5.1 ac3 audio with TMPEGnc DVD Author

[gmanm1]

This is drivind me crazy. Somebody please help. I want 5.1 sound on my movie. I broke down and bought Acid with 5.1 surround plug in pack. It renders a 5.1 ac3 . I take that along with my m2v
movie file , and try to add it to TMPGEnc DVD author , and it says illegal audio format. I thought ac3 was what DVD authoring programs required. Now what.

gmanm1

[setarip]

Both "TMPGEnc DVD Author" and "TMPGEnc" are very finicky about .AC3 headers.

Use a hex editor to locate the FIRST instance of "0B 77" (That's a ZERO) - and delete/cut all data prior to it.

[gmanm1]

Will that shorten the soundtrack? Can I use Vitualdub for that.

Thanks , gmanm1

[gmanm1]

I opened it with Virtualdub hex editor. I see 77 0B right at the begining. Is that what you are refering to?

Thanks for the help, gmanm1

[setarip]

It should be the reverse - "0B 77".

And if it is "0B 77", there's no reason for "TMPGEnc DVD Author" to reject it as the audio file...

Have you successfully PLAYED your .AC3 audio file?

[gmanm1]

No I haven't. I guess i have some codec problems , but I installed ffdshow ,as well as several others. I guess I could burn it to disc and see if it plays. In the hex editor I typed 0B77 and it always comes back with "string not found". What codec do you recomend for ac3 play.

gmanm1

[ashy]

To repair that header download AC3fix and it's GUI.
This usually gets Ac3 files accepted.

http://www.roderz.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/euro2/

[gmanm1]

Thank you . I'm sorry I've been off the air for a while. I tried ac3 fix , but it won't activate when I hit go in the gui. I 'm not sure how to run the command line feature. Do you call up a dos window. I have win xp.

gmanm1

[ashy]

I have Winxp too and works fine here.

Make sure that you extract all the files from the archive first.
You must have ac3fix.exe and ac3GUI.exe located in the same folder.

If it still doesn't work then run ac3fix from a dos prompt and it will give you the syntax you need to run the program.

[gmanm1]

That did it. I put the ac3 in the same folder , and it was fixed and now works with TMPEGnc DVD Author. Thanks a bunch for steering me in the right direction.

gmanm1