Converting AC3 audio to mpeg or wav

[arctic silver]

Hi folks. I am presently using Ulead's DVD Movie Factory 2 for editing and combining different dvd scenes that I ripped from different dvds. After importing the dvd video into movie factory, a box appears and reads:

"The imported DVD contains AC3 audio tracks. DVD MovieFactory does not support this audio format. Please convert the audio first to a compatible format."

I believe the audio needs to be converted to either mpeg, wav or something other than AC3. Could someone lead me to a link which shows how to convert AC3 audio to another format? Thanks...

[sfheath]

just a guess but have you checked out VirtualDub?
As an aside, does the offending article ONLY have an AC3 soundtrack?

[arctic silver]

I have never used virtualDub yet. So far I've only used the simpler methods to back up my dvds (dvd decrypter, dvd2one, dvdshrink). If you think virtualDub will do the trick, then I'll hop to it to learn about virtualDub. I've never really gotten into real video editing yet.

The dvds I'm using all seem to have AC3 soundtracks only.

[sfheath]

as I say, it's a guess but it's probably the most circulated audio app name around these parts. G-Spot I think is another.

You're one up on me - I've not used dvd2one myself

[arctic silver]

DVD2one is a great program. But I like both. I think you'll like DVD2one too.

[Scythe2003]

A few soloutions for you

The metheds i describe here are farely easy to do.

I don't know anything about Ulead's DVD Movie Factory 2 so i'm going to assume that it converts the ripped .VOB files into an .AVI or .MPG format.These metheds should work with either format.

Methed 1: If you want to use the .AC3 5.1 surround sound you can but it has to be added seperately to the video.There is a guide in the "Articles" section called "Dolby Digital-Sound DivX Ripping Guide" That tells you exactly how to do it step by step and the software you need.

Methed 2: If you want to convert the .AC3 to .WAV you can use a program called "AC3DEC".This methed will give you a 16Bit 48 000Hz PCM .WAV format.Make sure that your sound card can support 48 000Hz BEFORE you decode it ... if it doesn't support that then use 44 000Hz instead.Once again go to the "Articles" section and get the guide "DVD To DivX:Beginner's Guide Ver#1.2"
You don't need the whole guide, just the part that has the instructions for converting the .AC3 file.

Methed 3: If the Ulead's program your using does not let you merge the separat video and audio files together then you'll have to use VirtualDub to merge them.The two guides i mentioned also tells you how to merge the audio and video using VirtualDub.

Methed 4: If you are going to convert the .AC3 to .WAV then this is the easiest way. Get a program called "Mpeg Mediator" (You can get that on this site in the software section) Start up the program and open all the .VOB files then click "Start" and at the bottom of the menu that pops up click "Extract Audio to .WAV" then call it and put it wherever you want.

*Important: If you are converting it to .WAV then just remember that the .WAV will be in an uncompressed format so it will be a big file size.If your going to use VirtualDub to merge video and audio then make sure you choose "Full Processing Mode" in the audio menu."DVD To DivX:Beginner's Guide Ver#1.2" guide will tell you how to do this as well.If the Unlead program will compress the audio then just use that.

Enjoy.
Scythe2003

[arctic silver]

Scythe2003: Hey, thanks for the run through. I'll see which one works for me.

I think the movie factory changes the .VOB files to mpeg because I use movie factory to join captured analog videos. My capture device which is the dazzle DVC 150, has an mpeg 2 encoder chip built in. When I import these captured videos into movie factory, the import is rather fast, about a few seconds or so.

[DonBerg]

Use a different DVD authoring package that supports AC3 audio like TMPGEnc-DVD or DVD-lab.

[arctic silver]

I have heard of tmpgenc- dvd. I've used the regular tmpge for making vcds before.

[sfheath]

TMPGEnc DVD Author, different to TMPGenc. 30 day free trial. Sure does the job for me

[pdelliott]

If you need to convert ac3 to anyhting check out Headac3he or BeSweet. Take a look at http://www.doom9.org/audio-guides.htm

[arctic silver]

Thanks. Sounds like a plan too.