Audio adjust to elementary mpg error

[svcdmaker]

I have an mpeg2 with 5.1 sound where I am trying to adjust the audio level (this recodes the audio to mp2) and save directly to elementary streams. I receive "Error setting output options".

I can perform a two step conversion by converting the audio first then after saving to elementary. This error also exists on build 600. It works in TV suite 3 build 574.

Karl

[MrVideo]

If you are trying to keep it as AC3-DD5.1, you can't, as VRD cannot encode AC3 audio (licensing issues).

The best thing to do is leave the audio alone.

If you MUST play with the audio, it will have to be done with thirdparty software outside of VRD.

[Dan203]

I see the problem. I'll have it fixed in the next release. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dan

[MrVideo]

I see the problem.

I'm confused. What is the problem?

I'm assuming that the audio is AC3 DD5.1, which cannot be audio level changed and kept as AC3. If the audio is AAC, can that be level adjusted and kept as AAC?

The audio type is missing from the original post.

[Dan203]

The problem is that there was no "Auto" mode code in the profiles for ES output. This is because we were under the assumption that ES output would never require a recode to an alternate format unless requested specifically by the user. However adjusting the volume forces a recode and the profile code had no provision on how to set it up so it would throw an "Error setting output options" error.

I've now made the change so that if a volume change causes a recode during ES output it will save the audio as MP2 if the video is MPEG-2 or AAC if the video is either H.264 or MPEG-4.

svcdmaker - If you want to work around this for now you can click the Options button in Save dialog and explicitly set the audio format and bitrate.

Dan

[svcdmaker]

Dan,

Thanks for the workaround. This is something I have only tried once.

Mr. Video,

The error happened during an AC3 5.1 to MP2 audio recode during an audio level change while outputting elementary streams all at the same time. Dan has a solution that he is going to implement.

Karl

[Floobydust]

I have always wondered if you demux the audio, run the audio through AC3 Filter (http://ac3filter.net/) making necessary adjustments, and then remuxing, if that would work. Just thinking out loud.

Mike

[MrVideo]

The error happened during an AC3 5.1 to MP2 audio recode during an audio level change while outputting elementary streams all at the same time.

The question is why do you want to destroy AC3 and turn it into MP2?

[Dan203]

I have always wondered if you demux the audio, run the audio through AC3 Filter (http://ac3filter.net/) making necessary adjustments, and then remuxing, if that would work. Just thinking out loud.

I've done something similar using BeSweet and it worked fine. Just make sure to demux using VRD that way the sync is already adjusted and you don't have to worry about audio delay values when remuxing.

Dan

[Anole]

The question is why do you want to destroy AC3 ...
Yes, and generally I live with the volume level I'm given.
Even if it seems pretty far off where I think it should be.

I think it comes down to personal taste (and whether we agree with the original recording engineer).
But if anyone were to try to micro-manage the volume levels and get all their discs to match, that's asking for trouble. - :rolleyes:

[svcdmaker]

My original purpose was to take a piece of music from a movie and take the audio down to 5% of the original. This way I can maintain the video and not have to deal with the racket. I normally do this converting the audio to MP2 which VRD does nicely. This time I want to maintain the AC3 5.1 throughout the movie.

I tried Besweet without success on the 5.1 stream. Maybe I missed something. Dan, if you had a screenshot that would be nice to see. I also thought about AC3Filter but I can only see where it can be used for playback and not recoding. My current path appears to be to recode to mp2 with VRD and take back to 5.1 with another app. If someone has a better path I would like to try it.

This is a very uncommon editing issue so I do not need to invest much time in it.

Karl

[MrVideo]

My original purpose was to take a piece of music from a movie and take the audio down to 5% of the original. This way I can maintain the video and not have to deal with the racket.

Huh? You can't separate music from the rest of the soundtrack. If you reduce audio 95%, there won't be much left to listen to.

In other words, I'm still confused as to what you are actually doing.

[svcdmaker]

What I am trying to do is have a full length movie that contains one section a couple of minutes long with loud irritating music. The video is important to the story. I want to take the volume down for the entire AC3 5.1 to 5% of the original only for the two minute section so I do not have to hear it again.

I have found that total silence can be too distracting in some cases. Since the entire soundtrack is going to almost nothing to listen to, I do not care if the path of the conversion takes it through stereo first. I only need it to be AC3 5.1 when I am done.

If I want to keep the entire movie as AC3 5.1 then I need to reduce the volume of the one section of music and still maintain AC3 5.1, otherwise I cannot author to dvd.

Example:
30 min of movie untouched 5.1 sound
2 minutes of movie with reduced volume 5.1 sound
remainder of movie untouched 5.1 sound.

I hope this helps make it more clear.

Karl

[MrVideo]

I hope this helps make it more clear.

All that, just because you don't like a section of music?!

[svcdmaker]

Yes. That is normally why I use VRD and let it convert to stereo MP2 and call it done. It is far easier.

[Dan203]

Here is what I would do to accomplish your goal...

1) Cut the movie just before the offending music and save to a .mpg file.

2) Cut the portion after the offending movie and save that to a .mpg file.

3) Cut the section with the offending music and save to Elementary Streams.

4) Use Audacity, a free audio editor, to lower the volume on the audio stream. (apparently it can handle AC3 if you use FFmpeg as a plugin)

5) Use VideoReDo Tools->Elementary stream multiplexer to recombine the lower volume audio with the video.

6) Recombine all the clips to a single file using the VideoReDo joiner.

Dan

[svcdmaker]

Dan,

The steps you listed are the steps I currently use except for step 4. I had seen people reference using Audacity but I could not get it to work. It could be because the references I came across did not reference using ffmpeg as a plug in. I will give it a try and post my results.

Karl

[svcdmaker]

Works like a charm.

For the curious:
- make sure you use the new audacity beta
- download the ffmpeg plugin
- I still needed to set the location for the plugin
- change import/export option to use custom mix (otherwise you will get mono, see link)
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/315280-Audacity-With-FFmpeg-Plugin-Is-Amazing
- set the amplify effect to the appropriate -db level
- make sure you set the correct audio bit rate under options

Thanks for the help.

Karl

[Dan203]

Glad to help

Dan

[MrDave]

Works like a charm.

For the curious:
- make sure you use the new audacity beta
- download the ffmpeg plugin
- I still needed to set the location for the plugin
- change import/export option to use custom mix (otherwise you will get mono, see link)
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/315280-Audacity-With-FFmpeg-Plugin-Is-Amazing
- set the amplify effect to the appropriate -db level
- make sure you set the correct audio bit rate under options

Thanks for the help.

Karl

Just thought I would update how it works with the latest Audacity 1.3.13 beta.

The ffmpeg plugin now has its location set automatically.

Also, just for clarification, you set the correct audio bit rate under options. I had assumed that this options would have been someplace under Preferences but it was not.

This "options" is found after you select to Export.
Once the Export dialog is up you will see 3 buttons: Save, Cancel and Options.

[MrVideo]

Works like a charm.

Something to watch out for is audio delay, + or -. Audio is easily shifted when doing this kind of stuff.

So, after you've put the new audio with the video, open up two VRDs. Use one to view the originally cut piece and the 2nd to view the new lower audio piece.

Find a section in the old video where the audio has noticeable changes. Go to that exact same frame in the new video and compare the audio. Adjust it accordingly. Save the change as a project. Exit the new video VRD and use the first one to reassemble your pieces.

This will keep you from having possible audio glitches at the joints.