i am having a problem with xvid movies encoded with an ac3 soundtrack. every time i try to play the movie it crashes me out to the dreaded blue screen of death (bsd). i used to be able to play them just fine, but then i reinstalled windows (to much junk on previous install) and put in a sound blaster audigy gamer sound card. i was using the on board sound but that sounded like dog squeeze. i do not have the spdif hooked up at this time, but the sound card says it is capable of playing ac3 files. ac3 files actully show up in the file associations for one of the playback apps that came with the card. i also have power dvd and bsplayer installed. bs player will play back the movie with no sound, power dvd crashes the pc as well as windows media 9. thanks in advance for any assistance.
Have you uninstalledthe AC3 codec, rebooted, and reinstalled your AC3 codec? For that matter, I'd uninstall the codec, reboot, and try playing the movie before you reinstall just to see if there is any change.
ok i have tried to do what you have suggested, i uninstalled and rebooted. the movie played fine, with the exception of there being no sound at all but windows did not crash. i installed the ac3 filter and tried to play again and blammo....crashed. so i again unistalled the ac3 filter. will and ac3 encoded movie play on the computer without using a spdif? my pc configuration has changed since my last post. i am no longer using the on board sound as it sucked. i have a sound blaster audigy gamer and the spdif connector is different. as always thank you for the assistance.
I'm not familiar with the spidf but my first instinct would be that the problem isn't with that, it's with the AC3 codec, I'd look for another one. And thanks for the boost to my ego but I just try to help where I can. Maybe someday I'll solve more problems than I cause.
you are always on the money when it comes to helping me out with my problems. and as always i apreciate the help!
are there any ac3 codecs that you would recomend? the only one i keep finding is the one that is causing the problems. one more question i have, for the movies that i converted with the ac3 sound. is there any way to extract the audio and convert it to mp3? this is just in case i cannot find a suitable codec. plus i have the movies burned on disc, so i can alway watch the "good version" when i find a fix for the problem. thanks again for the assistance!
As far as extracting the audio I cannot recommend any programs, all my experience with extracting audio has been doing it directly from the VOB's with DVD2AVI. However for converting to MP3 I've always used BeSweet with the GUI. The AC3 codec I use I believe is version .66b. Here's a copy of it - http://divxstation.com/softwareId.asp?sId=163
i actually found a ac3 codec that, so far seems to work ok. it was the ac3 filter causing my pc to crash. v67 was what i have been using, but since finding the codec i have uninstalled the filter and every thing is working great. thanks as always for the help. i am sure i will be back soon with another question/problem. until then, have a good one!
BTW: you can extract the audio from the movie using virtualDub, and then convert the ac3 file to mp3 or ogg using a program called HeadAC3he. Sorry i don't remember where i downloaded it from, but i'm sure searching google for it will help ya
