Wave and AC3 Confusion?

[icemanatvcd]

I am trying to convert home DV videos to DVD. Sound format has confused me a bit. D

1. Does AC3 has advantages over wave as far the quality is concerned, apart from being in a compress fomat and smaller is size so can encode your video with higher bits?

2. It is still 2 channels even converted to AC3 not 5

3. What is the best and easiest to use app?

Thank you.

[bugster]

I am trying to convert home DV videos to DVD. Sound format has confused me a bit. D

1. Does AC3 has advantages over wave as far the quality is concerned, apart from being in a compress fomat and smaller is size so can encode your video with higher bits?

2. It is still 2 channels even converted to AC3 not 5

3. What is the best and easiest to use app?

Thank you.

1. No, certainly not in this case as you can't improve on the source (DV audio source is wav I believe).

2) You CAN convert 2 channel wav to 5 channel Ac3, though I don't see any advantage in it myself.

3). Besweet is the only freeware app I know of that will convert wav to Ac3 and I have heard it is not 100% compliant. Some DVD authoring apps will also do this but they tend to be a little expensive (think $4-500). Ulead DVD WS (AC3 edition) and DVDit PE are two that spring to mind.

One advantage of Ac3 is wide compatibility compared to mp2, which is not supported by a small(ish) number of players. PCM of course is supported by ALL DVD Players.

[icemanatvcd]

Thanks for that Bugster. I just leave the sound to PCM. I had the same feeling that it is not really worth it.

I tries using DVDReel, changing the preference to AC3, it still did not encode the sound. It came out to be linear PCM, 2ch, 48 kbs.

Thanks.

[geek rock]

I am trying to convert home DV videos to DVD. Sound format has confused me a bit. D

1. Does AC3 has advantages over wave as far the quality is concerned, apart from being in a compress fomat and smaller is size so can encode your video with higher bits?

as far as quality, no. AC3 is another compression scheme, like MP3, OGG, etc. the main advantage - in terms of home DV sound anyway - is the file size, as you know. but that file size difference is a hell of a lot!

2. It is still 2 channels even converted to AC3 not 5

depends how you encode the AC3. it's fairly pointless to convert something that isn't 5-channel, to 5-channel. why not just encode it as 2.0 (2 channel stereo AC3)? you'll only need a bitrate of, say, 224kbps for this, and the quality is great.

3. What is the best and easiest to use app?

i use astarte AC3 encoder as part of DVD studio pro. but then, i am a mac user.

-Mark

[DJRumpy]

You should definately convert it to AC3 if your DVD is short on space. Don't bother if you've got plenty of space, although my personal opinion is that PCM audio is a waste of space. Go with geek rock's suggestion and convert to 2 channel AC3 (224 kbs). It will be compatible on any player. Use BeSweet. I have never heard anyone complain that it's output wasn't compliant. Bugster, did you have a specific app that refused to accept it? I had a few issues with bad output, but they were related to the buggy version of BeSweet GUI that I had at the time. Upgrades to newer versions resolved the problem. You should be safe using it to create your AC3 audio.

[timmmay]

Yep, it only takes a couple of minutes to convert from wav to ac3 using besweet. This way won't have to worry about compatibility and you can have more space for video.

[icemanatvcd]

Thanks for that guys, if I am running out of room I will keep Besweet in mind. I have never used it.