2ch AC3 audio problems... at DVinfo.net

James Connors · November 6th, 2005, 01:08 PM

I made up a compilation disc of bands i'd filmed over the last few years, burnt up a hundred copies and sold them all (bar about 5) on the weekend. Great i think, i tested the master on my dvd player and my friends dvd player on both widescreen and fullscreen tvs.. surely there won't be a problem!

But of course there be... the menu screen is PCM audio and works fine for everyone.. the main presentation i converted from the wave output i got from my render process (DVD MPEG2 profile) into AC3 using BeSweet GUI as 1gb for the audio is just too big for my disc. This is where the problems are causing for people.. i thought ac3 2ch was standard on all the "hollywood" discs, so i don't see whats causing the problem. My dvd setup is multichannel, but i put everything back to default, and it still plays fine.. but on my friends sony, as soon as the DD light comes up, the audio stops. he didn't have his remote with him, so i couldn't look thru setup screens, but it really should work by default.

People say they have the problem on the pc too, with things like powerdvd etc.. i tried it in VLC and it worked fine, but VLC is extra special when it comes to compatability etc.....

Any advice? I'm pretty sure i'm gonna have to recall em, and hopefully i can build a new master.. but i don't want there to be a problem the 2nd time around.

Dan Euritt · November 7th, 2005, 01:56 PM

congrats on selling 100 copies!

it's not clear whether you are mixing pcm audio and ac3 on the same disc? probably not a good idea.... i would stick with ac3 over pcm, even on pal discs... i send a couple of hundred ac3 pal discs to england every year, no compatibility problems at all.

sony dvd players are unreliable, as are the software dvd players on computers... i would only exchange the discs that people are complaining about, no sense in recalling the entire 100-lot set.

maybe re-author with ac3 only, same settings on all of the audio... are you using cheap discs, or a sony burner?

James Connors · November 12th, 2005, 07:47 PM

Hi Dan, sorry about the massive delay, haven't been in an awful lot this week to check the messages.

Yep i kept PCM on the menu simply because it wasn't worth the transcoding to save a few megabytes, probably for the best as i could pinpoint the problem being the AC3 track. I'm guessing besweet has just done a dodgy job of it and has flagged it "a bit weird", as my panasonic had no problems with it at all (and i even tried to 'break' it by swapping all the menu options around!) typical for me to have the 1/100 piece of equipment it worked on!

Feedback coming thru makes it sound that the majority of people are having problems (and turns out the duplication was a big tainted too, so double ouch! but that wasn't my job at least hehe) so i'll just get the 100 rebatched. Not sure what drives were used, the media was all branded Ritek tho so shouldn't have been a problem.

Thanks for the props with the sales, it was a couple of years of work that i'd done with a specific promoter, lots and lots of tapes to dig thru and choose a song... alas it was time limited so i didn't do as good a job as i could on it, but since that was all recorded i've obtained a load of new equipment... and you know what consumers are like: you say "i've changed from mics only, to a combination of 8 channel soundboard feed and microphones mixed, and from full screen to proper widescreen adapters" and they say "Yeah? it looks the same to me." or "I preferred it before" heh.

I've done a new master using the TMPGenc AC3 codec instead, and i've sent someone away with it, and hoping to get an SMS with the all clear soon! Thinking about it i should've normalised the audio properly as I'd forgotten to do that before, ouch.. there's always something i forget! Still its a budget disc, its nearly 2 hours long and nobody else around here does anything like it (its generally a local interest thing) so nobody will complain.. i hope! :)

Cheers

November 6th, 2005, 01:08 PM	#1
James Connors Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Cardiff, UK Posts: 223	2ch AC3 audio problems... I made up a compilation disc of bands i'd filmed over the last few years, burnt up a hundred copies and sold them all (bar about 5) on the weekend. Great i think, i tested the master on my dvd player and my friends dvd player on both widescreen and fullscreen tvs.. surely there won't be a problem! But of course there be... the menu screen is PCM audio and works fine for everyone.. the main presentation i converted from the wave output i got from my render process (DVD MPEG2 profile) into AC3 using BeSweet GUI as 1gb for the audio is just too big for my disc. This is where the problems are causing for people.. i thought ac3 2ch was standard on all the "hollywood" discs, so i don't see whats causing the problem. My dvd setup is multichannel, but i put everything back to default, and it still plays fine.. but on my friends sony, as soon as the DD light comes up, the audio stops. he didn't have his remote with him, so i couldn't look thru setup screens, but it really should work by default. People say they have the problem on the pc too, with things like powerdvd etc.. i tried it in VLC and it worked fine, but VLC is extra special when it comes to compatability etc..... Any advice? I'm pretty sure i'm gonna have to recall em, and hopefully i can build a new master.. but i don't want there to be a problem the 2nd time around.

November 7th, 2005, 01:56 PM	#2
Dan Euritt Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Carlsbad CA Posts: 1,132	congrats on selling 100 copies! it's not clear whether you are mixing pcm audio and ac3 on the same disc? probably not a good idea.... i would stick with ac3 over pcm, even on pal discs... i send a couple of hundred ac3 pal discs to england every year, no compatibility problems at all. sony dvd players are unreliable, as are the software dvd players on computers... i would only exchange the discs that people are complaining about, no sense in recalling the entire 100-lot set. maybe re-author with ac3 only, same settings on all of the audio... are you using cheap discs, or a sony burner?

November 12th, 2005, 07:47 PM	#3
James Connors Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Cardiff, UK Posts: 223	Hi Dan, sorry about the massive delay, haven't been in an awful lot this week to check the messages. Yep i kept PCM on the menu simply because it wasn't worth the transcoding to save a few megabytes, probably for the best as i could pinpoint the problem being the AC3 track. I'm guessing besweet has just done a dodgy job of it and has flagged it "a bit weird", as my panasonic had no problems with it at all (and i even tried to 'break' it by swapping all the menu options around!) typical for me to have the 1/100 piece of equipment it worked on! Feedback coming thru makes it sound that the majority of people are having problems (and turns out the duplication was a big tainted too, so double ouch! but that wasn't my job at least hehe) so i'll just get the 100 rebatched. Not sure what drives were used, the media was all branded Ritek tho so shouldn't have been a problem. Thanks for the props with the sales, it was a couple of years of work that i'd done with a specific promoter, lots and lots of tapes to dig thru and choose a song... alas it was time limited so i didn't do as good a job as i could on it, but since that was all recorded i've obtained a load of new equipment... and you know what consumers are like: you say "i've changed from mics only, to a combination of 8 channel soundboard feed and microphones mixed, and from full screen to proper widescreen adapters" and they say "Yeah? it looks the same to me." or "I preferred it before" heh. I've done a new master using the TMPGenc AC3 codec instead, and i've sent someone away with it, and hoping to get an SMS with the all clear soon! Thinking about it i should've normalised the audio properly as I'd forgotten to do that before, ouch.. there's always something i forget! Still its a budget disc, its nearly 2 hours long and nobody else around here does anything like it (its generally a local interest thing) so nobody will complain.. i hope! :) Cheers