but my last two rips had this same problem. The Descent had cut off about 8 minutes by making two files, and this one was cut off about 20 minutes. Another weird issue was after I joined them the file size went from 2.99 to 3.65 Gb, and when I opend it in TMPGEnc Xpress, the audio was still cut off at 2hrs and 4 minutes instead of the 2hrs and 24 minutes. So I ran it through Eac3 and converted it to ac3, and opened it back up in Xpress, and it showed the correct time, 2 hrs 24 minutes.

I'm thinking there has to be a setting in TsMuxer that is causing this, but I can't find it.

[Cornucopia]

Some thoughts (use 'em if they help you):

When the WAV fileformat cuts out at 4GB (and 3.99GB is just shy of that), it doesn't surprise me that you're getting multiple segments, some of which will miss moments.
And I'm not a fan of "joining" outside of a true editor. IMHO, that is the reason for using an editor, because it fully understands "assembling" audio (and/or video) segments.

I might suggest that you:
A. set your default segment length, when decrypting your disc or ISO, to 1GB, unless you're using ONLY MPG/AC3/DTS (none of which have such filesize limitations). 1GB stears clear of reaching all those limitations (including DVD's microUDF), so you should never have an unexpected "cutoff" or "split".
B. using an audio editor to assemble (aka JOIN) into one full segment, you may want to consider RAW LPCM streams. IOW, without any WAV headers at all. Just the raw data stream. The caveat with this is that you have to remember all the particulars of the stream: samplerate, bitdepth, which channel is which (usually one at a time), and a few more esoteric settings such as byte order. You will need to provide this data to later apps when the time comes. But it can be any length. And many authoring and editing apps will accept this raw filetype, almost as easily as they do WAV.

TSMuxer should be able to do these conversions, etc., but it's not my main app for this so I can't recommend it.
Try both:
Joinging all segments of the video elementary stream and all segments of the elementary audio stream, so you're left with just the 2 complementary streams and they should be the same length (check with another app). Then mux them together.
-or-
Mux together segments of A+V, each 1GB max apiece. Then join at the end.
See which works better.

Another thing to consider: many of the other file formats incorporate as a built-in function the idea of timecode stamping (AC3, AAC, DTS...). WAV and LPCM only have "implicit" time referencing, as opposed to those "explicit" ones. When you need surefire synchronization, explicit is the way to go.

Scott

[Modify_inc]

I used the command copy /b, worked great!

[Cornucopia]

But will it continue to work once authored? Once burned? When played in different players? Have you listened to the whole thing all the way through?
I think you just lucked out this time. Don't let that lull you into a risky, sloppy way of working with WAV files. It'll bite you on the bum down the road.

Scott

[Modify_inc]

But will it continue to work once authored? Once burned? When played in different players? Have you listened to the whole thing all the way through?
I think you just lucked out this time. Don't let that lull you into a risky, sloppy way of working with WAV files. It'll bite you on the bum down the road.

Scott

Yes I read everything you posted, but most went over my head.

I don't burn my Blu Ray's to dics, I use them on my Media Center and across my extenders, and they work great for that. I would still like to know why the audio was divided up in the first place. I've only seen two movies that have done that so far, and that was these two I mentioned.

Thanks for your help though
Mike