TV program saved to DVD - now there's no sound on either Win Media Player or Archos 5

Hello forum members

I hope you can help as this is driving me mad! I bought my young son a new Archos 5 - he has a number of TV shows recorded off the TV onto DVD and I put a couple on my computer (Vista) and converted them to AVI files. (Can't recall why I converted them to AVI - I have been trying to solve this for so long now). Anyway, although the video aspect plays there is no sound.

I have spent over many many hours researching this on the internet and downloading and then discarding various programs to try and get the sound working.

I have phoned Archos support and they are totally useless. They told me to convert the file to a WMV file and that should work - but it did not.

I am not a techie and have no clue about codecs etc... but I think it is a codec problem? I stupidly made the mistake of thinking he could watch some of his favourite TV shows on the Archos when he goes into hospital soon for a lengthy stay.

Can anyone help?

Simple answers only please as I am not a techie - just a frustrated mum who is about to give up!

Thank you.

 

What program did you use to convert to AVI?

Download MediaInfo, open the AVI with it and tell us what type of audio stream is in that AVI file.

 

I used Fast DVD Ripper to change the files to AVI.

I have downloaded and run the program you suggested - in the results I cannot see anything at all that refers to audio stream. It mentions video nd various other gobbledygook but nothing about audio.

 

You didn't see anything like this?
.

.Then that's where the problem is, somehow you converted just the video. I am not familiar with that converter you used, I would use something else, there are plenty of free good programs that will do the conversion.

 

There is nothing at all mentioned about Audio. Can you please suggest another free program that will convert the DVD to AVI and not lose the audio?

 

You can use AutoGK ( http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_to_avi_using_autogk.cfm ).

Launch AutoGK and drag to it the Video_TS.IFO .

Unless you bought the extra plug-in,the player supports a maximum resolution of 640x480, so in the settings choose "Maximum Width" 640. For the audio you need to choose MP3.

I don't know how long the shows you try to convert are. For a full feature 90ish minute movie,choose "Custom Size", 698MB is okay, if is a one hour show(which are never one hour, you got commercials), I would choose 350MB.
It might sound complicated, but it isn't at all all you have to do is a couple of clicks and enter a custom size MB value like I mentioned.

 

Thank you for your help. I'll shall have a go and post back a bit later. The shows from TV are just a series of 30-45 min shows he likes and which were saved to DVD. If I can solve this then I (and he) will be so pleased.

 

I am not sure how the recording was done, if it saves as one single title, or as multiple titles(one for each show). If you have any problems, hit us back.

 

I'm back already!

I can't see how to drag Auto GK into the Video TS.IFO file. So I tried to go via the input file line in Auto GKand search out the file that way - which I did - but then it comes up with 'error parsing file'

There are 5 episodes but all are untitled!

 

I don't know what's wrong with the file structure on the recorded DVD, and rather than trying to fix it, I would try a different converter(it is free as well).
Same as I meant with AutoGK, drag the Video_TS.IFO into the converter, not the other way around.

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Use these settings:

 

Thanks again for the help. Sorry I have not been back till now (it's been a mad day for me). I shall work through the above suggestion and post back.

 

Hi again

I have tried the above solution to no avail. I get a message saying 'no audio stream in this video file.'

I can play this dvd in a dvd player and it has sound so I don't understand why the computer cannot play the sound (only the visual bit) or why the various things I am trying are saying there is no audio.

The programmes were recorded from Sky onto a Sky+ box and then put onto dvd. Does this make any difference?

The files on the dvd are in 2 folders - one is Video RM and this only contains Video_RM.DAT and the other folder is Video TS and contains Video_TS.VOB and then six other files with very similar names with .VOB on the end.

I'm confused completely why the dvd will play ok in a dvd player but not the computer - so until I get get it to play at all with sound in the computer then presumably there is little point in ripping it (apart from literally ripping it in half... which this point is very tempting.)

 

Did you finalize the disc? That might be the problem. Your set top recorder should have an option to finalize the disc...I an honestly running out of ideas...

 

Okay, thinking about it, if the DVD were not finalized, it wouldn't read at all in the PC probably.

See if you can open the Video_TS folder in DVD Shrink and re-save it.

 

Unfortunatey no luck with DVD Shrink either. I get a message saying saying DVD Shrink encountered an error and cannot continue. Invalid DVD navigation structure.

I have tried playing the DVD on 3 different home computers now - 2 are XP and one is Vista - all give video but no audio.

On 3 different DVD players it's different. On a Sanyo DVD-SX25 (which is an older DVD player) - plays perfectly - no problems.

On a Toshiba XDE600 it will play sound but then the sound keeps pausings and juddering and sometimes the voices are out of sync with the lips.

Finally - on the DVD recorder where the DVD was made (Bush DVR3004)it plays fine wth no probs at all.

 

If you go in the Video_TS folder and try to play the individual VOB files(not the entire DVD as one), can you play them okay on the computer?

 

Yes I can play them.

 

You can play them with sound?
Then use the software that I suggested in a previous post, Any Video Converter. Open it and drag each VOB file in the converting window, in order(the VOB files should be numbered). Hold Ctrl key on your keyboard and select all the VOBs, then right-click the mouse and choose "Merge Output". In the preview window, see if you have audio when you play them.It will look something like this:

 

When I click the merge output it unchecks all the boxes except the top one. Is this what should happen?

 

Yes, it's okay.All the others should be italicized and grayed out.