Audio not making it to DVD

mvettori wrote on 2/8/2007, 10:07 AM

Sorry if this is a redundant question. I've seen other postings on this topic, but nothing in them has solved my problem. I'm using DVD Architect v4 and Movie Studio Plat. v7.0. I'm doing something rather simple, making a DVD of pictures set to music. Here's what I'm doing and what I see:

Step 1) Using Movie maker, I am creating an mpg file of jpg images with a music track associated to them. When I preview it, it looks and sounds just fine. After I create the MPEG and watch it in Media Player, it also looks and sounds fine.

Step 2) Using DVD Architect, I create a menu and add several buttons for the MPEGS I created. I set the appropriate attribute settings to associate the MPEG to the button. In preview mode, everything looks and sounds fine with the menu and the MPEG.

Step 3) I go through DVD Architect's Prepare for Burn process. I get several warning that the audio and video tracks will go through a re-compression. Not sure what that means, but I proceed anyway. To check the results, I go the Video_TS directory and run a couple of the VOB files in Media Player. Everything looks and sounds fine.

Step 4) I burn the DVD. The DVD burn process completes with no wanings or errors. However, when I put the resulting DVD in my player connected to my TV, the video looks fine, but there is no sound.

I don't think the issue is with the MPEG's or Movie Maker, because I associate a music track to the DVD menu, and that doesn't play either in the resulting DVD.

Looking through several prior postings, I tried saving the audio track in an MP3 and WAV file, then associating the audio and video tracks separately in DVDA, but that had no effect.

Again, I'm a rookie at this, but this it seems like what I'm trying to do is simple and I'm probably one or two settings away from getting it right.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
MVettori

Comments

MPM wrote on 2/8/2007, 10:35 AM
Working backwards, if the complete DVD layout or burned disc works in something like Power DVD, *might* check your media, burn speed etc. to make sure it's compatible with your player. Checking vobs in wmplayer I think would work no matter what format the audio is encoded to, as long as you had the necessary audio decoder installed.

You didn't mention ac3, which is the most common DVD audio format, & probably the one you should be using. Check the project settings in DVDA for the audio format. If your versions of DVDA & Vegas won't do it, there are free encoders that work, just not as well.

In DVDA (& most authoring software) you import the separate video and audio -- you'll see at least 2 tracks, one video and directly below it your audio - and your buttons point to the video tracks. A music comp works a bit differently.

DVDA will accept a lot of different formats for video and audio, but the final formats on the DVD are mpg2 video & "usually" ac3 audio. It's preferable to encode as few times as possible, since each render causes some degradation. It generally best to either encode your original video slideshow to DVD spec mpg2, or another format like DV or mjpg avi files using as little compression (highest quality &/or bandwidth) possible. Audio ideally will stay as wav files until ac3 encoding.
ScottW wrote on 2/8/2007, 2:44 PM
Your symptoms suggest that you rendered your video using the default template, and not one of the DVDA templates. When you use the default template, the audio will get multiplexed in with the video in the resulting MPEG and this is not what you want. This is also why DVDAS is saying it will re-compress things - it must first demultiplex the audio from the video and then re-compress the audio into the correct form for DVD.

Further, I recall there being reported a bug in DVDA4 where audio multiplexed with video was getting demultiplexed, but then not getting added back in correctly. Anyway...

Go back to VMS, and when you render your video, sepecify the appropriate DVDA template (NTSC or PAL as fits your country). Then as a seperate step, render your audio as AC3 (since you now have access to AC3 with DVDAS 4). If you name the video and audio files the same and put them in the same directoy, then when you bring the video into DVDAS, the audio should automatically follow.

--Scott
mvettori wrote on 2/8/2007, 8:01 PM
Thanks for the responses. I took both and did the following:

1) I went back and using VMS created a new MPEG file using MPEG-2. I separately created the audio track to an .ac3 file.

2) I went into DVDA, created a new project, with a new menu and added my MPEG from step one above. I then set the audio track to the .ac3 created in step one above.

3) I went through the prepare process with no warnings and nothing about any recompressions. Sounds like I'm on the right track.

4) Played the resulting VOB in MS media player and everything looks and sounds fine.

5) Burned the DVD, took it down to my TV and DVD player...same result...all video, no audio.

What could I possibly be doing wrong. The DVD disc I'm using is a DVD+R. My burner is an 8x, but I set the burn process for 6x to slow it down a bit. I made sure I wasn't using the default template where possible. Everywhere where I was given the option, I made sure I was following NTSC.

Any other ideas to try or troubleshoot would be greatly appreciated. I'm stumped (...and frustrated).

Thanks,
MVettori
Steve Mann wrote on 2/8/2007, 11:36 PM
This is a loooong shot, but could one of your audio channels be inverted?

Try making a 60-second test and if it still doesn't work, post the VOB file somewhere that we can look at it.

Steve Mann
mvettori wrote on 2/9/2007, 5:30 AM

Sorry, but I'm a rookie at this...what does it mean for an audio channel to be inverted?
ScottW wrote on 2/9/2007, 5:42 AM
It means what it reads like. Inverting a positive number makes it negative; adding the 2 numbers together results in zero. No offense, but given your experience level, I would think you'd have to try really, really hard to create inverted audio - and even if you did, IMO the result is more likely to be very bad distortion of the audio rather than no audio at all.

This seems more like something in the audio setup of your DVD player; look for a Dolby Digital option, or something that says "bitstream" or "PCM" in your audio setup menu. If your DVD player is hooked up to a reciever that can decode Dobly Digital (and the audio output of your DVD player is hooked up to the Dolby connector), make sure the option is set to "bitstream" - on the other hand, if you're connecting directly to a TV (via a pair of RCA cables - one red connector and one white) that cannot decode dolby digital, make sure the option is set to "PCM".

If you aren't certain how your DVD player is hooked up, find the option in the audio setup of your DVD player (not your TV, your player) and toggle it.

--Scott
mvettori wrote on 2/9/2007, 6:06 AM

I want to say that other DVDs play just fine...BUT, I did just buy a new stereo receiver and the TV is connected to it. Now that I think of it, I haven't played any other DVD since hooking up the new reveiver. You may be on to something.

Thanks Scott...that sounds like a good place to start. I'll try that when I get home.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

MVettori
nolonemo wrote on 2/9/2007, 8:37 AM
Also try the DVDs on a friend's player (or two), that will help narrow where the problem might be.
mvettori wrote on 2/10/2007, 1:40 PM

Well, I have to admit I'm a bit embarassed...but that was it! I played several store bought DVDs in my player and none of them had sound either. I realized it was a setting in my receiver that was not right. Once I made the change, everything worked fine.

ScottW, thanks for the input.

MVettori