Changing Audio Track on DVD Files

[Art Vandelay]

I have authored a DVD set of files VIDEO_TS AUDIO_TS, and all the .VOB's IFO, files that go with it. This is a TV capture but the audio is in Italian of a sporting event so the .mp2 file is in Italian. Is it possible to take 2.5 hrs of .mp3 files and author the DVD with them rather than the Italian language. If I were to do this how would I combine 2.5 hrs. of .mp3 files so I have 1 audio file to select when i author the DVD files.

[benbryant]

AFAIK, DVD format doesn't accept MP3 audio. You need to convert your MP3 to AC3, WAV, or MP2 with tools such as ffmpegGUI.... You can use PgcDemux to separate video and audio and then use the Muxman to mux the video with the new audio. If you have DVD author tools such as DVD-lab Pro or TMPEnc DVD Author, the job will be much easier

Regards

[r0lZ]

It's not totally true.
MP3 means MPEG1 Layer 3 and is supported by most DVD players.

However, MP3 doesn't have to be supported by the player, as it's theoretically an option, and some players don't have the MP3 decoder. This is why MP3 is not frequent on commercial DVDs, as there is no guarantee that the audio will play. Same thing for DTS and SDDS. Only the AC3 and LPCM (aka WAV) decoders are mandatory. Therefore, when a MP3 audio stream is present in a commercial DVD, the same language must also be present in AC3 or WAV format. (BTW, that doesn't make sense, as the quality of MP3 is largely inferior. Why should we select the MP3 stream when another, better stream is available?) But since it is easy and cheap to implement MP3, and since many standalone DVD recorders record the audio in MP3 only (thus producing non-standard DVDs), most players have the AC3 decoder anyway. We can therefore assume that MP3 is (almost) mandatory by the de-facto standard. However, to be accepted by the players (and the good muxers), the MP3 stream has to obey certain rules (bitrate, coding mode, etc...) I hope your stream is DVD-Video compatible.

To add the MP3 stream to an existing DVD, you have to demux the original title (with PGCDemux), and remux the streams, including your MP3 stream (with muxman.) Finally, you have to replace the original VTS by the new one, if you want to keep the original menus and bonus titles.
See this post at D9 for more info. The thread explains how to add another subtitle track, but the method is similar for audio. Also, the thread is long and complicated, but don't worry. Normally, it is easy to replace or add an audio stream.

[paglamon]

MP3 means MPEG2 Layer 3

I knew that MP3=mpeg1 audio layer 3.
Can you clarify please,r0lZ? Can it be both mpeg 1 & 2?

[r0lZ]

Yup, sorry, it's MPEG1 Layer 3. (I've fixed the typo in my previous post.)

[Art Vandelay]

1 file for audio

Thanks everyone,

@r0lZ

There are no menus as this is a 2 hr. TV capture sporting event in Italian language. the languge isn't important since I can see what is going on. I have recorded the show with my media center then use dcut since it is so fast and edit only. Then use dvrmstoolbox to convert .dvr-ms to .mpg. I then take the .mpg and demux so I have the .m2v and .mp2 file. The next step is what I am having trouble with;

I can use authoring software to select the .m2v file and I then need to select the audio file. I don't want to use the Italian language .mp2, so my question is how do I take 2.5 hrs of .mp3 and combine them for 2.5 hrs? This is what i am having trouble with since it would be easy to use a pgm to convet a mp3 to ac3 but that would only be 1 song or 4 mins of audio. With my authoring software I select 1 audio file so I need to get all the mp3 songs in 1 file then convert to .ac3 so I can select this file as the audio file for authoring. I think I could take an entire CD and make 1 big mp3 and convet it to ac3 but I want a mix of songs.

[r0lZ]

You need to join several MP3 files, that's right?
Try Audacity. It is free and powerful.

[Art Vandelay]

Yes, several mp3 files into 1 big mp3 so I can convert to .ac3. I will check out the pgm.

thanks