VOB files won't play audio after copying / ripping to harddrive.

[guy24s]

I am trying to copy parts of a DVD to my harddrive. After they are copied, there is not audio playing. DVD Decrypter indentifies the audio as "DTS / 6ch / English" (only 1 sound channel available). Other software such as TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works won't even recognize the audio at all, it just says audio not detectable. I can play DVD fine in MPC-HC fine, AND the VOB files DO play audio even when I open them directly from the VIDEO_TS folder (just double clicking on them manually, without actually launching it as a DVD). But once they are copied, they are muted. Any ideas? I have the AC3 codec installed of course. I have done this a million times and this is the first time ever I run into this problem.
I want these copied as VOB files, not MPG or AVI or anything else, and I DON'T want to mess with muxing/demuxing/etc. so PLEASE do not suggest that, just only tell me why I am not getting any audio, that is all I am interested in. This is not a commercial DVD so I highly doubt the audio would be encrypted somehow.
Thanks in advance for any input.

[hech54]

A DVD with just DTS audio? That doesn't sound right.
And before getting all hung up on "VOB is better"....it's NOT better. All VOB files on a DVD started off life as an MPEG2 file. There is no difference between the original MPEG2 file and the resulting VOB file....OR VISE VERSA.

[guy24s]

Hi! Thanks for your reply.
I also find it very strange that there is just one audio channel and it supposedly is DTS. I am thinking DVD Decrypter is not recognizing the audio correctly. In any case, why would it be that the audio plays while it's on the disc (even when opening the VOB files manually from the disc), but it's mute once it's been copied over to my HDD? It just doesn't make any sense to me. I tried to manually copy the VOBs over and then merging, just to see if the audio would work then after copying, and it didn't. Once I had copied them off the disc (drag & drop), they won't play the audio. Same issue in MPC-HC and VCL player alike.

PS: I know that VOB isn't "better", it's just that I've been working with editing VOB files for 10+ years, and as amateur recorded DVDs (such as VHS material copied to DVD with a DVD recorder VCR) only contain one audio channel, and if the editing in question only includes cut/crop and then reauthor, I don't see any reason to demux or change to MPG before the edit/re-author process?

I still would like to find out why I'm having the problem with the audio, out of curiosity... Any clues or suggestions what I could try?

[hech54]

Open one of the VOBs (from the DVD) in MediaInfo. Maybe DVDDecrypter is confused OR it is ignoring the DTS like (I think) it is defaulted to do.

[guy24s]

MediaInfo says the only available audio stream is "755 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 16 bits, 6 channels, DTS (DVD-Video)".
What program should I use to copy over the video and keep the audio or convert the audio to something that will play after I've copied the files? I don't mind converting the audio to something else, but I'd rather leave the video untouched.

[hech54]

MediaInfo says the only available audio stream is "755 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 16 bits, 6 channels, DTS (DVD-Video)"

OUCH....I'll have think on that one....or someone else will come along before me with an answer.

[hech54]

So far I've gotten WinFF to accept and convert 6x DTS to 6x AAC inside an MP4 file with H264 video.

[guy24s]

I finally managed to convert the audio using Pavtube HD Video Converter, and creating new VOB files with AC3 audio.
Thanks for all your help!