Comments on audio format for DVD?

[Guest]

hi,

I'm looking for comments regarding the best audio format to use for DVD authoring.

If you read
http://www.eicsoftware.com/PapaJohn/MM2/MM2-DVD.html
there is a "Thumbnail" sidebar that describes the authoring process from saving your movie as DV-AVI, converting it to MPEG2 with TMPGEnc, then burning the MPEG2 with authoring software. However, it says nothing specific about the audio portion.

Yet, further down that same page is a link, "Configuring TMPGEnc for High-Quality DVD-compliant MPEG2",
http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html
which says that you should not use TMPGEnc for audio conversion, nor should you use MPEG2 for the audio format. It says you should instead use PCM or AC3.

Another site
http://www.digitalfaq.com/authorburn/authoraudio.htm
also suggests this.

How to make AC3 then? There is AC3Machine and BeSweet, which seem to be able to create .ac3 files, but although Sonic's MyDVD *says* it can read AC3, it claims the files are unsupported when you try to actually read them.

This seems to leave us with PCM (or wave, which is uncompressed), or MPEG2, which is not portable.

What are people doing along these lines?

Thanks for you comments,
N3WTK.

 

[John Kelly]

If you read
http://www.eicsoftware.com/PapaJohn/MM2/MM2-DVD.html
there is a "Thumbnail" sidebar that describes the authoring process from
saving your movie as DV-AVI, converting it to MPEG2 with TMPGEnc, then
burning the MPEG2 with authoring software. However, it says nothing
specific about the audio portion.

Yet, further down that same page is a link, "Configuring TMPGEnc for
High-Quality DVD-compliant MPEG2",
http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html
which says that you should not use TMPGEnc for audio conversion, nor
should you use MPEG2 for the audio format. It says you should instead use
PCM or AC3.

Another site
http://www.digitalfaq.com/authorburn/authoraudio.htm
also suggests this.

How to make AC3 then? There is AC3Machine and BeSweet, which seem to be
able to create .ac3 files, but although Sonic's MyDVD *says* it can read
AC3, it claims the files are unsupported when you try to actually read
them.

This seems to leave us with PCM (or wave, which is uncompressed), or
MPEG2, which is not portable.

What are people doing along these lines?

Hello There,

My answer is none of the above !

I use Dazzle DVD Complete which I feed with DV-AVI from Movie Maker of
MovieDV. I deal with all aspects of editing etc within those
programs...That's what they are for. DVD Complete takes my work and
converts it to very high quality DVD

Continually switching between programs that do "this" followed by programs
that do "that" is enough to give you a head ache and. There is really just
one rule with all of this...you can only take away from the quality.....you
cannot add too.

 

[Guest]

Yes, true, and I have Sonic MyDVD, but it will only give me an hour on a DVD, which is very disappointing. This is why I am monkeying about with "this" and "that" software, trying to eek out the two hours I feel I am owed.

p.s. sorry for the dual-post. It said the first one failed.

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there

Yes I understand.

I was shocked last week to discover that Sony now have Dual Layer DVD
writers on the shelf of my local computer store. These were priced at
£149.00 (UK) which would be around US $220 If I remember right, its
capacity was 8.4GB....now there's the way to go.....Unfortunately having a
glut of CD burners and 2 DVD burners...there is no way I could ever
convince "she who must be obeyed" that I need another!!!

In the past I have had to split video over two DVD's I would rather do that
than reduce the quality of video or audio.

 

[Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media]

AC-3 audio would be the best, but it's a codec that has to be paid for buy
the app manufacturer, this is in turn passed on with the app costing more
than ones without it.
I use Ulead DVD Workshop, which retails around the £200 mark, and gives you
plenty of options to swap and change bitrates etc.
As John says though, if you want two hours on a DVD then you are going to
have to trade off quality, or spend a few hundred thousand pounds on getting
the equipment used by commecial studios!!!!

Graham