AVI File plays in vlc with audio but when streaming to plex no audio.

[Erik Goetz]

I have about 300 old home movies stored as avi files and a few do not have audio in Plex. I tried converting them in plex but audio was still not available. I have tried converting the files to mkv with the common converters I would usually use including handbrake and nothing seems to see the audio file except vlc media player. I also tried fixing the file with vlc codec avi repair tool but nothing. I tried a tool to convert from avi 1 to 2 and it failed. Any suggestions .
[Attachment 54071 - Click to enlarge]

[davexnet]

Open the file in Avidemux. Leave video as copy, set audio to either mp3 or aac.
Output format "MKV muxer" - configure/aspect ratio 4:3
Save as MKV

[Erik Goetz]

The file will not open. I tried other files that I successfully was able to convert to mkv with audio in other software and they will not open either.



[Attachment 54072 - Click to enlarge]

[davexnet]

Do you have a small file you could upload as a sample?

[Erik Goetz]

Can you define small haha.

[davexnet]

Can you define small haha.

Less than 500MB, that's the site limit. Need a few seconds minimum.

[Erik Goetz]

None of the "smaller" files have audio problems.

[Erik Goetz]

Oh 500mb, well shucks almost all of them are under the 500mb limit. only a few are larger. Ill go through and pick one out.

[davexnet]

None of the "smaller" files have audio problems.

OK. You could upload to a file hosting site and put the link in thread. Perhaps mediafire or something similar

[Erik Goetz]

I think i got it attached.

[davexnet]

I was going to mention, something I overlooked because I don't use it too often, try FFmpeg, with a command like this

FFmpeg -i PAL_DV_sample.avi -vcodec copy -acodec mp3 -b:a 192k myfile3.avi

This will just re-encode the audio to mp3

EDIT I guess FFmpeg doesn't like it either. Perhaps somebody else will chime in on this

[Erik Goetz]

evidentily copy and paste doesnt work haha, figured it wouldnt be that easy. Ill have to do some reading on using that program.

[Erik Goetz]

ffmpeg batch was one of the programs i tried with multiple preset settings. But i figured I would try the one you mentioned also. thank you for trying. Luckily its only 4 or 5 of about 300 files that have the audio problem Which is weird since they were all created the same way. At least now we have a file posted people can play with. Perhaps someone will take on the challenge.

[davexnet]

When you compare a good file to a bad in mediainfo in text view (for more details) do you see anything different in the audio/video specs?

[Erik Goetz]

This one has good audio, updated with correct file. Other than the date I see no differences.



[Attachment 54077 - Click to enlarge]

[davexnet]

This one has good audio


[Attachment 54076 - Click to enlarge]

well that has aac audio, the other was PCM.
Text view gives more details

[Erik Goetz]

No Audio


[Attachment 54078 - Click to enlarge]

Good Audio


[Attachment 54079 - Click to enlarge]

[davexnet]

If you don't mind re-encoding the file, it can be done.
Since VLC can access the audio, you can use convert/save to capture the audio to a WAV file.
Here's something quick and dirty

[Erik Goetz]

So you used vlc to create the new file. I have already converted most of them all to mkv formatting with aac audio. There were about 5 files that the audio didnt work after conversion. I didnt think about even trying vlc for the conversion. . It looks good on my phone haha. Ill have to take a look when I get home. Thank you.

[davexnet]

So you used vlc to create the new file. I have already converted most of them all to mkv formatting with aac audio. There were about 5 files that the audio didnt work after conversion. I didnt think about even trying vlc for the conversion. . It looks good on my phone haha. Ill have to take a look when I get home. Thank you.

The one reason I didn't do a straight conversion in VLC was because the file is interlaced. I couldn't get
the "deinterlace" option to work in VLC. Converting it without de-interlacing creates a progressive file but with the combing.

So I saved the audio in VLC, opened the original file in Vurtualdub2, added the new audio, bob deinterlace, save as a new file

[Erik Goetz]

Got it, So VLC is used to extract the audio and then combine the audio back into the video file with other software. Ill give it a try with the other files and see how it goes. Thank you for your help.

[Erik Goetz]

I was able to successfully convert a file using VLC with both video and audio that works in Plex. Initial results are promising without needing to use any other software. I may need to play with the settings for a lossless conversion of the video but its working. I had forgotten VLC had that capability. I downloaded and tried so many programs and I had the one I needed all along.

[davexnet]

Sounds good, as long as you're able to account for the interlacing. Otherwise, you will see combing when viewed on the TV

[ProWo]

The AVI files with PCM audio problems are AVI Type 1 files. You can convert them to Type 2 with DVdate.

[davexnet]

The AVI files with PCM audio problems are AVI Type 1 files. You can convert them to Type 2 with DVdate.

Good spot ProWo -
we missed the most obvious thing !

[Erik Goetz]

I tried another software to convert it to a type 2 but it failed. Ill try this one. I suspected that was part of the problem but was not able to find anything that would work. VLC worked but I lost some video quality. It looks fine on a avg tv but anything larger and it gets noticeable. I tried to copy the video straight across and only convert the audio it only copied the audio and video was black. crossing fingers it will convert

[Erik Goetz]

The AVI files with PCM audio problems are AVI Type 1 files. You can convert them to Type 2 with DVdate.

This worked. Thank you for the suggestion. I was able to convert the file over to mkv after updating it to a type 2 and both video and audio are working.