Well, that works! Now, can you tell me why ? Not that it's that difficult to do, but why does an ".mpg" file work before I trim it, but not after ? Did someone purposefully make this bothersome ? It's like someone said "let's make this just a little harder than it should be." NOTHING in the Vegas instructions says "oh, BTW, you're not going to have any audio after you trim your orig video/audio if you play it in DVDAS."

I am new at playing with video on PC's, but not stand-alone DVD recorders. I got a little tired of just doing basic stuff with the camera and the stand-alone.

I'm wondering if I imported from the miniDVD using Vegas instead using the files PMB created, that trimming wouldn't change whatever is currently being changed that it would work, or is something just lost in the trimming process ?

Thank you very much - Dave H.

I don't have experience with any of the software you are using, so I can't say specifically why trimming and saving the file from Vegas Studio is causing this. But the symptoms sounded very familiar to a situation which has irked me since Vegas Pro 8 and DVD Architect Pro 4.5 & 5 were released last year.

In a nutshell, if an mpeg file has embedded AC-3 audio, the audio stream is not detected when imported into DVD Architect as an ".mpg" file. When Vegas 8 was initially released, it exhibited the same characteristics. Earlier versions of Vegas didn't have this problem.

Some users commented on this and Sony identified it as an issue with Main Concept -- the supplier of the mpeg codecs -- and the way it interepreted filetypes on import. It was found that simply changing the file extension from mpg to vob was an effective workaround, and Sony fixed it up in Vegas 8.0a.

I don't know why, but it seemed to fall beneath the radar that DVD Architect 4.5 was also flawed in this manner. Most of us who create DVDs render audio and video as separate files, so it's less likely to be noticed. But some of us, particularly those of us who use DVD recorders that write files to DVD with embedded AC-3 audio, have observed and complained that DVD Architect suffers from this deficiency.

My only attempts at contacting tech support via email concerned this, and I had great difficulty getting the tech assigned to my case to understand what is really a very simple concept. It took 3 lengthy messages in which I patiently answered all questions asked of me and provided sample files before he understood concept that a file, when suffixed with an mpg extension would not appear to have audio, but audio would be detected in the same file if the extension were simply changed to .vob. It was particularly frustrating, because Sony had already identified and fixed the identical situation with Vegas, and had written about it in the forum, suggesting the rename as a workaround.

Finally, the tech sent a message saying that they had identified this as a Main Concept issue and that it would be corrected in an upcoming version of DVD Architect. So far, there have been two updates, and the problem still exists.

I had exactly the same problem when I encoded video files using DVD Movie Factory set at fast mpeg which sets the audio at Dolby Digital audio, but when I used VideoSpin and saved them as mpg the audio was seen by DVDAS as it was set at mpeg layer2 automatically.
Did a test with DVD movie factory setting audio to mpeg layer 2 but it did not import into DVDAS until I changed the extension to vob.
Surely this could be easily fixed.

Thanks cbrillow (one of those witness-protection-program names, I bet). I did read about the AC-3 problem, but was quite surprised I couldn't find a similar thread with my symptom (searched ALL) -- and not just on SONY-sites either. I sent an e-mail to Tech Supp on Monday, or so I thought. I resent it today (that is, sent again - not that I rezent it), and realized that after submitting, it's still not really submitted. The "pseudo-last-page" says something like "following are a few possible threads that might help". Today I read just a little further and it said "~if these don't help you, then click on CONTINUE to submit your question." Oh, and another thing - on the initial page where you enter your question, at the top is a link for Live Help, which is only for registration, so Krishna told me -- and it's on the Tech Help page!!! (Arghh.) I showed this to a couple of people I work with who are from India, and they said "I've heard SONY is closing down several call centers." Hmmmm.......

Anyway, thought it was about time to post here.

You'd think there'd be more people with this symptom. This has to be one of the first problem a person finds. I know I found it about 10 min's after installing the App and importing my first file, and doing a quick trim.

Knowing that some tech folks aren't all that tech, I can still understand their being slow to understand the "concept that a file, when suffixed with an mpg extension would not appear to have audio, but audio would be detected in the same file if the extension were simply changed to .vob." I mean, I've been programming in assembler, FORTRAN, C++, and other stuff and troubleshooting for 30+ years and simply changing the ext name to achieve a different result wasn't exactly on my top-ten possible solutions list. I wish I could have fixed some of my problems by just changing ext names to ".fix".

Thanks again!!!

Dave H.

"Did a test with DVD movie factory setting audio to mpeg layer 2 but it did not import into DVDAS until I changed the extension to vob."

Did you follow through and burn a DVD? I'd guess that DVDAS would want to rerender the audio to AC-3. (DVDA would...) AC-3 and PCM are accepted DVD audio formats, (in the U.S.) but mpeg layer II is not. Some DVD players work with mpeg audio, but they're not required to by the spec.

"Surely this could be easily fixed."

Well, I won't put myself into the SCS programmers' shoes, but one would think so, especially given that the same problem has already been fixed in Vegas.

"Thanks cbrillow (one of those witness-protection-program names, I bet)."

Nope, first intitial & first 7 characters of my last name. It was the corporate standard where I worked and I carried it over into personal email so as not to have to remember too many IDs. And, you're welcome. Glad to hear that it worked for you.

"You'd think there'd be more people with this symptom. This has to be one of the first problem a person finds. I know I found it about 10 min's after installing the App and importing my first file, and doing a quick trim."

Maybe, but not necessarily. I can't speak for DVDAS, because I use DVDA & Vegas Pro. But the predominant workflow (based upon comments here in the forum) seems to be to render separately to mpeg-2 and AC audio. In this scenario, the situation doesn't arise.

Seems like it's those of us who work a little out of the box that have this problem.

"I can still understand their being slow to understand the "concept that a file, when suffixed with an mpg extension would not appear to have audio, but audio would be detected in the same file if the extension were simply changed to .vob."

Well, I'm not going to be that charitable. For one, upon request, I submitted short sample files. The two files were identical, with the exception of the file extension. All the tech had to do was select one of them in the explorer window and see that there was no audio stream, then select the other and see that there WAS an audio stream. The next step would be to grab a programmer and say "Looky here!" And for another, the identical problem had already been discovered and fixed in Vegas!

Finally, when tech support finally understood and promised that it would be fixed in an "upcoming version of DVDA", they closed the ticket, saying that it could be reopened at any time, if necessary.

Guess what? When I found that it wasn't fixed with the next release, I tried to open the issue, and it wouldn't let me.

Well, cbrillow, guess you're right. Goes back, then, to my statement about the Tech folks not being very tech.

Set me straight on the acronyms -- is this correct ? :
DVDAS = DVD Arch Studio 4.5 (non-pro)
DVDA = DVD Arch 4.5 or 5.0 pro

"they closed the ticket, saying that it could be reopened at any time, if necessary.
Guess what? When I found that it wasn't fixed with the next release, I tried to open the issue, and it wouldn't let me."

What kind of "tickets" can be opened , and who is "it" in "it wouldn't let me." Are you talking about through the pay support ?

Cheers - Dave H.

Re: acronyms. Yes, when I appended the "S" is was to indicate the Studio version, which I don't have and can only speculate as to its operation or features. I currently use DVDA 5.0a, having updated from 4.5.

"Closing the ticket" may technically be incorrect terminology, as I'm only going from memory. The bottom line is, I was told that the issue was considered closed with the acknowledgment that what I had submitted was confirmed and to be corrected, and that if I had any reason to reopen it, I was free to do so. I found no way to do it, but perhaps it was something I overlooked.

This was not a paid-support issue, I simply submitted the question via email support.

(EDIT) For the record, here is what I was told by SCS last March -- 2 updates ago:

"This issue should have been fixed when the Vegas update came out. The issue has to do with the Main Concept format and how it is showing information, but engineering is aware of the issue and it will be fixed for a future version of DVD Architect. I do not know when this will be available, but in the meantime please use the work around of changing the file name from .mpg to .vob.

If you have follow up questions or need further assistance with this issue, please update this incident."

I have two editors that I use for different purposes. One produces .mpg files with AC3 sound that DVDAS accepts with no problem. The other also produces AC3 sound but the extensions needs to be changed to .vob.

I never would have figured that out were it not for this forum. Before discovering it I exported with mpeg sound. This worked but meant the sound always had to be transcoded in DVDAS.

Mike

Thank you all very much for the comments and advice.

Getting software to work? Priceless.

Cheers to you all. I'm sure I'll be back with something. - Dave H.

Folks, I need your help! I have the same problem opening files in DVDA, but renaming to .vob from mpg does not do anything - it is still recognized as Main Concept with no audio. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Brian

Do use earlier versions of DVDA? Some of these problems started with more recent versions 4.5 & 5.

Any way you can make a small sample file available for analysis & experimentation?

I've got the most recent download update to 4.5d. The files I have are from a Panasonic hard disk camcorder, and when I try to insert them it doesn't find audio.

Yes, it does rerender the audio.

Sorry - I don't understand. When I click on the file I want to insert, it says it is Main Concept MPEG-2, but lists no audio. When I try to preview it, it plays the video but no audio. I've tried to rename the file with a .vod extension, but it does the same thing. Just as reference, the file plays fine in all other players I have, this situation seems limited to DVDA. Thanks for any suggestions, I am really under the gun to get some DVD's made for the holidays, and no audio wouldn't be any fun.

"I've tried to rename the file with a .vod extension, but it does the same thing."

I realize that this is probably a typo, but it's worth double-checking to make sure that you renamed the file with a .vob extension, not .vod.

Anyway, since you're looking for something that works, and you don't really care if it requires an extra step, try this: (it works for me...)

Check to see if Vegas recognizes the audio in these files. If your problem is the same as mine, it should.

If Vegas recognizes the audio stream, open or import the file, and put it on the timeline. Render to AC-3 audio from Vegas, making sure that you duplicate the filename of the video file, with the exception of the extension, which should be ac3. You should then have a DVDA compatible AC-3 audio file for your DVD.

When you say DVD Architect Studio can't detect audio in a trimmed file... Can you more specifically define your workflow - I imagine you are splitting or removing parts of the video clip in the Vegas timeline and then rendering?

How are you rendering your file? This article offers details on ensuring proper encoding and best practices for this workflow:

http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1105

After your edits, when you render you may want to give that a shot for maximum compatibility. I have had 100% success when using those guidelines.

In terms of working with support or reporting problems, the best any support center can do is work with you patiently and attentively and through to resolution. Resolution doesn't always mean that the problem is fixed, but if it's a bug or problem in the software, then it gets logged and hopefully fixed down the road. I would guess that most support rep's at SCS or any other software company don't have 30 years of programming experience in FORTRAN and if they did, they would likely be making more money in the engineering department. But they do have the resources to shepherd your issue to those who can examine, test, and fix issues.

Support tickets close out after a period of inactivity. If you are coming back and want to follow up and your incident has closed, simply create a new ticket and reference your last one.

Other tips:
* If you have a problem file, ask if you can send that in for examination to demonstrate;
* Screenshots are helpful.
* Be patient and realize that the folks on the other end are trying their best to help you resolve your issue.

Here's a good article for reporting problems:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html

Yes - sorry that was a typo. Thanks for being kind and giving me the benefit of the doubt. I did try this, and it seemed to take an incredibly long time - just to manage my expectations, how long should a 5 minute video take to render? I have a reasonable pentium D with 2 gigs of ram.

Thanks again.

You don't need to render the video -- just the audio, as AC-3. Use the existing file for the video. Import both files into DVDA to create the DVD.

Disclaimer: I've not done this, but see no reason why it wouldn't work.

To answer your question - if you're encoding mpeg-2 with a fair-to-middlin' PC, I'd expect anywhere from slightly under realtime to realtime x 2, at the most. In other words, if it's more than 10 minutes, I'd be surprised. (unless you're adding effects)

Edit: and the render to AC-3 will be MUCH faster than that. Should be under a minute.

just to be clear - this is a bug in DVDA correct? This is really frustrating, I could do so much with this if even the renaming workaround would work.