Quicktime 5.1 Surround question

[Elliott Balsley]

Click to highlight the sound track in that window. How many channels does it contain?

[Jenny Deller]

It shows all 8.

[Elliott Balsley]

That’s your problem. It should look like this:

How exactly are you creating this file?

[Scot Walker]

Hey, thanks for the info.

I’m using Compressor 4 and when I use the SMPTE DTV preset, the resulting QT movie has no audio at all. It’s weird. If I use any of the other presets, I get audio.

I cut an indie feature in FCP X and I’m trying to get it to the Apple iTunes spec to sell/rent the movie there.

Apple wants:

ProRes 422 (HQ)

LPCM audio
16 or 24 bit
48Khz

Ch.1 Left (Front)
Ch.2 Right (Front)
Ch.3 Center
Ch.4 LFE
Ch.5 Left Surround
Ch.6 Right Surround
Ch.7 & 8 Left Total / Right Total (Stereo Pair)

Thank you for your time!

Scot

[Vineeth Nair]

Hi all….
I have an issue in tcp 5.1 sequence……I am using fcp with aja kona 3g card and genelec speakers……the format which i need is L R C LFE C LFE….but fcp gives me in following sequence- L R Ls Rs C LFE……i had mapped tracks in the correct order as 1- L, 2- R, 3- C, 4-LFE, 5-Ls, 6-Rs…..and also tried changing sequence settings in preset….but this didnt affect the output of the file i am working with……can anyone plz help me with this issue…..thanks in advance…..

[Ben Ollie]

” 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. ”

basically trying to do the exact same thing so this sentence caught my eye

should i be exporting my mov to it’s own file with 8 discrete tracks THEN put that into compressor and apply my 422 hq with stmpe dtv mix set up to compress?
what’s this about making the movie “not self contained” vs self contained? will that effect the reading of the 8 audio tracks by compressor (seems the Elliot guy who jumped on was experiencing a problem with that workflow where the audio didn’t show up in the end at all)
trying to save hours of render time if someone could help clarify this workflow?
Thanks

[Chuck Kahn]

It doesn’t seem that it’s enough that they are in the correct order before using the Compressor channels setting. If you don’t set the pan of each channel in QuickTime Pro before sending the file to Compressor, then each channel stays panned to mono and the resulting file has all the audio in the first two channels (L & R) panned to mono and the rest of the channels (C, LFE, LS, RS) are silent.

[Chris Darlington]

I have a QuickTime movie, ProRes422 with a 5.1 mix. Can I play that off of the Mac Mini with digital audio out to a 5.1 consumer amp and get surroundsound?

[Chuck Kahn]

Yes. HDMI will do 5.1 PCM/Dolby/DTS/Dolby-TrueHD/DTS-MA. Optical will only do 2.0 PCM and 5.1 Dolby/DTS. I don’t think QuickTimes are capable of Dolby-TrueHD/DTS/DTS-MA.

[Eric Robel]

Hi- was wondering if you ever figured out the final workflow for this? I used FCP 7 to export the movie with all appropriate audio files in correct order. This being the first six tracks for the 5.1 mix and then tracks 7 and 8 for stereo R and L.
Looks good when I open the exported file in Quicktime Pro –
I get 7 “Sound Tracks”, with the 7th being the “Left, Right” assignment. Though Sound tracks 1-6 have an assignment of “Mono.”

Was wondering if I needed to assign the 1-6 with their exact specified names to match the SMPTE DTV specs, IE: “L, R, C….” or assigning them as “discrete” per the example further up in this thread.

The reason I ask this is because when I put this exported file in Compressor and set up a Apple Pro Res 422 setting with the proper Linear PCM/SMPTE DTV audio setting, I also get a final file that has no sound.(Playing on desktop) It does however show in Quicktime Pro with only one Sound Track this time- and in “assinments” it lists all eight tracks: Left, Right, Center, LFE Screen, Left Surround, Right Surround, Left Total and Right Total.

I guess the ultimate question is, did I do it right? and I just can’t check it on the desktop properly without decoding? Or am I half way there and need to do some “assigning” in Quicktime Pro, save then place in Compressor for the final render?

Thanks in advance if anyone can help-
-Cheers
Eric