AC3 audio problem and MPEG question !!

Vscience wrote on 9/25/2003, 9:06 PM
For some crazy reason I can't seem to get DVD-Architect to play my AC3 encoded video files, it plays the video fine but not the audio. Even in preview mode the audio wont play (prior to even authoring the DVD). Yet the DVD compliant MPG file will play fine in video players, but put it in to Architect for authoring and it is silent. Oddly enough if I encode the audio in standard MPG then it will convert it to AC3 okay, but I don't want to have to go to the hassle of stripping the audio, encoding to mpg, and joining everytime.

So the basics of the problem are thus, any AC3 audio encoded video MPG file will be silent when put in to Architecht. Well, I say any, I have only got 6, but all 6 wont play, so that is 6 out of 6 tried. Any ideas guys ? No point in suggesting letting Architect re-convert it to AC3 (from AC3) as it doesn't work, still silent.

Finally, why wont Architect allow MPG audio DVD files ? I use DVD Workshop too, but I much prefer Architect, but sadly I still have to resort to using Workshop when I want to use MPG audio DVD files. This is what Vegas outputs DVD encoded files as, MPG audio, so I am confused by the lack of this feature in its DVD burner. Any ideas ?

Hope it doesn't sound like I am being too down on the software, as it is still the very best out there, well done guys !!

Comments

Tampa wrote on 9/26/2003, 8:52 AM
As I read your post I thought the same thing as Derg. You r post reads like you think you get AC3 audio at the same time you render your video. As Derg said you must render them seperately. In the "Render As" box you'll notice that the choices are presented seperately. However, don't sweat it if you are rendering a long video. Rendering AC3 takes about half the time to render as Video does.
Vscience wrote on 9/26/2003, 9:25 AM
But the things I don't understand is why doesn't it allow MPG DVD audio ? Also any DVD MPG file I create in Vegas with AC3 wont play in Architect, it is just silent. Yet the file will play fine in a media player.
cworld29 wrote on 3/18/2004, 7:14 PM
I am having the same problem. I rendered the MPEG file in Vegas using the video stream for DVD Architect template. Then I rendered the audio in Vegas as AC3 using the only template there which is stereo. I started a menu based project in DVDA and inserted the MPEG file onto the main page. double clicking on it brings up the timeline for chapter insertion and sure enough the AC3 file was automaticaly placed in the audio slot.

When I preview the project there is no audio. I have completed other projects using AC3 files as menu backgrounds and such but this is the first time I have attempted to import the two seperate streams for the main video.

The person who started this thread has not responded so I assume he figured it out. I have emailed tech support. If they have a solution I will post it here.
johnmeyer wrote on 3/19/2004, 8:33 AM
I have had this problem, and I think it results from a bug in Vegas. I can't duplicate the bug, but Vegas gets in a state where it renders an illegal AC3 file. When you put this file into DVDA, you don't get any audio.

I have been able to fix the problem by quitting, then restarting Vegas, then opening the project, and immediately doing the AC3 render again, without doing anything first.

Try this and let me know if it helps. The AC3 render goes pretty fast, so it shouldn't take you very long to try out.

If it does work, I would guess that it has to do with the scrub bug. I have experienced this one many times, and got a response in this forum several months ago that indicated that this is an old bug that has existed since Vegas 3 (or before). Basically, if you use the JKL scrub controls (or the slider on the screen) to scrub back and forth, Vegas will not render correctly unless you first quit and restart. Bottom line: Don't render if you have used the scub control.

I now ALWAYS quit from Vegas and then restart it before rendering.
cworld29 wrote on 3/19/2004, 7:13 PM
I rendered about 10 minutes form the same .avi this morning the same way, imported it to DVDA and it worked fine. I hadn't heard about the scrub bug. I use the keyboard scrub hotkeys all the time but didn't have to this morning cause of the small size.

So save the project and exit out of Vegas clears this up? I'll keep this in mind next time I am ready to render.