Vegas Pro 16/18 is not allowing rendering of AC-3, 5.1 Surround audio.

wazza wrote on 5/30/2021, 5:47 PM

No problems rendering AC-3 Stereo audio in the same project. When attempting to render AC-3 5.1 Surround audio, I get the following on-screen message:

"The selected encode format requires the download of an add-on software module the first time the format is used. If you wish too proceed, ensure your PC is connected to the internet, then click "Yes"."

When I click "Yes", I get the following error message:

"Operational error

Installation failed, code: -1

On some systems this problem can be avoided by starting the application with the Windows "Run as Administrator" option then rendering the project again. After the component has downloaded successfully, the application can be closed and restarted normally without the "Run as Administrator" option."

I have a working fast broadband internet connection and have disabled my VPN. Does anybody have a guess as to what the "component" is that they refer to and why I'm not able to download it when following their on-screen instructions?

Comments

JN- wrote on 5/30/2021, 8:21 PM

@wazza As I understand it, the component is the codec that you would need to proceed, but it’s no longer available to download. Amazing that the message hasn’t been cleaned up in some way, as its ambiguous at best.

Theres tons of info on this issue in previous posts ... I wonder if you are using the latest build, see this in the News section, items addressed in vp18 b527 ... “Issues with recent Windows Update and AC3 decoding have been resolved”

Summarising the AC-3 issue with respect to 5.1 audio.

Magix feedback ...

"Starting with recent versions of Windows 10, the VEGAS line of products uses native Windows tools for stereo AC-3 encoding and decoding. It is not possible to encode 5.1 AC-3 files since they are not supported through the operating system. To encode 5.1 audio, use another audio codec such as WAV."

My take on addressing it ...

#1 Transcode to another codec, say, AAC or WAV.

#2 In VP the Sony AVC and the WAV codecs support 5.1.

#3 Before using items #2 above, set the “Project properties” Audio to 5.1

#4 Create a new 5.1 render template using either one of #2 items.

#5 Note that these new render templates will only be visible to you when #3 is applied.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/6-channels-not-working-on-svp18-only-static-noise--126134/#ca784950

WWAAG ...

“AFAIK, Vegas has never supported AC3 inside an MP4 container--it imports AC3 only from transport streams (m2t, m2ts, mts) and VOB files. “

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/mpg-clips-will-only-import-video-and-not-audio--124988/?page=1

“Mpeg files, which is a less frequently used older format, use a main concept decoder which requires a different audio decoder to handle its AC3 audio than mts and m2ts media. We are no longer able to use that decoder. We are looking at routing this through a new demuxer so the audio would be available again, but for now we are recommending transcoding files of this type.”

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/ac3-5-1--126467/

VEGAS_EricD

The VEGAS line of products uses native Windows tools for stereo AC-3 encoding and decoding. It is not possible to encode 5.1 AC-3 files since they are not supported through the operating system.

Dexcon wrote on 5/30/2021, 9:09 PM

If you have DVD Architect 6 or earlier, there is a way to get AC3-Pro (5.1) rendering in Vegas Pro 16. Please see item 31 in this forum's troubleshooting guide and follow the link in that item for details:

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/vegas-pro-faqs-and-troubleshooting-guides--104787/

My experience is that the above process does not work in either Vegas Pro 17 or 18. Also, I suspect that the process will not work using DVD Architect 7 because there have been some comments over the years on the forum that DVDA7 does not have the AC3-Pro format.

wazza wrote on 5/31/2021, 1:00 AM

Thank you to those who were able to enlighten me about the fact that Dolby AC-3, 5.1 Surround encoding had been omitted from all versions of Vegas Pro beginning with VP14. I was running VP13 on a Windows 7 Pro desktop workstation until I recently upgraded to a new workstation running VP18 on Windows 10. I quickly found out how many things had changed, but I wasn't prepared today to learn about this particular ommision. I'm pretty disgusted with Magix right now, and I wish there was another reasonable way for me edit video/audio and then author DVDs and Blu-ray discs in surround. Luckily for now, I found that I have access to VP13 and that it still is capable of encoding Dolby AC-3 files in surround. I only hope it will be stable enough to work in Windows 10 OS without constantly crashing and making me crazy in the process.