DVD authoring for 5.1 and Lt/Rt

[Daniel Ludwig]

Scott,
depending on what you would like to do – H264 is good for BD but not valid for DVD. old DVD needs MPEG2 SD, while H264 could be HD.

If you would like to create both medias, you should transcode your source-file using the transcoding-settings from encore.

according to your audio: you should use dolby digital encoding, as encore could not create 5.1-sound in pcm.

according trancoding – you can use adobe media encoder to transcode your audio-file that´s in your film to dolby digital, or (if you have it), you can also use the dolby encoding-suite.

in general DVD/BD-authoring-systems expecting all assets to be elementary streams and usual way is to transcode all assets prior start authoring.

encore is a “easy-to-use” tool, that can also transcode MOV or AVI to H264 or MPEG2, but this is an exaption if you compare it to most authoring-tools.

but be awared: encore has plenty bugs!

danny

[Scott O’hara]

Hey Daniel,

Thanks for the response.

Sounds good on the info. The video is pretty straight forward for me, so I was able to create the H.264 blu ray through Premiere/Media Encoder, as well as an MPEG-2 for the DVD. The issue is more so the audio, just making sure I set it up right. Since the post I”ve read some more and saw how I need to convert to ac3. And for 5.1, I needed extra software (some of which costs a lot! – for the Adobe programs)

But what I found is I could create a 5.1 track (ac3) in Compressor which I haven’t used in a long time. But I created a project, assigned my discrete 5.1 tracks to the correct L, C, R, etc. and exported. I got a ac3 file that appears to have my 6 tracks. I was thinking to just drop that into Encore (with my H.264) and burn. Does that sound like the right way to go? Not sure why Compressor lets me make the 5.1 but Adobe programs won’t without an additional plug-in (Surcode I think it’s called). I would want to test the blu ray before sending it out (for the 5.1) but that’s another story as I don’t have a 5.1 setup… but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

I also have the Lt/Rt, which I’m assuming just converts to stereo when using Dolby Digital in the encoder (again to an ac3 file). But with this Lt/Rt in Media Encoder and also the 5.1 file in Compressor, there are several options: dialogue normalization which I keep set to -31, Dolby Surround Mode, Dynamic Range Control, and some Audio Production Info. Most of these I didn’t touch, as I want my audio to sound exactly what the mixer and I achieved for the discrete files he gave me. So this I’m a little unclear about how I should place these settings to achieve that and keep the most quality I can from the WAV discretes?

You say Encore is on the low end of authoring software, what about something like Toast? Is that any better?

Sorry for the long post, it’s just since originally getting this up on the site, I’ve read so much more and thus more questions.

Thanks for the assistance though, it’s much appreciated.

Scott

[Daniel Ludwig]

Hey Scott,
sorry for my delay on your post. have been busy within the last weeks ketching a deadline.

encore could easily handle compressor-encoded AC3. it wont be transcoded if you´ve choosen AC3 instead of WAV in encore-transcoding/project-settings. you could do only neither nor – not both at the same time.

by the way, if you would like to create AC3 for BD, you can create a generic AC3 with 640kbit/s – this will work also.

encore is low end (and buggy) – even apple DVD SP have been better – you could do scripting and a lot other stuff, as mostly requied.

toast is a consumer-product, which has no professional authoring-capabilities. but it´s a required tool in all authors toolset.

danny