Mixed audio codecs

[cp2]

I use a Hauppauge Colossus capture card in my PC. Through experience I know not to stack files for capture if some are AAC and others AC3. At the first codec change you subsequently get a null, silent soundtrack.

I have now come across what I hope to be a rare event. I stacked 7 hours worth of files all from the same source, set them running and went to bed. In the morning I had a 7 hours file for editing but it only had 12 minutes of sound from the start point.

Some selective recording revealed that the programmes themselves had an AAC soundtrack but come the adverts it switched to AC3, hence the silence. I tried the capture software that I got with the card with the same result.

I can get around the problem by recording each programme segment separately but it is very fiddly and in this case probably not worth it.

I’m guessing that this is too much of a problem for DVBViewer to resolve but I’d like an authoritative answer on the subject! 

[hackbart]

It has been a while since I added the support for these (digital-)analog-digital converter boxes. As far as I remember you could set the format for audio and video in the properties. The resulting ts file we receive is depending what you selected either with AAC or AC3 output. Does the input source change the audio format? If so it might be an issue with the driver.

 

Christian

[cp2]

I use a HDMI to HDMI cable to transfer the signal from the source box to the capture card input. You cannot do a lot with the source box’s output format. You can select digital or stereo but by recording just an advert break I could see that the output has changed to AC3 from the AAC output of the actual programme. I am pretty sure that there is no control to modify this.

Looking at the DVBViewer Hardware encoder box settings audio format set at is AC3 yet I successfully receive either AAC or AC3 so that doesn’t seem to do a lot. This is probably just as well given that I cannot specify the source box’s output. 
I’m thinking that from the recording outset DVBViewer sticks to whatever format it first receives and then gets upset when the format changes and doesn’t attempt to reestablish sound recording when the format reverts.

I appreciate that it took a significant effort by DVBViewer to get my hardware to work with DVBViewer as it does appear to defy communication protocols. I’ve had a good run and will continue to do so provided that this mix doesn’t occur again. There is a good chance that it won’t. In fairness the consistency of the format of this particular tv series has not been there - season 1 has no adverts but the wrong aspect ratio, but by season 4 adverts were introduced and halfway through the aspect ratio corrected and the audio problem introduced. Season 5 just had the wrong aspect ratio.

 

I had to ask in the hope that you could identify an ease fix but this isn’t going to happen. I will cross my fingers and carry on as it is.