Sony 2011/2012 avi+ac3 problem

Hi,
I'm testing sony profiles (2011 and 2012, EU) on my TVs.
TVs support AVI with limitations, but I've found a problem with some AVI with MPEG4 video and AC3 audio: some play well, others give error about file not supported.

Now, i'm pretty sure that the problem is that audio bitrate is too high, because after a lot of testing and manually transcoding them to a lower bitrate (AVI container, copy video mpeg4, transcode ac3 audio) they play well.
The problem is how to configure profile.xml to automatically transcode avi+ac3 (if it's possible).
I tried with the following lines:

  Code:

<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="224" forceInheritance="true">
     <Matches container="avi" aCodec="ac3" />
</Video>

But now the TV doesn't show AVI+AC3 files at all.. maybe because they are not supported (mpegts container with mpeg4 video), is it right?
Adding "targetVCodec="mpeg2video" works well.

There is an alternative to transcode audio only to a lower bitrate, copying video?

Here's one of the files that can't be played:

  Code:

ffmpeg version git-2014-02-19-3734c3e Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Feb 19 2014 19:44:07 with gcc 4.4.5 (Debian 4.4.5-8)
  configuration: --prefix=/root/ffmpeg_build --extra-cflags=-I/root/ffmpeg_build/include --extra-ldflags=-L/root/ffmpeg_build/lib --bindir=/root/bin --extra-libs=-ldl --enable-gpl --enable-libass --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree
  libavutil      52. 64.100 / 52. 64.100
  libavcodec     55. 52.102 / 55. 52.102
  libavformat    55. 33.100 / 55. 33.100
  libavdevice    55. 10.100 / 55. 10.100
  libavfilter     4.  1.103 /  4.  1.103
  libswscale      2.  5.101 /  2.  5.101
  libswresample   0. 17.104 /  0. 17.104
  libpostproc    52.  3.100 / 52.  3.100
Input #0, avi, from 'part1/film.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
    IAS1            : Italiano
  Duration: 01:12:05.40, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1358 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Advanced Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 688x288 [SAR 1:1 DAR 43:18], 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 448 kb/s


Thanks in advance

UPDATE:

after further testing i've found that the problem isn't bitrate: video in avi-mpeg4-ac3 with audio bitrate=664 kb/s plays fine.

All videos that i can't play have in their metadata " IAS1 : **language** ", and most of them are encoded with "VirtualDub 1.5.4.1".
Transcoding them with Avidemux, solved the problem.



Under linux you can identifiy these videos using:

  Code:

for file in *.avi; do ffmpeg -i "$file"; done &> temp_list

to write ffmpeg output of all AVIs of the folder to the file "temp_list"
and:

  Code:

cat temp_list | awk -v RS='ffmpeg version' -v ORS='\n\n' '/IAS1/{print $0; print "---"; s+=1} END {print ">>>>>> TOTAL: " s " <<<<<<"}'

to view matching AVIs (you can use also "grep" to show only file names).



To batch encode videos with avidemux you can use the following command. It encodes audio only (AC3) in AVI files, leaving unchanged the bitrate.

WINDOWS:

  Code:

set avidemux="C:\Program Files (x86)\Avidemux 2.6\avidemux.exe"  (***AVIDEMUX_FOLDER***)
for %%f in (*.avi) do %avidemux% --load "%%f" --audio-process --audio-codec AC3 --output-format AVI --save "C:\***DEST_FOLDER***\%%f" --quit

obviously set avidemux folder and destination folder.

LINUX: (not tested)

  Code:

for file in *.avi ; do
avidemux --load "$file" --audio-process --audio-codec AC3 --output-format AVI --save ${file%.*}-edited.avi --quit
done

change destination folder/name if you want


Hope it helps..


Anyway, it would be great if someone could solve the problem of transcoding AC3 audio only on AVI files with mpeg4 video codec!! i think it's possible but don't know how