Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

Ok I've been reading the forum, searching the net, and everything, and
I hope someone can gimme a bit of help here.

I digitized an AC-3 track (through an RF demodulator) into my computer
via the S/PDIF coax input on my soundcard.

I got the waveform, which shows the "bursts" of signal.

I used BeSplit to convert it to an .ac3 file, and it won't be read by
anything. (That is, the .ac3 file it generates isn't "valid".)

I've been going over this for a few days now, and I can't for the life
of me figure out what on earth might be causing it. I know a few
people on here have (in the past) claimed to digitize their LD AC-3
tracks successfully, so I would appreciate any tips you might have.
(And before people yell at me, I did indeed read the board!!)

I can even send a short test.wav if anyone wants to see it and maybe
they can tell me what's wrong?

Thanks!
Dan

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

There is an ac3 codec you will need, once that is installed you will
be able to play a .ac3 file.
Depending on what you want to do, reencode to wav or mpg conversions
can be made. I have done this alot in the past, but all that info is
on another computer. I will look for the link to the ac3 codec's and
if you want more information on how to convert, let me know, I can
probably help here.


Regards,
Ed



On 3 Apr 2005 17:27:32 -0700, dgoldwas@gmail.com wrote:

>Ok I've been reading the forum, searching the net, and everything, and
>I hope someone can gimme a bit of help here.
>
>I digitized an AC-3 track (through an RF demodulator) into my computer
>via the S/PDIF coax input on my soundcard.
>
>I got the waveform, which shows the "bursts" of signal.
>
>I used BeSplit to convert it to an .ac3 file, and it won't be read by
>anything. (That is, the .ac3 file it generates isn't "valid".)
>
>I've been going over this for a few days now, and I can't for the life
>of me figure out what on earth might be causing it. I know a few
>people on here have (in the past) claimed to digitize their LD AC-3
>tracks successfully, so I would appreciate any tips you might have.
>(And before people yell at me, I did indeed read the board!!)
>
>I can even send a short test.wav if anyone wants to see it and maybe
>they can tell me what's wrong?
>
>Thanks!
>Dan

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

No no - the issue isn't being able to PLAY a proper .ac3 file - I can
do that just fine.

I just can't seem to convert my WAV (ddwav??) which is the digital
chunks from the AC-3 RF demodulator to a proper .ac3 file using
BeSplit, which is what everything I read on here seems to suggest I
need to do.

Dan

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

dgoldwas@gmail.com wrote:
> No no - the issue isn't being able to PLAY a proper .ac3 file - I can
> do that just fine.
>
> I just can't seem to convert my WAV (ddwav??) which is the digital
> chunks from the AC-3 RF demodulator to a proper .ac3 file using
> BeSplit, which is what everything I read on here seems to suggest I
> need to do.

You need to get to the director where BeSplit is on your computer FROM
WITHIN the "Command Prompt" program. Once you do that then you type
EXACTLY (pay attention to spaces):

BeSplit -core( -input title.wav -prefix c:title -type ddwav -fix )

The above command line assumes that your wav file is called title.wav.
Obviously, your wave will be titled something different.

HTH,

-Junior

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

unclejr wrote:
> You need to get to the director where BeSplit is on your computer
FROM
> WITHIN the "Command Prompt" program. Once you do that then you type
> EXACTLY (pay attention to spaces):
>
> BeSplit -core( -input title.wav -prefix c:title -type ddwav -fix )
>
> The above command line assumes that your wav file is called
title.wav.
> Obviously, your wave will be titled something different.

Yeah, I've done all that. The problem is not generating a file... the
problem is generating one that isn't busted!!

Might it be that the WAV file itself isn't capturing properly? (Sure
looks like it is, to me, but what do I know??!)

Dan

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

dgoldwas@gmail.com wrote:
> Yeah, I've done all that. The problem is not generating a file...
> the problem is generating one that isn't busted!!
>
> Might it be that the WAV file itself isn't capturing properly? (Sure
> looks like it is, to me, but what do I know??!)

Did you capture 16-bit stereo?

-Junior

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

unclejr wrote:
> Did you capture 16-bit stereo?

Yep. I captured at 16-bit, 48kHz Stereo.

Again: I followed all the directions and suggestions posted on here
previously; the only difference is that BeSplit doesn't spit out a
valid .ac3 file.

Dan

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

dgoldwas@gmail.com wrote:
> Yep. I captured at 16-bit, 48kHz Stereo.
>
> Again: I followed all the directions and suggestions posted on here
> previously; the only difference is that BeSplit doesn't spit out a
> valid .ac3 file.
>
> Dan

And your Windows Media Player plays all of your other (valid) .ac3
files, right?

Have you taken your .ac3 file to a Macintosh and tried playing it with
A.Pack?

If you want, you can send me your captured raw .wav file *AND* your
transcoded .ac3 file, and I can play around with it for you. I can be
reached at:

unclejrusenet(at)yahoo(dot)com

HTH,

-Junior

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

unclejr wrote:
> And your Windows Media Player plays all of your other (valid) .ac3
> files, right?

Yes.

> Have you taken your .ac3 file to a Macintosh and tried playing it
with
> A.Pack?

I don't have a Mac. But other AC3 tools I have can't read the .ac3
file.

> If you want, you can send me your captured raw .wav file *AND* your
> transcoded .ac3 file, and I can play around with it for you.

Sure, if you think that would help. I'll just capture a snippet of the
chunks for you - about 30 sec or so.

Thanks!
Dan

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

dgoldwas@gmail.com wrote:
> Sure, if you think that would help. I'll just capture a snippet of
> the chunks for you - about 30 sec or so.

I'm only posting this, so everyone in alt.video.laserdisc land knows
what I've concluded after looking at the OP's files and communicating
with him via e-mail...

The OP has an Audigy 2 sound card. AFAIK, the Audigy soundcards
resample the AC-3 bitstream to make it useless for capturing DD 5.1.
Here are all of my posts on the subject:

<http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=cmi+8738&qt_s=Search+Groups&enc_author=eK0eoRIAAADNX1sxa58sSuq99I64kpKhXhCB4QcPl6lXbV1Kj59r2Q>

>From a previous post of mine in alt.video.dvd.authoring:

"Creative Audigy resamples the raw digital bitstream, and because
of this, mangles it so as to make the resulting capture unusable for
DD 5.1. You will have to capture with the C-Media CMI 8738 sound card

to get a bit for bit recording of AC-3 audio (from your RF
demodulator) onto your computer in PCM (48 kHz, 16-bit, stereo)
format. AFAIK, the CMI 8738 is the ONLY chip set that will allow you
to capture the AC3 data without corrupting it. Once you purchase a
C-Media card, you will also have to get the correct driver for your
OS, since the drivers on the CD-ROM that come with the card are more
than likely going to be woefully out-of-date (especially for Windoze
XP). Download the most up-to-date driver from:

<http://www.cmedia.com.tw/downl oad/OS_e-cmi8738_index.htm>"

And a previous post of mine in alt.video.dvd.authoring:

"The only way you are going to know if you can do this is to make the
investment into buying a CMI 8738 chip set audio card with either
optical and/or coaxial SPDIF inputs. They can be had pretty cheaply
online. I bought my optical "Chaintech 6 Channel Sound Card Model
AV515M" at www.newegg.com for less than $30 after shipping."

HTH all interested parties (besides the OP),

-Junior

Archived from groups: alt.video.laserdisc (More info?)

dgoldwas@gmail.com wrote:

> I used BeSplit to convert it to an .ac3 file, and it won't be read by
> anything. (That is, the .ac3 file it generates isn't "valid".)

When I was doing this, I think I used Cooledit and had to specify 48kHz
16 bit stereo PCM Motorola byte orientation. But it's been so long
since I tried this, I've forgotten why I had to do it and where in the
processing chain this needed to be done. The important element seemed
to be the Motorola byte orientation rather than the Intel byte orientation.

The others might be right in that the soundcard may be an issue: I used
a C-media 8738 based soundcard at the time.