Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect
by Howard Ferrier
on
May 10, 2008 at 2:45:25 pm
I am desperately trying to finish my first "proper" project by tommorow night but I've been ambushed by a gremlin. I've tried several times to render the audio in AC-3 format for prepping to DVDA. The associated rendered MPEG2 video file size is 3.68GB so it's a fairly large project. It took just under 9 hrs. I first did this project in 2006 in Vegas 6 to send to my son overseas but this time around I have added a music soundtrack using Vegas 8. The project has 4 video tracks and 4 related audio tracks with an extra track for the music (9 tracks in all).
The rendering process gets to 2% on the meter then goes no further but the time counters keep running. The default selection was "AC-3 Studio AGC On" and the Custom button was greyed out. On one occasion I let the remaining time counter run out to more than 12 hours. Project name is Europe2006001.veg, video name is Europe2006_070508 which is what I was also using to save the rendered audio. I even tried saving the project as Europe2006_070508.veg without success. That's where my knowledge ends (before it begins really). I also created small projects for an intro and the credits and both those audio files rendered OK. Is this a common problem? Should I try another format? Thanks for any input.
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by Rob James on May 10, 2008 at 7:06:25 pm
Hi Howard........hmmmmm, seems like an odd problem. Don't you have a setting called Default Template in the Template slot of the AC-3 Render window, using the down arrow? If not I'm thinking something must have happened to your Vegas install. Also are you using Vegas 6.0, because I don't see any mention of "with Studio AGC on"? Also your Custom button shouldn't be ghosted, another reason why I think you'll have to re-install Vegas. As far as the file names go, maybe they are too long? Not sure of that, perhaps someone else could confirm or deny that? Could be the underscore mark, as well, I don't know. But what I would do first is re-install Vegas, make sure you have the Default Template back in AC-3 Render, and save it as Europe.AC-3 or 2006.AC-3, shorten the name up. On the screen, in DVDA, you can call in any name you want on the DVD. Instead of re-rendering your MPEG2 file, I'd re-name that to Europe.mpg. The only thing that is important, is that the .AC-3 and .MPG files have the same name and are rendered to the same folder. In this way you can rule out the long name and/or underscore mark theory. But personally I'm thinking a re-install will solve your problem. Best of luck, let us know how it goes.
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by Howard Ferrier on May 10, 2008 at 11:54:01 pm
Thanks for your reply Rob. I have reinstalled Vegas 8 and shortened the file name. Twice already this morning it has done exactly the same thing - stopped at 2%. I actually get a saved AC-3 file about 3500Kb in size but I haven't tried to play it.
When the Render As dialog box comes up I get a choice of AC-3 Pro or AC-3 Studio. If Pro selected I get 2 choices in the drop down box - Default Template & Stereo DVD. The Custom button is normal. If Studio is selected I get 3 choices in the box - Default Template, Stereo DVD & Stereo DVD AGC (Automatic Gain Control) On. When Studio is selected the Custome button greys out. ()The 2nd time I tried to render this morning I used AC-3 Pro; was using Studio.)
When I try to halt the render process by pressing the Cancel button nothing happens. When I press the X in top right corner to close the program I get a message saying something like process needs to be cancelled, press OK etc. I can press the close program X a hundred times and it won't do anything except bring up the message. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del and trying to end the program also results in clicking End Now a dozen times before the program eventually shuts down, in its own good time.
I am thinking it might be a song that is corrupting the process and if so how do I get around that? Can I split the project into several smaller projects, re-render the video & hopefuly the audio render will work? Am I able to rejoin the bits in DVDA? Are there certain audio file types that don't work in Vegas? I have previewed the entire project and it works fine.
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by John Kert on May 11, 2008 at 2:03:44 am
I know if you want to make a DVD via DVDA you need to render with AC3 pro. (and mpg2)
The only thing I can think of why Vegas hangs up is that it's trying to process something it does not have a codec for. You may check your audio tracks and files.
jk
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by Howard Ferrier on May 11, 2008 at 3:18:41 am
Thanks John. I checked all the audio files I loaded into the project and ecxept for 3 mp3 files, they are all wma files I transferred from my downloaded music folder and copied them to a separate folder for this project. As I said before the whole project plays perfectly in the preview window. I am a real novice at all this and my problem is I don't understand half the lingo being thrown around in the manual.
The only thing I can think of is to remove each song separately, render, and see what happens. I will of course save a copy of the file first. Bloody time consuming but probably better than starting again.
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by Mike Kujbida on May 11, 2008 at 12:38:31 pm
I was just thinking the same thing as Terry.
I've only come across one other person having a somewhat similar problem and it turned out to be WMA files as well.
His solution was to convert them to WAV files and then everything was OK.
You said they come from your downloaded music folder.
Is it possible these files are protected in some way, shape or form?
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by Howard Ferrier on May 11, 2008 at 11:27:03 pm
Thanks Terry & Mike for your suggestions. I went ahead and separated the project into 4 smaller ones and solved the problem but not the mystery. Every audio render took about 5-10 seconds. I will now do the video renders and rejoin them in DVDA. I assume it's pretty straightforward to rejoin them, I've never done it before.
Just also like to say these forums are invaluable for dummies like me and I sincerely thank all the guys who chipped in with advice & suggestions. Hopefully if I ever get a proper handle on Vegas I might be able to help solve someone else's problem down the track.
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by Howard Ferrier on May 12, 2008 at 11:27:56 am
I thought I'd better check the AC-3 files and it turns out they were all only about 40 seconds long due to me having the loop region only box ticked. So I re-rendered the complete projects x 4 and they all stalled at around 12%.
So I followed advice and converted all 40 odd songs to wav format and replaced the wma files. I placed the wav files on a new audio track then at the end deleted the audio track with the wma files on it. One thing I just noticed is that the first 7 tracks are "grouped" under track 1 - there is a small margin or column at the left of the 7 tracks & then the margin/column stops above the 8th track. It's hard to explain and probably nothing.
Completely confident the audio would render fine I was utterly deflated to see the thing stop at 2%. Any more lateral thinkers?
Re: Rendering AC-3 Audio for DVD Architect by Terry Esslinger on May 12, 2008 at 4:56:11 pm
For some reason it sounds like your tracks have been made child tracks but I don't see the connection to the rendering problem.
Can you place an individual wav file on the time line and just render it. Does it render out completely? You might find one that won't that could be the fly in your ointment.
Another thing you could try is highlight the wav track and then 'render to new track'. This will give you a new track with all the wav files rendered as one event. Does this work? Can you then use it as your audio track?
