audio problems for hardsubbing

I hope I'm posting in the right thread. Well, I have a question to ask if anyone can help me out.

I'm trying to burn a video with soft subs together into a hardsubbed video by using TMPGEnc. I already converted my .srt file to a .ssa file, and I did everything else that I was supposed to do in Virtualdub. The problem is, when I try to burn the hardsubbed video in TMPGEnc, the audio for the video is really bad. The video turns out great and the subtitles work but I can't figure out what's wrong with the audio sound. I already converted the audio to a .wav file and the sound did get better but when I play the video, the audio sound still sounds choppy. Can anyone tell me what the problem is? I spent nearly five hours trying to make the audio sound normal but I'm all frustrated.

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:54 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Could give us a more detailed description? Smile

What exactly are you using VirtualDub for?

What are you converting to? MPEG1, MPEG2, other?

If you're target audio format is MP2 then the default encoder in TMPGEnc sucks (if I remember correctly).

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:18 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I just went to: http://www.videohelp.com/srtsubsvirtual.htm
And I followed all of the steps there in order to combine the subtitles with the video. That's what I used Virtualdub for. I'm converting a .AVI file to a .MPG file. Then in TMPGEnc, I just encoded the whole video with the subtitles to form a hardsubbed video. But after the encoding finished, and I watched the hardsubbed video, the audio sounded bad. Other than that, the video is in good condition and the subtitles were fine.

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:34 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I see, you're using VirtualDub as a frame server... Smile

I think TMPGEnc:s audio encoder is the problem.

Let TooLame and SSRC do the encoding instead.

You can read about how to download and install them here:
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=282992

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:35 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Thanks so much. Yes, I'll try TooLame and SSRC. You just saved me from another five hours of trying to figure out what's wrong and total frustration.

EDIT: I downloaded and installed TooLame and SSRC already. I did exactly what the website told me to do. I opened up TMPGEnc and I went to "Options" to "Environmental Settings" to "Audio Engine". Then I clicked on "external program" for both audio layer II and sampling frequency convertor. I browsed for "TooLame.exe" for the audio layer II encoder part, and then I browsed for "ssrc.exe" for the sampling frequency convertor. After that, I went to encode my whole video which is an .AVI file to a .MPG file. But when I watched the hardsubbed video, the audio is still bad. The audio is at the right volume that I want it to be and it goes in-line with the video but it sounds choppy and broken up.
Also, whenever I listen to the .wav file in windows media player, the .wav sounds really good. But when I listen to it in TMPGEnc, the .wav sounds broken up. PLEASE help.
I hope this is descriptive enough.

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:23 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If anyone knows what's wrong, please tell me since I've been working on this for hours after hours.

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:02 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Sorry, I won't give you the solution for your problems., but only suggestions.

Before using VDub as a frameserver for TMPGEnc, why don't you give a try with VDub only ?
1. Follow the tutorial from videohelp.com until "File > Start Frame Server"
2. Select a video compressor (Video > Compression - XviD one pass is good for a first try) and an audio compressor (Audio > Compression or Stream > Stream List > Compression (right click on the stream) - MPEG1-Layer 3 for example, but check the sampling rate)
3. Save the file.

Now you have a hardsubbed avi file.
If you want to go further by converting to MPEG-2, use TMPGEnc normally.

I assumed you had a little experience with VDub encoding. If not, or if there's a problem, post again in this topic.

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:23 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

A hardsubbed AVI file is also fine for me.

Le Piaf : I tried following your suggestions but when I tried to save my file as AVI, I just got a message that said: No audio decompressor could be found to decompress the source audio format.

You're right about me having little experience with Virtualdub encoding.

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:33 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:44 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Oh it's ok about that. At least I learned something new today: that the word "assume" doesn't have the same meaning in French and in English.

I got the hardsubbed AVI file. *yay* I'm so happy. Thank you thank you!