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Quicktime 5.1 Surround question
Hi
I’ve been asked to deliver a project as a Quicktime movie with 8 channels of audio – 5.1 with channels 7 & 8 as a stereo pair – embedded and labelled in the file.
I’m having no problems creating a file with the 5.1; send it to Compressor from FCP, add the Quicktime Surround 5.1 setting and render it out. But I can’t figure out how to get Compressor to recognise audio tracks 7 and 8 as a separate stereo pair whilst maintaining the 5.1 surround setting. As far as I can tell there’s no way to modify the presets in the setting to include a stereo pair with the 5.1.
Also how would I go about labelling the embedded audio files?
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Many Thanks
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20 Replies
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You might be able to get away with using QT Pro 7 to do this. Do what you’re doing to get the 5.1 in there, then open your quicktime in QT Pro. Open your stereo (7&8) audio in QT Pro as well. Select all, copy, close the audio file. Go to the video with the surround audio, park on first frame, and choose Edit->Add to Movie. This should add your stereo audio as another sound track to the quicktime. You can adjust the ‘labeling’ in the Show Movie Properties dialog. Highlight the Sound Track and in the Audio Settings tab, you can choose what ‘label’ those channels are.
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If the files you import into Compressor already comprise the 8 audio tracks in the correct order, there is the “SMPTE DTV” audio channels setting for Quicktime movies which is exactly what you want. Assemble your tracks in FCP in the correct SMPTE302M order (L R C LFE Ls Rs Lt Rt), export your sequence and bring the resulting file into Compressor, edit your Compressor preset to use this Channels setting and that should do it. I do this on a regular basis without problems. If you go straight from the sequence and Send To Compressor, this Channels setting doesn’t work, as FCP folds down to stereo before sending to Compressor.
IHTH
JC Boulay
Technical Director
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
Thanks for the reply
I’ve been meaning to get Quicktime Pro for a while. Just checked the Apple Store and it’s a lot cheaper than I seem to remember it being, no excuse not to really.
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Thanks for the reply
Typical really, the setting I needed was staring me right in the face!
What’s the difference between Lt Rt and normal L R Stereo, or are they essentially the same thing?
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The Lt/Rt is a stereo mix containing center and mono surround hidden in there through phase manipulation. When played through any system, it’s a simple stereo mix, but when played through the correct decoder it’s a (kind of) 4.0 mix. It’s basically what Dolby called ProLogic on the consumer’s side. In almost all cases now, you can just put the true stereo mix on tracks 7-8. Lt/Rt is a bit of a leftover from surround sound workflows from a few years back and is what a lot of fold-down tools will output but is getting quite ancient. I haven’t been asked specifically for an Lt/Rt mix in quite a while. If what you have is a stereo mix, put that in and all should be good.
IHTH
JC Boulay
Technical Director
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
Cool, thanks a lot for your help, really appreciated.
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I have a piggyback question:
I want to encode a quicktime file just like the OP, but I want the audio tracks to be encoded as AAC because this is for online distribution. However, the only way I can get the SMPTE DTV setting to appear like you said is by selecting Linear PCM. In AAC mode, the only 5.1 option is (C, L, R, Ls, Rs, LFE). That’s not the order I used, so I imagine that won’t work for me. I know it must be possible, because moves purchased from iTunes come with 5.1 AAC audio. I suppose I could re-export from FCP with this nonstandard track order, but is there any other way? -
Hi JC!
I am delivering an HD Mezzanine file as Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) and both our surround and stereo mixes are requested to be in the file. Thanks for pointing out the SMPTE setting as I couldn’t find anything else in Compressor that includes all 8 tracks. I followed your instructions exactly (exported an “unselfcontained” QT export of my film with all 8 tracks in correct order from FCP; dropped file in Compressor and adjusted audio settings to LPCM, SMPTE DTV); however, the resulting file has no audio playback. It’s completely silent. I’ve played it back in QT 7, and “Show Movie Properties” does show a sound track. Is there something I’m missing? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Jenny -
You’re saying QuickTime properties show only one audio track? I believe it should show 7 separate tracks there, one of those being stereo. I’m not sure what your problem is, but that’s a sign.
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That’s correct. Here is a screenshot:
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