PowerDVD doesn't play correctly MPEG with mono sound

[huykin]

When I encode a video to MPEG1 or MPEG2 with mono sound (standard layer 2), and try to play it in PowerDVD 4, it scrolls through video with speed about 10x and no sound. The video plays fine in WMP (even when PowerDVD codecs are used) & on a standalone player. The same video encoded with the same software/settings except stereo sound plays fine in PowerDVD. So it seems to be a bug in PowerDVD. Does anybody else have similar problem?

Since PowerDVD is such a popular and otherwise good player, I want my video to play well on it. I capture in mono from a mono analog source, and then encode to MPEG with audio encoded in TMPGEnc (using Toolame plugin) as mono 96, 112, or 128kbps, 44.1 or 48 kHz. Can I make MPEG compatible with PowerDVD without increasing audio bitrate (so I don't have to reduce video bitrate) and without reducing audio quality? (It looks to me that PowerDVD doesn't like mono sound, stereo at the same bitrate will reduce the sound quality, and stereo with the same sound quality requires significantly more bitrate. But I hope I am wrong.)

Thanks.

[BJ_M]

convert your mono to joint stereo

[huykin]

Thanks for the idea. I tried it, but I found little (if any) difference between stereo and joint-stereo at the same bitrate. Also I found that the relation between bitrate and quality is highly nonlinear. In particular, I took an uncompressed 48kHz mono source from an analog capture and encoded it in TMPGEnc to 48kHz mp2 with the Toolame plugin:

- Mono @ 48k and below has very noticable cut in high frequencies, while @ 56k and above it's hard to distinguish from the source.

- Joint-stereo & stereo are very similar to each other and have the same behavior as mono but at double bitrate: @ 96k and below the same cut in high frequencies, while @ 112k and above hard to distinguish from the source.

These results may be related to the encoder, but people say that for mp2 Toolame is the best... (Of course, they are related to my source and my very plain ear.)

A related question: which modes (mono, joint stereo, stereo, dual channel-?) and bitrates (specific rates in the range 56-384 for specific modes, if possible, please) are compatible with the DVD video standard. Eventually I want to record to a compliant DVD with no or minimal reencoding.

Thanks.

[BJ_M]

honestly i never found mpeg audio all that compatable with dvd's at all ..

i suggest going only ac3 or pcm .. plus they sound better ,,

[huykin]

I encode MP2 because I do (X)CVD which will go to DVD in the future. I've read that at least one audio track of NTSC DVD must be in PCM or Dolby Digital. (Is Dolby Digital = AC3?) Will a single mono PCM track be compatible with NTSC DVD standard? Anyway, PCM seems to be a waste of space even for DVD.

What about Dolby Digital/AC3:

- How do I encode/multiplex it?

- Can I make XCVD with AC3 that will play in an APEX DVD player?

- Which channel modes & bitrates of AC3 are compatible with DVD, and how do they relate to MP2 bitrates (to get similar audio quality)?

Finally, back to the original issue (PowerDVD 4 problems with mono MP2 audio): Is it really a bug? Is there a way to make PowerDVD play mono MP2?

Thanks!