Importing m2v an ac3

[yhwhlives]

Hi. I am trying to burn a dvd from an hd source. MPEG Streamclip is able to demux the hd stream into two files: an m2v and an ac3. supposedly, if i import these into toast 7 it will burn it. but when I do, the m2v file says that it is 58 minutes long and the ac3 file is 42 minutes long. the 42 minutes is correct because I removed the commercials from it. the 58 minutes is probably the original length of the show. (house md) and toast adds the two times together and i am afraid it is going to burn the two sequentially instead of in synch. so, if anyone has some knowledge of burning a dvd from such files please help. the object is to save a tv show from an hd source onto a dvd in standard def but retaining the dolby digital sound. thats not asking too much is it? thanks,jd

[tsantee]

I've burned .m2v and ac3 files many times but don't recall having the problem you're experiencing. The process is to drag the .m2v file to the Toast Video window. Toast will automatically add the .ac3 file or open a dialogue box asking you to locate that file. They are then matched within the single title in the Video window. You can test how this will turn out by choosing Save as Disc Image from the File menu. When that's written go to the Copy menu and choose the Image File setting. Now select and mount the disc image. You can now watch the video with DVD Player. If all is okay, burn the DVD using the Copy window.

[miketall]

This is probably more for my knowledge than yours, but what are you using to get the audio/video files for your HD recording? For myself, I just use EyeTV, and it does a really great job at exporting a single file for use with Toast 7. Actually, easier than that, Toast 7 allows easy access to EyeTV 2 files without even having to open EyeTV 2. Editing the commercials out in EyeTV 2 is fairly easy, and I don't have to worry about mismatched audio/video sources.

 

From your workflow, is it inevitable that you end up with separate audio and video files?

 

In my EyeTV --> Toast workflow, it is fairly easy to let the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio source pass through and only re-encode the ATSC video source.

 

Here is a long-winded posting I made regarding audio passthrough if you need some insights on how Toast 7 handles this. These findings apply to my current version 7.02.

 

-Mike

[yhwhlives]

Thanks for the response. Yes I thought it would be that easy. There is surely something wrong with the demuxed m2v file. I did burn it and, as I suspected, it came out sequential. The video followed by the audio. The video played in something like slo motion so maybe that is why Toast reported that it would be a 58 minute length (when the source was 42) I then tried it with a 'headed MPEG' file. THis caused Toast to hang. I am currently encoding it to an avi file with (supposedly) ac3 passed directly. We'll see..

[yhwhlives]

This is probably more for my knowledge than yours, but what are you using to get the audio/video files for your HD recording?

 

 

I am using a samsung t-165 and Virtual dvhs from apple. it isn't as elegant as the eyetv set up and it seems to work only after i randomly hit a bunch of different buttons. never can remember which sequence adds up to success. but then i use mpeg streamclip which seems to work but i havent had enough success with the files it produces to give it thumbs up yet. i made some hd quicktime files which encoded in a scant 42 hours on my G4. the resultant .mov files are in hd with 5.1 sound but i have to wait 2 or 3 years before a processor is made that will play them smoothly. all i want is to be able to save the hd programs with reasonable good video quality maybe 720 x 480 and keep the dd 5.1 sound.

[tsantee]

I am using a samsung t-165 and Virtual dvhs from apple. it isn't as elegant as the eyetv set up and it seems to work only after i randomly hit a bunch of different buttons. never can remember which sequence adds up to success. but then i use mpeg streamclip which seems to work but i havent had enough success with the files it produces to give it thumbs up yet. i made some hd quicktime files which encoded in a scant 42 hours on my G4. the resultant .mov files are in hd with 5.1 sound but i have to wait 2 or 3 years before a processor is made that will play them smoothly. all i want is to be able to save the hd programs with reasonable good video quality maybe 720 x 480 and keep the dd 5.1 sound.

What I do when I capture HD sources via Virtual DVHS from my Motorola 6412 is open the TS file in Streamclip and choose Convert to MPEG. I then get an HD MPEG file that can be read by Toast. I've used Toast to create SD video DVDs from that file that retain the 16:9 format and 5.1 sound (if present). I also can use Toast to export to the Divx Hi Def Profile. The encoding takes awhile but not like 42 hours.

[yhwhlives]

What I do when I capture HD sources via Virtual DVHS from my Motorola 6412 is open the TS file in Streamclip and choose Convert to MPEG. I then get an HD MPEG file that can be read by Toast. I've used Toast to create SD video DVDs from that file that retain the 16:9 format and 5.1 sound (if present). I also can use Toast to export to the Divx Hi Def Profile. The encoding takes awhile but not like 42 hours.

 

This is precisely what I want...but Toast hangs when I start the project. The streamclip author responded to an email and said that his guide warned of this with toast 6. He said it also occurs with 7. But you said that you have had success with this? Perhaps I have a bad file. I'll try again with something smaller. Oh the 42 hours was encoding Seabiscuit to h.264 HD mp4 which I understand is always slow on a mac. But seriously it was about 3.5 days.

[tsantee]

This is precisely what I want...but Toast hangs when I start the project. The streamclip author responded to an email and said that his guide warned of this with toast 6. He said it also occurs with 7. But you said that you have had success with this? Perhaps I have a bad file. I'll try again with something smaller. Oh the 42 hours was encoding Seabiscuit to h.264 HD mp4 which I understand is always slow on a mac. But seriously it was about 3.5 days.

Yes I recently did this with an Elton John concert from NBC's HD channel. The only difference I can tell in our approach is I choose Convert to MPEG rather than to separate streams. That was done with my G5 iMac but I also did this with an HD movie and my 933mhz G4 iBook

[drealynn42]

Hi. I am trying to burn a dvd from an hd source. MPEG Streamclip is able to demux the hd stream into two files: an m2v and an ac3. supposedly, if i import these into toast 7 it will burn it. but when I do, the m2v file says that it is 58 minutes long and the ac3 file is 42 minutes long. the 42 minutes is correct because I removed the commercials from it. the 58 minutes is probably the original length of the show. (house md) and toast adds the two times together and i am afraid it is going to burn the two sequentially instead of in synch. so, if anyone has some knowledge of burning a dvd from such files please help. the object is to save a tv show from an hd source onto a dvd in standard def but retaining the dolby digital sound. thats not asking too much is it? thanks,jd

 

In case anyone else is still experiencing this issue, I have a suggestion.

 

I had similar trouble with a wmv3 converted to mpg. Toast hanged when I tried to burn it, so I demuxed it to .m2v and .aiff with Mpegstreamclip. When I burned the files in Toast, the video and audio were out of sync. It turned out that the .m2v was 9 minutes longer than the audio file. I tried everything to fix it without success. Then I discovered Visualhub, which worked perfectly. I was able to convert the original .wmv3 with Visualhub (the only Mac program I've found that can convert .wmv3 files!) to an .mpg that burned in Toast without any hangs or sync problems. It costs about $23, but I've found it to be worth the price since it works a million times better than any of the free programs I've tried! You can try a two minute trial on your problem file before buying it.

 

Download it here: http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/