ffdshow and a foreign language that I don't want

[greenRyan]

I have Star Trek avi files, and they all have a foreign language playing over the regular audio track. I play them in Windows Media Player and it uses ffdshow while playing them. Is there a way to get rid of the foreign language or filter it out so I just have the normal English audio?

[paglamon]

so I just have the normal English audio?

Are you sure that the file has an English audio ?

[greenRyan]

Yes, as I said, the foreign language audio is playing over the English. I can hear both playing at the same time, so even if I understood the foreign language, it's all a jumbled mess of talking. I can hear the English though since there's sometimes a slight delay between the two languages. I just don't know if there are separate channels that can be controlled individually or if it's all just one messy audio track.

[paglamon]

Please post info about the file using Mediainfo.

[UncasMS]

sounds like you're missing a splitter like HAALI

[greenRyan]

I haven't tried HAALI, I will look into it. I think this is the relevant part from MediaInfo:
_____
General
Complete name : S:\1 - Complete\Star Trek The Original Series Remastered And Enhanced\Season 1\S01E01 The Man Trap.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 400 MiB
Duration : 50mn 26s
Overall bit rate : 1 108 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2178/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 50mn 26s
Bit rate : 730 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 544 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.078
Stream size : 263 MiB (66%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.0.dev47 (UTC 2006-11-01)

Audio #1
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Format_Settings_ModeExtension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 50mn 26s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 46.2 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 83 ms (2.00 video frames)
Interleave, preload duration : 504 ms
Writing library : LAME3.97
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 17 -b 128

Audio #2
ID : 2
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Format_Settings_ModeExtension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 50mn 26s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 46.2 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 83 ms (2.00 video frames)
Interleave, preload duration : 504 ms
Writing library : LAME3.97
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 17 -b 128

Audio #3
ID : 3
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Format_Settings_ModeExtension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 50mn 26s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 104 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 37.7 MiB (9%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 176 ms
Writing library : LAME3.97
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 17 --abr 128

[greenRyan]

I was about to ask how to use HAALI, because I tried opening one of the avi files in it and nothing seemed to happen. But then when I played the file in Media Player it was normal English and nothing else! How does HAALI work and would the files now play normally on another computer without it, or would the other computer also need HAALI? Thanks so much.

[UncasMS]

Haali is a media splitter which helps your software player present multiple streams - not playing them at the same time but by means of user selection

inside your software player you should find (after a richtclick for example into the picture) something like "audio" and in this submenue you should now see all available language streams which you could select by clicking on them

you will always need a splitter but maybe the software player brings its own so haali would not be necessary

[greenRyan]

Thanks for all the suggestions and answers. All my problems were solved!