DVD Lab Pro audio in menus playback problem

[memi0]

Hello, I have a weird problem with Mediachance's Dvd Lab Pro, maybe somebody can help me before I'll melt my mind (and dvd-rw, too!) trying to solve this problem..

I'm trying to author a DVD, I have no problem with video and audio files for the "movies": they play very well on the pc and on my dvd-player.

The matter comes with the menus. I have 14 menus linked together, each with a simple background picture, a link to the main menu, a link to a peculiar "movie" and two links, with auto-action, to get to the next or the previous menu. I also have different music for all of those menus. And each menu has an end link to the next menu, meaning that after the music stops playing, the next menu will be played.

If I compile the dvd and try it on the pc with WinDVD, it works great. When I try it in my slightly old JVC dvd player (buyed 2 years ago,doesn't read DVD+R), everything works fine but I don't get audio on the menus. The menu appears and waits for the lenght of the audio track to pass and then goes up to the next menu - but no audio is played. That doesn't happens for all menus - the last one was playing its audio. All of the settings are correct, I checked them a lot of times.

I tried to make some changes to the project, like doing the menu work all up again, or with less menus, and I got different, fuzzy results: sometimes a certain menu played its music, and other times the same menu didn't play audio, while other did. It doesn't seem to have a logic at all!

Something that I am sure of is that: Root menu always plays its audio. I tried to convert it all to AC3 (otherwise my files were .mp2), but it didn't solve things. I tried to give less bitrate (128kbps) to the mp2 files, but nothing changed. Moreover, if i put the audio files in the root menu, they work, so it doesn't seem to be a decoder problem.

I would like to show my dvd to friends in my dvd player... so anybody has a hint beyond buying a new dvd player?

Thank you!

[reboot]

You cannot mix AC3 and MP2 on the same disk (in the same VTS).
Make all your audio the same format and at 48khz, then it should work.
Post a screenshot of your connections window, and your assets window, and I'll be able to tell you more about where problems could be.
Don't forget, something that plays on a computer has almost NOTHING to do with the way it will play on a standalone.

[memi0]

Hi, thank you for answering me!
In my project I have two types of audio files: MPA and Mp2. MPA ones come from TMPGEncoder's encoding of the "movies" (along with their M2V files). Mp2 ones were originally wave files that I transformed into MP2, 48khz audio files with DBPowerAmp converter, to use them in the menus. While the project was developing, I made some tests to check out wheter it all worked properly in my home dvd player too, and both video from "movies" and menus could be heard, that led me to think that Mp2 and MPA could live together in the same VTS. (That time, I had not yet designed those menus where the audio now isn't working. )
Another thing I didn't mention is that all menus where audio is "fuzzy" working doesn't have motion, they're only a still with some buttons and an audio track. I have three menus with motion in the project that works fine and the audio is working too. Audio works nice even in all of the slideshows I have there (yes, I tried all the features from the software! They're great!
Anyway, to make sure that all of audio files was in the same format, last night I did a simple test: I created a brand new project, I put a "movie" in, and gave the movie a .wav file (48 khz) as audio. I set some chapters on the movie and i generated a film-strip scene selection menu, so I got 19 new menus. I gave the same .wav file that I gave to the movie to all of the menus as audio source.

Compiled, burned (on a dvd-rw and tested. My home dvd-player rightly stated "LPCM" on the display while playing all of the menus, but only first and second menus had audio, third and fourth not, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th were good, then again some muted menu... it's really weird and I'm starting to lose hair!

Another hint... When I am playing in some muted menu in the dvd-player, if i get to the player's configuration and try to change the audio output setup (from stereo to 5.1 or something else), audio suddenly starts to be heard...! And stays on till i go to the next muted menu... then i have to switch again to something different to let audio on again... I'm starting to think that it's just a player's issue...

I'll post the assets for audio files and the connections from the real project, and a screenshot of the test project, if you have any hint it's very welcome!
Thank you!

mEmi^

[memi0]

connections of the real project

in the attachment, the connections of the "real" project.

[memi0]

assets window of the real project

In the attachment, assets window of the real project.

[reboot]

LPCM audio isn't necessarily supported by your player, or only partially, up to, or below, a certain bitrate. Higher and/or lower bitrate audio may not work.
I seriously suggest you use only AC3 for ALL your audio.
Transcode it all in ffmpeggui, before importing it.
MP2 and MPA are slightly different formats, and as I said above, you cannot mix assets, unless you put them into different VTS and bridge them.

[memi0]

I've already tried to convert all to AC3 with ffmpeggui, following an advice in another post that was right from you, but got no chance. I will try again with my simpler project.

Do you have any explanation for the fact that my dvd player plays a menu with audio, and the next menu, with the same exact audio file, doesn't play its audio? I refer to my test project, where the audio file was a .wav, and therefore was converted to LPCM by dvd pro lab. To be sure not to mix file formats, that was the ONLY audio file in my project! And yet some menus played, some didn't...




Thank you so far, I'll let you know about my night experiments... before i go crazy...

[reboot]

To actually see if it's a structure problem, or an assets problem, do a test compile.
With your complicated structure, I have a feeling the error is there, not necessarily assets.

[memi0]

I've already tried doing a test compile, actually I always did so when I tested the project to shorten compiling time, because I have a lot of movies... but, caught by despair, I have been trying the "non-test" compile too... but nothing changed.

Anyway what should I check about the structure? All the links are OK, and the structure's not that complicated.. maybe it's not clear from the picture, but I have 14 menus, where each one has a link to the next menu, a link to the previous menu, a link to the main menu and a link to a movie. Obviously, first menu doesn't have a "previous" link and last menu doesn't have a "next" one. The links are auto-action, I tried removing the auto-action but still no audio in the menus.

I tried to convert my wav file for my "test" project (the one made with 19 scene-selection-auto-generated menus) to AC3, put that into every single menu (and the movie too!), but I get to hear only the first menu doing so.



Thank you for your answers so far!

[reboot]

Does the complete navigation structure work on your test compile?
If so, then there may be an issue with assets. Even if you think all video is the same, and all audio is the same, it may not.
Do a test compile with one menu, and one movie. Add your second, and another menu and test again. One step at a time, until you find the problem.
Have you updated to the latest release of DLP? New out just a few days ago, ver 5.1 (with a patch for 5.2).
If that fails, try a reinstall of the program.
I can't say I have ever had this problem with DLP, so it's difficult to guess.

[memi0]

To make sure that audio was the same, my test project was having only ONE audio file (I tried wav, mp2 and ac3), that I repeated to each menu!!
I was solving the problem doing a menu by time, then testing: if it went bad, I would erase the menu and start again, then test again; sometimes it worked, meaning audio was miracolously working the last time(even though the menu was identical!)

I arrived at 7 out of my 14 menus.. just it was a little too long, thinking that I have to burn all the times the dvd and test... and I don't know how many steps it will take! But that's a solution...
Anyway I'll try to patch and even reinstall the program, maybe that will solve the problem. Thank you very much for the help!

I'll let you know.
Cheers,
mEmi^

[memi0]

It seems like you can't get more than about 10 menus with audio... when you come to the point that you have 9 menus working, you add another menu, test, and some other menu won't play its audio.. sometimes even the brand new one can't play its audio.....

I tried the dvd on a playstation too... got same results...

[reboot]

Make another VTS, put 9 in the first, bridge to the second, put in 9 more, add VTS' as needed.
Post this problem/bug on the DVDLab forums as well. I'm sure you're not the only one.

[memi0]

Good hint, I had already tried to use VTS menu instead of VMG, but no chance, only first VTS menu was playing audio.
I tried your solution too, no luck again....

somebody kill me please!!!!!

i posted this too on

http://www.mmbforums.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=10854

nobody answers me

Thank you very much for your help