No audio (ac3) when playing mkv movies on iPad


If you came upon no sound issues when playing a MKV movie with AC3 codec on Apple iPad, you may wish to read this post. It displays how to fix MKV (AC3) no audio issues on iPad.

AC3 codec in MKV file not supported on iPad
“Hi, there, I usually play movies with VLC player on my iPad. Today I get an AC3 codec not supported error when playing an mkv file. The image is okay but no audio. I’ve updated VLC to the most recent version but this seems to have no effect. Is there anyway around this? Please suggest a solution. Thanks a lot.”
mkv ac3 no audio on ipad

Actually, this is nothing new. VLC iOS version does not support AC3 audio codec quite well. That’s why users often have no sound issues while playing MKV files with AC3 codec on iOS devices. Fortunately, there are workarounds to go through this. In this post, we would like to guide you through the way of converting MKV (AC3) movies for playing on iPad smoothly.

Software requirement
HD Video Converter
You can download a demo version (for both, PC and Mac) to have a try. They are not free but it totally worth it.
no sound playing MKV with AC3 on iPadfix MKV (AC3) no audio issues on iPad

How to encode AC3 MKV files for viewing on iPad without no sound issues?

The steps:
Step 1: Start up HD Video Converter as the best MKV Converter for iPad. When its main interface appears, click ‘Add File’ button to load your source media.
AC3 codec in MKV file not supported on iPad

Step 2: Select output format for iPad
Navigate to ‘Profile’ menu, choose ‘iPad H.264 720p Video (*.mp4) as target format from ‘Apple iPad’ catalogue. You can also choose other profile as output under ‘Apple iPad’ catalogue depending on your iPad model.

Generally speaking, the default settings will ensure a good compromise between image quality and file size, if not, you can click ‘Settings’ button to modify video and audio settings like video encoder, resolution, video bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio encoder, sample rate, audio bit rate, and audio channels.

Step 3: Start MKV AC3 Conversion for iPad
When ready click ‘Convert’ button to start. This converter program supports bulk processing, so you are allowed to import loads of MKV clips to do conversion at a time. If you don’t want to wait for the entire conversion process, you can tick off ‘shut down computer when conversion completed’ and go away to do other things.

Step 4: Locate exported files for transferring to iPad
As soon as the conversion is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated files which are optimized for transferring to iPad for playback.

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