Rob:

I did check the DVD in playback mode and got only the video without sound. And, yes, the audio TS file was empty so I assumed it didn't pick up the audio. Very misleading in the manual since it pointed to both files. It seemed logical to expect both especially when I can't hear it. The DVD Architect sofware I am using is probably the first one that came with my Vegas Movie Studio + DVD program (box is dated 2004) with no numeric designation it may be a later version.

I don't get it. You think an update is the answer and not something I'm missing? .

Thanks again Rob.

Redhill



I didn't have this problem with the last DVD I burned

In Movie Studio, have you rendered with a codec that includes audio? Some codecs render video only (esp. de widescreen templates), and you have to render audio separately, and add it to DVDA manually.

I didn't select the widescreen option. The strange thing is I can actually see it rendering the MPEG file which took 1 hr and 8 min. and then it rendered the WAV file immediately after (that only took about 35 seconds. I assumed I got both of them rendered. This is a 12-minute video. I feel stuck in a rut here.

I did check the DVD in playback mode

Playblack mode where? Just in DVD Architect Studio? In a DVD playing application? In a set-top DVD player? Need specifics in order to determine if this is a problem with the disc or just a problem with the playback method.

Very misleading in the manual since it pointed to both files.

Can't find any mention of it in my help system (using regular DVD Architect here, though), but I imagine the context is something like it pointing out that it creates both the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders, which strictly speaking is true.

The DVD Architect sofware I am using is probably the first one

In DVD Architect Studio, go to the Help menu and choose the About... item. In the window that pops up, read the Version number...number, letter, and build. Then compare that to the DVD Architect Studio version numbers on the page I linked to above. If that page has an update with the same version number but a higher letter, download and install the update.

For example, if you have DVD Architect Studio 2.0a, then download and install the DVD Architect Studio 2.0c update. Updates for the same version number are free. If you have, again for example, 2.0a, don't bother trying to download and install the 3.0b update 'cause it won't work. And note that DVD Architect and DVD Architect Studio are two different programs.)

You think an update is the answer and not something I'm missing?

Just exploring all the possibilities. It always helps to be sure the software is up to date.

Rob

I am seeing something very similar and I am at the latest version 4.5c of DVD architect studio.

What puzzles me most is that when I was designing the project, I could hear audio as I previewed my mpg video files. I also had an audio track that went along with my menu. Both of these in the preview worked fine. I burned the DVD and played it in a home theater system and there was menu audio, but no audio w/ the acutal videos. Then when I went to go play the same DVD in the PC, same results.

Then to top it all off, I went back into DVD Arch. studio and now I get no audio when I preview the video or any other video that came direct from my camera. (Panasonic sdr-h18)

So I made the project, I could hear sound everywhere I should (except a video compilation, but I expect that shouldn't have the video audio track) I burn and now I can not hear my video within the arch studio.

PS I have vegas 8.0 and I can hear my files fine.

Any ideas?!

There may be different causes going on here, but it may be useful to state a few basics:

1. The AUDIO_TS folder is always empty - don't worry about it.
2. If you render video and audio separately, you need to be absolutely sure that they have identical names, apart from the file suffixes, and are in the same folder.
3. If you have rendered the audio as .wav rather than .ac3, make sure the project properties in DVDA are set to PCM wav and not AC3.
4. Menu audio is a separate option, so hearing one and not the other is quite possible, depending on what you have done.

Normally, if you can hear audio in preview, either with menu or video clip, this is what gets burned - if not there might be a particular build of DVDA that had this problem, but it would now be fixed - make sure you download the latest version

As I mentioned, I do have the latestet version. And after posting last night, I can't recall if I upgraded to the latest version right before burning to disk or not. In that case it would be going to version 4.5c from 4.5 that would have caused my audio to go out.

These are .mpg files from a HDD Camcorder so for my case audio is integrated and not cut as a separate track. So no audio was separately rendered; at leat directly.

I mastered the DVD w/ AC3 audio, but even after changing the project properties to PCM I still hear no sound. So

There are several places that things could have gone wrong -- hoping that this will help, here's what I recommend... It allows testing at every step of the way so if there is a problem you know it and can deal with it then and there instead of having a bad DVD in your hands and no idea where/why things went sour.

IMHO the best practice is to have your media files ready before starting DVDA... Render your ac3 files in Vegas (or use a free-ware app if your version of Vegas doesn't do ac3). You can verify the ac3 files are good by playing in a software DVD player. I have experienced Vegas rendering blank ac3 files -- not often, but enough that I always check to make sure the file is good, though preview in DVDA is usually sufficient. DVDA & Vegas use the same ac3 encoder.

The same can be said for the mpg2 video files -- have them ready before you start DVDA. Vegas and other encoding apps give you much more control with access to addt'l features. If you're not sure of the bit rate, use a bit rate calculator (there are plenty around). If it's necessary to re-encode mpg2, consider DGIndex & VFAPI or (if not encoding in Vegas) Avisynth.

At that point DVDA will basically just have to mux the streams into VOB files and create the IFOs that make everything work, at most encoding just the menu mpg2. Rendering your DVD to hdd allows you to test your DVD, plus lets you use dedicated burning software [I don't use my burning software to create video or DVDs -- why should I use DVDA as a burning program? -- And it's more efficient IMHO] Once you test your DVD on hdd, burn & test again on the PC, then on set top players.

If you have a problem on the player but not the PC, the player could be bad, the media incompatible, or the burner tired. If you have a problem on the PC, probably media but use Nero Speed to make sure your burner's good. If your DVD doesn't work from the hdd, & you checked the media files beforehand, DVDA screwed up.

In this situation -- with a bad DVD and nothing else -- you could dissect your project checking the individual files you used. You can also dissect your DVD, extracting the media files and making sure that they work. And you can copy your DVD to hdd to make sure that's OK. Otherwise even if you get things working the cause is still likely to be somewhat of a guess, and so perhaps repeatable in the future.