Video editors/converters with AC3 support

[Anupam]

Although I am not very confident if there will be such a free software, but here goes. Anyone knows of free video editors with support for videos with AC3?

My friend has a Sony handycam, and it produces videos with MPEG-2 video, and AC3 audio.

He has Pinnacle Studio 9, and Ulead Video Studio 8, but they both do not support videos with AC3 audio. So, I was wondering if there is a free video editor which will support that.

There is another part to this question, in case such a video editor does not exist.

I tried to convert the video files to MPEG-2 files with MP2/MP3 as audio using several video converters, but was not successful. I think this is because of the AC3 audio present in the video files. Most of them were able to convert the video, but when played, the audio will not be present for quite some duration of time.

The only converter that was able to successfully convert with the audio was Koyote Video Converter, but its output is not being taken by Pinnacle Studio, and throws an error saying something about interlacing. There is a checkbox for deinterlacing the video in Koyote Converter, but its a no-go, for both cases, checked, or unchecked.

Any video converter, which can successfully perform this conversion?
So far I have tried FormatFactory, Any Video Converter, Oxelon Media Converter, MediaCoder, Iwisoft Video Converter etc.

On searching about video editors with AC3 support, I came across a forum where a guy was talking about demuxing the streams to convert the audio to another format, and then muxing the streams back. I think that might be the right way to go about it?

If yes, which software can achieve that, and please provide with a good tutorial to do that?

[wdhpr]

This post may help but I understand if you delete it.

I own a Sony Handycam and it came bundled with VideoStudio 8 SE Basic by Ulead and it worked flawlessly.

But there is a problem I think this software may be shareware. If you Google the name of this software you can see for yourself. I was also able to convert and burn my movies with Nero but I doubt the freeware version of Nero will do the job. I don't know I own the paid version.

Perhaps your friend could obtain the software from Sony.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by Anupam

I tried to convert the video files to MPEG-2 files with MP2/MP3 as audio using several video converters, but was not successful. I think this is because of the AC3 audio present in the video files. Most of them were able to convert the video, but when played, the audio will not be present for quite some duration of time.

The only converter that was able to successfully convert with the audio was Koyote Video Converter, but its output is not being taken by Pinnacle Studio, and throws an error saying something about interlacing. There is a checkbox for deinterlacing the video in Koyote Converter, but its a no-go, for both cases, checked, or unchecked.

Any video converter, which can successfully perform this conversion?
So far I have tried FormatFactory, Any Video Converter, Oxelon Media Converter, MediaCoder, Iwisoft Video Converter etc.

Give Freemake Video Converter a try. I have had a video with AVC+AC3 encoded and converted into MPEG-2 with MP3 audio. The converted file can be played back on KMPlayer without a problem.

[arto65]

@Anupam
If you fail to find a suitable video editor that supports AC3, I suggest you demux the streams, convert the audio file only, then mux it back together.
For demuxing, you can use Pazera free audio extractor. Select the output format you want (preferably lossless: WAV or FLAC), but your video editor has to support it.
Then, for remuxing, you can try YAMB: choose the first option, remove your AC3 audio track, add the converted audio track, then next.

Pazera free audio extractor: http://www.pazera-software.com/produ...dio-extractor/
YAMB: http://yamb.unite-video.com/download.html

I actually don't know any good video editor on Windows... It would be interesting to find something that would fit the bill.
So you should have an OK emergency solution, now it's time to find that great video editor.

[Anupam]

wdhpr, yes, the software is commercial. I removed the link therefore. And are you sure its Studio 8, because I talked about Studio 8, and it does not have support for AC3. I had even looked it up on Google, and confirmed it. Studio 10 does have support for AC3, and that was the one mentioned in the FAQ link that you gave too.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

Give Freemake Video Converter a try. I have had a video with AVC+AC3 encoded and converted into MPEG-2 with MP3 audio. The converted file can be played back on KMPlayer without a problem.

Thanks Jojo. I had given Freemake Converter a try, but I had problem with it. If I remember, it was not able to convert the video, because of some codec problem. I had found it odd. But, it was an old version. I will give it a try again with the new version. Maybe it will work.

[Anupam]

arto65, thanks a lot for the suggestions. I will give them a try, and see how it goes.

The guy had suggested virtualdub, and avisynth(or was it avidemux?) for remuxing, and demuxing... but what you suggest seems simpler. Will give it a try.

About free video editors with AC3 support, things don't look very positive. I checked out free editors from these links :

http://jaypeeonline.net/freeware/fre...tware-windows/

http://tv.isg.si/site/free_video_edi..._all_platforms

All were a no-go regarding the feature of AC3 support.

Oh BTW, if you know about Jahshaka, its being now released as Cinefx. I also found Cineplay, a multimedia player, and Cinecode, a free encoder on the site too. Looks good.

[wdhpr]

Originally Posted by Anupam

wdhpr, yes, the software is commercial. I removed the link therefore. And are you sure its Studio 8, because I talked about Studio 8, and it does not have support for AC3. I had even looked it up on Google, and confirmed it. Studio 10 does have support for AC3, and that was the one mentioned in the FAQ link that you gave too.

Is the default output file of the the HandyCam in AC3 format?
Its was just a shot. Curious, I wonder why can't he couldn't get it from Sony's web site? I have done the exact thing when I had to recover the software for a camera I owned.

[Anupam]

Yes, the default output is in AC3 format, that's the problem. I tried to look for a setting to change it, but there is none.

Good point, I will ask if there was a software, or an editor that came accompanied with the handycam. There is a software that came with it that I know of, and that directly writes the video to a DVD with one click of button on the handycam itself. I will ask about other software that came with the cam.

[Anupam]

arto65, I had a look at Yamb after installing it, but I found no support for MPEG-2. All I could see was MP4, and other formats. I had the same problem with the video encoders that you had suggested in the article, like MeGui, HandBrake... they support MP4, MKV only... and not MPEG-2.

I want to convert to MPEG-2 only, just that the audio stream should be converted from AC3 to MP3/MP2.