What is the advantage to using HeadAC3he?

[end80]

First let me say that all my conversions are from downloaded avi's, so I guess that may be a factor..
I have followed many guides and steps in converting avi's to prepare to burn to VCD. - More and more I find myself just skipping the step of extracting the audio to wav format before encoding to the final mpeg.. (I just load the avi in TMPEG as is) - the sound always seems to be in sync upon compleation.
- But occassionally I do extract audio to wav first using VirtualDub - and then from there I load the extracted wav into HeadAC3he. and from there into TMPEG to compleation...

Well,.. I'm not sure why I am going through these extra steps! - I'm doing it because I have read in these forums that I am supposed to do it -- But..

On some occassions I realize it is neccessary to extract audio to be in sync - But exactly what is the point of running it through HeadAche?

[bugster]

The only point of running audio through HeadAc3he is if the audio is in Ac3 in the 1st place. In some downloaded mivies it is. TmpGenc cannot handle conversion from Ac3 to mp2 so it is necessary to extract the audio and convert it to wav for a succesful encode.

If the audio in your downloaded avi is CBR mp3 or some other form that Tmpgenc can handle, then no audio extraction at all is generally required. If the original audio is VBR, then conversion to a CBR form of encoding is required, PCM being the simplest choice.

Hope this helps.

[end80]

Thanks for the reply bugster.
Ok, then: It is correct that using HeadAc3he is only for specific file types -- and does not have benifits to encoding audio in smaller file size while still retaining a higher quality sound.. ??
(It seems that I read such a claim somewhere at some point, but I cant find it anywhere now - so I'm not sure if thats really what it said at all.)

So... Just so that I am clear on the matter:
HeadAc3he has nothing to do with smaller audio file sizes - Correct??

What I usually do is burn a whole movie on one cd-r, so that is why I refer to smaller, but high quality audio - to leave more room for the video encoding. - That's why I'm asking.

[banjazzer]

Unless you extract the audio to wav (or use HeadAC3he with AC3) once in a while your final encode will start with audio, and then will be silent. Occasionally it will be silent throughout. Sometimes it will be out of sync.

Because there is no standard for DivX audio, it is safest to extract to uncompressed wav first. If you don't, you take a big chance on wasting your time.