morning tech geekery; help

[amezri]

I had a big post all typed up and then I clicked something and crashed the computer and now it's all gone. OMG. *stabs computer repeatedly* I will try to sum up:

7:50AM - 8:30AM: Checked on DVD set to burn last night. Completed, yay. Test plays. Video is all glitchy. wtf?! Try to convert with TMPGEnc. Audio decompressor error. Try VirtualDub. Error. Search Google for half an hour. Try new AC3 audio decompressor. Error still. Search some more. Download GSpot to figure out what audio codec is. Is MPEG-1 Layer 2, whcih I have decompressor for, clearly as it frelling plays. Search more. download AVI2WAV. It extracts wav file. yay! Convert to mpg. Video still fubar. Fiddle with settings. Not helpful. *headdeskrepeatalot* GIVEUPOMG.

8:45AM: Decide to try converting SGA episode. Extract audio. Convert in VirtualDub. Audio is way off. Frustrated. *smash*

9:15AM: Crash machine where I'm writing a post because I accidentally tried to start a Nero install. Argh.

9:30AM: Fiddle more. Mess with audio skew. Convert. Works, yay! Until you get about 10 seconds in and the skew becomes progressively worse.

10:00AM: Mess with programs some more. Look stuff up. *frustratedannoyed*

And now I'm late for work. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what program to use to burn XviD files with various audio compressions (AC3, MP3, MP1 LII) to DVD so it will keep aspect ratio? (ie, add black bars to the top and bottom to keep image from stretching in a normal TV)

PowerProducer will burn these files with that seems like no problem, except I cannot figure out how to keep aspect ratio - it's probably not a feature. Will Nero Ultra keep aspect ratio? Roxio 7.5? DVDAuthor? Argh. I'd rather not have to install al of these programs and waste blanks just to find out. Help! *cries*

Comments

[crzydemona.livejournal.com]

Ugh... sounds like me on my music video making quest. I wish I had helpful advise. Best of luck!

Jen

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[mrbig1316.livejournal.com]

TMPGEnc

There's a section in the edit tools for Clip Frame. Go to that. Once in there select the secondary screen and select "Keep Aspect Ratio".

Its not a 16x9 DVD file, but it reatins its widescreen.

I believe the newest TMPGEnc actually does do 16x9. I just had issues with the sound conversion on that one.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

That I know. The problem is that TMPGEnc and VirtualDub will not read the audio streams from the xvid file for conversion. That's the issue I've been fighting with this morning. I was able to extract the audio to wav using avi2wav, but then when you try to sync it up, it skews and gets progressively worse.

My DVD burning software will read & convert the files no problem, but there is no feature for keeping aspect ratio. I read a quick review of Roxio 7.5 that mentions, but I don't know, so I'm hoping someone can confirm that.

[demonhunter.livejournal.com]

i believe DVD Santa may work... but its been a year or two since i bothered with converting files to dvd. From what i remember, it was very simple, just load up the files you want to convert to dvd and hit start, with options to keep the aspect ratio, etc. Only issue is that it did not easily support menus.

[mrbig1316.livejournal.com]

USe the .wav file for your audio source on TMPGEnc and load it FIRST. Then load your .avi (or .xvid) file.

That worked for me.

Try also downloading the latest batch of codecs.

BT has the latest DivX bundles and such and that helps, believe me.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Ooo... that I did not try. I will give that a shot next chance I get. Hopefully that will work ^^

Will also check out latest codec bundles. Thanks!

[mrbig1316.livejournal.com]

ANytime! we technogeeks need to help each other out. *g*