No Audio in Windows Media Player

[misstruss]

Have used the Ripper tool to make a backup of a DVD, in this case, The Honesman. When I play the video with Windows Media Player, there is no audio at all. When I play it with VLC, the audio is fine.

I am using the Advanced Settings option which says "Copy Audio" and each box is marked "Same As Source". That would tell me that full audio is being copies from the DVD, essentially making the resulting file have the same audio format as the DVD had.

If I play the DVD directly in Windows Media Player the audio is fine and in the corner it say Dolby Digital Plus.

Why would WMP play the audio just fine directly from the DVD but have no audio at all in the ripped version?

Thanks!

Misstruss

[90312]

Sounds like an MP3 audio stream that WMP can't play natively. Try making it with AAC audio.

[misstruss]

Sounds like an MP3 audio stream that WMP can't play natively. Try making it with AAC audio.

Thanks for the quick reply.... Please help me understand.

If the original DVD had formats WMP could play, and if DVDFab is set to copy all of those formats over to the ripped copy, then why doesn't the copy have the same playable formats that the original DVD did?

I would expect the copy to have the full capability as the original if the option is selected to copy the source audio format(s) over to the copy.

Thanks,

Misstruss

[90312]

Are you making an AVI or MP4 or what? I see if I can duplicate the issue?

[90312]

I just tried one using audio copy and the audio stream was AC-3. WMP won't play it? You may have to go to AAC audio or get DVDfab Media Player it will play anything.

[90312]

I tried one with AAC and WMP plays it fine. Looks like AC-3 is a no-go.

[misstruss]

As you probably surmised, I am making MP4s. I test play them on my PC but for normal purposes, I play them on one of my home theaters. In one case it is a Playstation, in the other case a Popcorn Hour Media player. They can both play the DVDs and I would hope that DVDFab would create comparable, playable copies. DVDFab shouldn't reduce the "playability" of the DVD.

I would expect that the video and audio CODECs would be universally compatible and if the player can play the DVD, the same player should be able to play the ripped copy. If WMP can play the DVD, and it does, I would expect the "same as source" output to also be playable by WMP.

Is the implication that there are multiple audio streams on the DVD and that WMP finds one that works with it on the PC, but that same set of audios streams have not been copied to the ripped copy to make it still playable?

That tells me that you aren't getting full "same as source" audio.

Thanks.

[90312]

Not a mystery, the agreement for the DVD standard is solid, but the folks at AC-3 wants mega bucks for the privilege of decoding their audio on video players. Microsoft and most others have refused to cough it up and won't play the audio. Your files will play fine on the PS3 and your media player.

[MrVideo]

Not a mystery, the agreement for the DVD standard is solid, but the folks at AC-3 wants mega bucks for the privilege of decoding their audio on video players. Microsoft and most others have refused to cough it up and won't play the audio.

Interesting, since decoding is not supposed to cost anything (AFAIK). Case in point, I use the video editing program VideoReDo. They can play/decode AC3 all they want. But, to recode AC3 would require that they pay a fee and they won't. VLC will play all of the audio formats that Dolby and DTS have, again, without paying any fees and that player is free.

DVD and Blu-ray players that decode DD and DTS probably use chips that do cost money.

[90312]

If the software company is not in the US well...

[MrVideo]

Nope, U.S. company. I believe that VLC is also produced in the U.S. The developers of VideoReDo have specifically talked about AC3 encoding and needing a license to do so.

Dolby-E is another beast. That does require licensing in order to extract the audio from a Dolby-E stream. That is why I've never found a free software package that can deal with Dolby-E. Dolby-E is not used on consumer product audio tracks.