Please help me find another way to encode?

[eli2k]

I've tried two times with Gordian Knot and every single time the movie is screwed up. The audio will sync, but when I click to go to, say, the middle of the movie, the audio is screwed up. So I think I do not want to use Gordian Knot anymore.

Is there a guide to help me do this with individual tools, figuring out the numbers and settings by myself? Maybe doing this manually will result in "better" divx'es.

Thanks.

[Enchanter]

but when I click to go to, say, the middle of the movie, the audio is screwed up

In what sense is it screwed up?

[eli2k]

Well, usually it does not sync up right; sometimes the video is ahead, and sometimes it is behind.

By the way, I tried that method of loading it into Nandub and then fixing it up with the Audio > Interleaving option and changing it to milliseconds instead of frames, and that *seems* to work. However, I think I would prefer to do this on my own instead of letting the program automate it all.

[Enchanter]

In addition, try this. Set Video -> Frame rate and select "Change so Video and Audio Durations Match."

[eli2k]

What does that do, anyways? Will it work if the audio is VBR based. The frame-rates do not match, too. The first one next to FrameRate would say 23.997 (or whatever, that normal number), and next to Change vid/audio to match would say 0.9842 fps, which is a lot lower. Would that affect anything?

[Enchanter]

Originally posted by eli2k
What does that do, anyways? Will it work if the audio is VBR based. The frame-rates do not match, too. The first one next to FrameRate would say 23.997 (or whatever, that normal number), and next to Change vid/audio to match would say 0.9842 fps, which is a lot lower. Would that affect anything?

Now I see the problem. Your audio has an expecially low sampling rate (sub-44.1KHz) and this has always given sync problems.

A few things I can suggest:
1. Upsample the audio to 44.1 or 48 KHz and remux it with nandub
2. Reencode the audio, this time making sure that the bitrate and sampling rate are decent (eg.128kbps and 48KHz)

[eli2k]

Heh! Now I'm lost. I don't even know how to do the unsample/remux inside Nandub. I can only seem to open the AVI. There should be a guide somewhere, right?

Is there anyway I can talk to you online through AIM or something like that? Might be easier than to keep posting back and forth. Unless you do not want anyone to bug you online, since you seem to know everything about this DivX stuff

[Enchanter]

To upsample a given audio file, you need an audio editor such as Cooledit.

However, since you mentioned that you are creating this AVI file yourself, just redo the whole conversion, this time making sure that you use a decent bitrate (so that the MP3 encoder does not automatically downsample the audio. Usually 128kbps will do fine).

And also, I prefer doing all discussions via this board so that others can have a read and either contribute or learn from it.

[eli2k]

And also, I prefer doing all discussions via this board so that others can have a read and either contribute or learn from it.

I have a bunch of questions but I don't want to post a bunch of posts about them, hehe But anyway,

However, since you mentioned that you are creating this AVI file yourself, just redo the whole conversion, this time making sure that you use a decent bitrate (so that the MP3 encoder does not automatically downsample the audio. Usually 128kbps will do fine).

Hmm, in Gordian Knot I usually pick 128 or 160 and inside the configuration screen where you load the AC3 file, I pick BeSweet and the -alt 160, etc. Do I need to check the other box where it says to downsample to 44.1? I assume the audio on DVDs is already good quality, as in the correct khz, frequency, whatever. Maybe I should just do the audio outside of the program...

[Enchanter]

Maybe I should just do the audio outside of the program...

Sounds like a good idea to me. Here's my recommended method:
1. Rip audio to WAV using Graphedit/Vob2audio
2. If you wish, you can amplify the volume of the audio using an audio editor, such as Cooledit
3. Convert the WAV to MP3 using an mp3 encoder, such as LAME
4. Mux the MP3, with the video you have created, using nandub

I suggest you keep the original sampling rate at 48KHz for best results, unless your soundcard can't specifically handle 48KHz sound streams.

[UncasMS]

and in case you need a guide for the steps mentioned above, take a look here:

http://www.atlandide.net/~uncasms/en/index.php?page=sound

[eli2k]

Thank you Enchanter and UncasMS for that info.

One more question - can someone explain to me what muxing is, exactly?

I've seen in on the DVD2AVI screen but I've never really figured out what it really meant.

Also, regarding that problem of my divx audio not syncing up, I think it might also be due to the crummy Windows Media Player. I was going to try PowerDivx but their site was down and they only had forums. So I tried BSPlayer and it seems to work much better...

[Enchanter]

Muxing (video and audio) is basically joining both files together to form one single file. Say, you have one soundless video file (AVI) and one sound file (MP3), which you can mux together to form one AVI file that contains video and audio.

Also, regarding that problem of my divx audio not syncing up, I think it might also be due to the crummy Windows Media Player.

Try WMP 6.4 (run the command 'mplayer2.exe). BSPlayer is a really good player too.

[setarip]

To eli2k

Just in case you might be curious about the strange sounding word "mux" - it is a contraction of the word "multiplex", which in the world of videos is typically a reference to interleaving the audiostream with the videostream (as opposed to simply "joining" them, as described by an earlier post here)...

[eli2k]

Oh, I see. So that must mean demux is to pull out the audio tracks from the VOB files?