wavelab 5 to pioneer 686a-s problem

[umrk]

I created a dvda project in wavelab 5 (24/96 stereo). Have created the audio and video vobs. All seems ok. If I drill down into the audio vob I see the files containing the audio content.
Burnt project to dvd-rw (finalised ) but my stand alone Pioneer dv 686a-s won't produce sound .It plays the disc but no audio is present. Any suggestions? Power dvd on my computer will play the disc.

 

[JonUrban]

I wonder if this is the famous "firmware issue" with the Pioneers. Have you done the firmware update?

 

[neil wilkes]

How's the Pioneer connected to the amp?
Also, where did the VOB files come from?? WaveLab cannot create VOB files

 

[umrk]

The Pioneer is connected to the amp via the analog L/R out. At this stage I am only listening to stereo stuff. My commercial DVD A's, SACD's and CD's work fine.

The Audio and Video TS folders were created by Wavelab in the "create DVD A project" using the wizard. Maybe I shouldn't have called them VOB's (Thats what I thought they were called)

I wondered if it had anything to do with the Joilet, Romeo or ISO 9600 stuff, even though the DVD player handbook says it is compatible with all 3 standards. Other than that I'm out of ideas.

What's with the firmware issue?

I appreciate the replies. Normally I can suss out these types of problems but this one's got me beat.

 

[neil wilkes]

I am certain there was a problem in early builds of WaveLab 5 and Pioneer DVD-A players. Try installing the update to 5.01A or 5.01B from Steinberg's support site. You need a legitimate install CD though, as the update will want you to insert the original installer CD after, or WaveLab will not start.

VOB - Video OBject and is what the Video_TS folder contains after multiplexing Video & audio files.
AOB - Audio OBjects, and is what a DVD-A compile creates in the Audio_TS folder. WaveLab cannot create a Video_TS folder - there is no way to access the information in an imported one either, (this is a DVD-A spec violation and could well be why the Pioneers had issues). Implementation of spec. is a strange thing - Pioneer are infamous for doing it "their" way and ignoring the "right" way (If such a thing even exists!!)
Try the firmware update - you will need to call Pioneer, and they will send it to you on a CD-ROM with installation instructions.

 

[umrk]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think that I'll do the wavelab update first and see if that's the problem. A job for the weekend.
I phoned Pioneer Australia today and they basically didn't want to know. Said there was no upgrade for the 686a-s.The conversation ended with them suggesting I take the player to my local service agents and get them to look at it. I rang the agents and they said they didn't know of any firmware updates.
Did a quick Google and discovered that there are some 3rd party firmware upgrades done by Gufiak(?) but I think I'm getting out of my depth.
Not sure I can trust the source and firmware upgrades are always a "hold your breath situation".

 

[neil wilkes]

I don't think I would trust a firmware update hack either.
There will be no guarantees, and it will naturally invalidate the warranty.
Were there still images involved here?

 

[umrk]

Still images? I'm not sure what you mean? The hacked firmware upgrades seemed to have a lot to do with DIVX issues which I'm not bothered about.
BTW the DVD player is about 4 months out of warranty.
Once again thanks for the suggestions.

The infamous "Pioneer Firmware" issue refers to when the DVD-A book specifications changed from 1.15 to 1.25 and Pioneer didn't bother updating their players. It means that to this day certain players will refuse to output MLP streams on certain discs:
Tommy DVD-A is one, the Doors "Perceptions" box set is another one that Pioneers still have trouble with.
My guess is either WaveLab update needs to be done - this should be done anyway - and the Pioneer firmware issue is another strong candidate. Pioneer are notorious for denying this problem exists - there is an extremely lengthy thread in these forums about the 563 player (565 in Europe) which certainly had this problem.

 

[neil wilkes]

One of the WaveLab issues concerning Pioneer players was when stills were encoded with the track.
I'll try to find out the exact details & post back.

 

[umrk]

I've got The Doors set and they play fine. In fact all my DVD-a and SACD discs play fine . Never had one problem. I looked at some of the threads concerning Pioneer (and other brands) problems and they raise a lot of issues.
Looks like a tricky situation in trying to make an informed decision about which player to buy. This is exasperated by the fact that DVD players are sometimes sold in different countries with different model numbers.
I'd love to be able to produce my own hi rez DVD-A discs but at some point I need a win.
Just got over an insurmountable problem with a firewire audio interface and the idea of throwing more money at gear that doesn't work as advertised is wearing pretty thin. Even when you do the research there seems to be a little "gotcha." Seeya Neil

 

[neil wilkes]

In this case, I reckon the Update to WaveLab will sort you out.

 

[umrk]

Did the w/l update. Created a new project. Burnt the disc. Put it in the Pioneer and it didn't work. mmmm
My burner would tend to hang at the end of a burn which it doesn't do at any other time. Decided to create an iso image and try that. W/L now allows me to burn direct from the app which 5.00 wouldn't do. Error message was something like "can't access burn engine". Bingo it worked.
So I really don't know what the issue was but I've now got a method that works. Now it's time to see if I can do it again.
Thanks for all your help Neil.

 

[neil wilkes]

Sounds like the WaveLab Burn engine doing it's legendary thing.
It seems to be very susceptible to other apps installed.
There is a tool called IMGBurn that will take ISO/IMG/any image files & burn reliably. Plus it's free.....
www.imgburn.com