HOW TO ADD Dual or Multi Audio AVI with subtitles (MPEG4 XviD DivX)

How to make a Dual or Multiple Audio AVI or MPEG4 file (XviD, DivX, other) and/or How to add Multiple SUBTITLES
v.1.2
Updated 2005-05-20

A simple guide how to add, remove, or swap any single, dual or multiple audio tracks with or without subtitles in AVI files.


Once upon a time I have noticed big surprise in my friends eyes when they suddenly discovered that some of my backup dvdrips in MPEG-4 format have dual and triple audio tracks within, and so I decided to write this short and simple guide, because almost every standalone divx/dvd player on the market supports multiaudio anyway.




TOOLS NEEDED:

AVI-Mux GUI
http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/....html#download

Morgan Stream Switcher (not neccessary, for playback issues - see below)
http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/download/mmswitch.exe


Level of knowledge required: n00b, brainless, etc



1.
Download AVI-Mux GUI if you dont have it yet, and run it (it doesnt require any installation).
Load your avi file (with or without any audio) in AVI-Mux GUI by simply drag'n'drop it there (#1)

In my example file I loaded has only English original audio, and Im going to add English Commentary audio as a secondary audio. Someone else may want to use i.e. dubbed audio track in his localized language... or add both. Its your choice

2.
Once youve loaded the file, highlight it by clicking on it, then click on "generate data source from files". It will show you what video and audio streams your file has, see #2



3.
Load the external audio track (and/or subtitles) what you wish to add to your movie (in my example it is MP3 rip of Commentary Track) see #3.
Addendum:
If youre adding multiple audio tracks with multiple subtitles - see picture #3B (in addendum, at the end of this guide - below). Picture #3c shows all the multiplexed subtitle options within finalized AVI file (on a computer, using plain Windows Media Player 6.4 and ffdshow filter). Please note that not all dvd/divx standalone players are able to select and/or display subtitles that are multiplexed 'inside' the AVI file.

For adding only subtitles, or multiple audio and multiple subtitles, follow next steps the same way as I explained when adding just second audio track.


Make sure your original movie audio track is set as Default audio (#4), unless you want to change it. 'Default' audio track It means this audio track will play on every software or hardware divx/dvd-player that is *not* capable of playing other audio tracks, and there are plenty of them out there. So if I would have set as a 'default' the commentary track that Im adding in my example, then it wouldnt be right on such players, right?
You can also set Language properties/names for each of the audio tracks (#5) for all those players that are able to distinguish and select more than one audio track.

Finally hit 'start' (#6) and select where to save your newly created dual audio file and under what name.
Thats all.



If you load your newly created multi-audio AVI file in a GSpot, it will show properties for all of your audio tracks selectable there:



PLAYBACK ISSUES

Standalone divx/dvd player should have no problem with such files, and you would select audio tracks the same way as you do with standard DVD-Video discs on your player (usually hit the button "Audio" on your remote ).

But there is one tricky part of playing such files on a PC with software players.
I do know many of them have problem with secondary audio tracks within AVI container (yet all of them will have no problem playing such AVI files at all, they will just play them with the 'default' audio track only).
Since it is not the scope of this guide how to make secondary audio playable on your PC and every software player out there (I dont watch movies on any computers, so please forgive me) I will just write how to make them playable with most popular player on PC - Windows Media Player which is built-in into every Windows since Windows 95:

Simply install Morgan Media Switcher - available for free (link above).

It works on every WMP from version 6.4 and up, and I just have tested version 0.99 with WMP6.4 on my Windows 2000 machine.



READ IT CAREFULLY:

Friend of mine sent me angry email:

"...your guide is fine, except the major flaw - it doesnt work. I did everything exactly ... (according to my guide) ... and the added audio track is not in synch with the video"

After very short investigation I found out that the second audio track came from PAL version (25fps) of the movie, and it was muxed (added) to NTSC version (23.976fps) of the same movie...
I thought it is obvious that both audio tracks *must* come from same version of the video (be it PAL or NTSC). Because of the different frame rate playback between PAL and NTSC very same movie - assuming both PAL and NTSC were made from identical reel copies - they will have slightly different duration. And very often movies released on DVD in America and rest of the world come from entirely different versions, differently edited and cut...
We can adjust 'skew' of the audio and 'expand' it, or 'shrink' it, in order to adjust it to different video framerate. There are few tools available for this task, but such subject is beyond the purpose of this simple guide.

So - please make sure all of your audio tracks are from the same video format source before you send me some angry email or post.


Addendum

Adding multiple subtitles
Screen #3b:




Multiple subtitle options as seen on a computer (using WMP)

nice job done m8 maybe I can use this, thanks

thank u guys

thanks WOLF.. nice to see ET peeps and their members teaching every1 encoding