ffmpeg encoding to xvid + ac3 5.1 -- can't make it work!

[suroit]

I am curious to find out if anyone has an issue with ffmpeg encoding to xvid with ac3 5.1 audio. I can't seem to make it work.

I am doing dvd backups that I stream to my PS3, xvid is the only way to keep soft subtitles, and I would like to just copy the 5.1 ac3 audio typically found on those files. It would work with xvid + aac 5.1, but I want to avoid the ac3 to aac conversion. And, when I need the subtitles, I want to use xvid instead of h.264.
When I say I can play a compressed video, it means I can stream it to the PS3 (with ps3mediaserver) and send to my receiver the full audio in Dolby Digital 5.1 channels.

Here is what works:

• I can play on the PS3 a VOB file with ac3 5.1 channels
• I can encode and play a compressed file to mpg with ac3 5.1
• gspot tells me that I have the codecs for ac3 5.1
• I can encode and play a compressed file with H.264 mp4 and ac3 5.1 only if I re-encode the audio (i.e. -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k, but not -acodec copy) although the original audio is ac3 5.1
• I can encode and play a compressed file with libxvid and aac 5.1 (-acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k)
• I can use autoGK and get an excellent video with Xvid + ac3 5.1 passthrough audio (but I want to use a command line tool)

Here is what doesn't work for me:

• Pretty much any compression to xvid + ac3 5.1 audio, whether the source is a vob file with mpeg2 and ac3 5.1 audio, or a separate video from avisynth and a separate ac3 5.1 audio file, and whether the audio is passthrough or re-converted to ac3 5.1.
• Compression to H.264 mp4 with -acodec copy of the source ac3 5.1 audio stream doesn't work either (but re-converting to ac3 5.1 does).

I think I have seen inconclusive threads on similar issues. I would appreciate if anyone could share any insight.

I did most of my testing with an ffmpeg version which I compiled on July 26, 2011 with the latest version at that time. I just downloaded the latest build today from Zeranoe's website (ffmpeg version N-36193-gf514695), which doesn't seem to improve the situation.

Thanks.

[Khaver]

I have been able to do this using ffmpeg outputting to DIVX using: ffmpeg -i input.vob -acodec copy -vtag DIVX -sameq output.avi

mplayer plays video but does not play the audio
ffplay plays both
my samsung bd-d6500 plays both from a dlna server which is what I want.

[suroit]

Khaver,

I haven't been able to make it work. It seemed promising, but my PS3 doesn't like it.
In case you are interested, I checked a solution that seems to work for me. See Nologic's suggestion at this page.

EDIT: The mp4box solution looked great, but I realized that, under normal circumstances, the XVID video is converted to mp4, which defeats my purpose.

Thanks again for the help.