audio woes

[patrickthebuff]

I have been having huge problems with audio whenever trying to do a 2-pass encoding in flask (vob to divx). Whenever I select my divx codec, configure, and close the window, I then click on the audio codec button, scroll down to mp3 (radium) codec, select 128kbps, and click okay. At this point, I think everything is fine, but if I were to click on the audio button again, it does not display the codec and settings that I selected, instead, it has reverted back to pcm. The result of attempting to choose the mp3 codec is no audio in the final avi. Any advice on this? I tried direct streaming the audio when I flask the video, but this produces an ac3 file, and I can't get virtual dub to process the ac3. Do I need to convert it to wav? If I do convert to wav, can I compress it and merge with the video in virtual dub? and what is a good (free) program to convert ac3 to wav if this is possible?

Thanks for all the help. One more guestion, is it advisable to change from flask to something like gordian knot to get better quality on 2-pass divx? What is the highest quality divx encoder?
thanks again

[McMillan]

I haven't had any problems with vob->avi with flask mpeg, however, I've come across some avi's (DivX, or XVID) that had ac3 audio. You'd have to have a ac3 codec installed to create compressed ac3 files (I think). Selecting mp3 (stereo) while having dolby digital audio stream is impossible, since dolby digital has 5+1 channels, I guess that mp3 codec can't process that. Anyway try installing ac3 codec and selectig it when flasking. If you prefer stereo instead of ac3, than you need to use some ac3 converter to decode ac3 stream to wav, and than to use mp3 compression...
I know how to convert ac3 to mp3 from allready created avi with ac3 sound, (that means I can explain you how, but you must create avi with ac3...)
take care

[McMillan]

Re: audio woes

Originally posted by patrickthebuff
If I do convert to wav, can I compress it and merge with the video in virtual dub? and what is a good (free) program to convert ac3 to wav if this is possible?

Thanks for all the help. One more guestion, is it advisable to change from flask to something like gordian knot to get better quality on 2-pass divx? What is the highest quality divx encoder?
thanks again

You MUST convert it to wav in order to use that audio stream in Vdub. the program is AC3DEC from www.ac3dec.com

I'm sure that gknot is ok program, but I guess that it only semi automates the process, however, vdub can also do multiple pass encoding, by using "job control" - somewhat automated proces. I personally like DivX 5.03, however it doesn't work with gknot. It gave me pretty good results...

One more thing, nandub can use ac3 as audio, but it only uses divx 3.11 or MPEG4, so you can't change video compression settings, so ... choose, but choose wisely (kidding)