Need Help With Creating An Audio-DVD

[Lounger]

Hi there!

I'm trying to create some DVD's with just full Audio-Albums on it, and maybe some little video from the Audio-Album Cover.

Here's what I want:

• There must be something like 13 CD's on it ( ~320 kbps AC3 2CH )
  1 Title must be 1 Album
  Each Title must contain at least 10 chapters
  Something to see wich album is playing ( Cover or just album-name-text )
  A simple Menu for Album selection

I tried several programs to do this job, here's what I tried:

• NeroVision Express 2:
  Crashed all the time...And couldn't stretch my 1-frame video-file to the length of the audio.
  Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2:
  Cannot import AC3 and coudn't stretch video.
  Adobe Encore DVD 1.0:
  Came verry far, was able to import a cover as video and stretch it to the length of my audio. However, I wasn't able to import my AC3 320kbps file. So I imported my 320kbps MP3 file, and transcoded it with Encore's Tools to DD2.0 320kbps, but now the sound was a little cracky.

So, it looks like Adobe Encore can do the job for me....
But when I import my 320kbps AC3 file (transcoded with BeSweet) it gives some weird error:
Could not import file *.ac3 - The file may be corrupt or the type may not be supported.
How is this possible? The AC3 file plays flawless when I test it in some program...

I hope someone can help me with this. Either tell me what the easiest way is to do this, or tell me how to let Encore eat my AC3 file....

Thanks in advance!!

// LouNGeR

[Lounger]

I think Encore only eats 48kHz....
Keep you updated........

So what are retail audio-cd's? 44.1 or 48 kHz???

I can't even find 48kHz setting in Exact Audio Copy

[Cornucopia]

You're dealing with a few problems here.

#1 Not sure if you've done any sample rate converting. This is required!
CD's are sampled at 44.1kHz, DVD's at 48kHz.

#2 You specify 320kbps for your AC3, this isn't the most standard of rates.
Most DVD's with AC3-2ch are 192 or 224 or 384 kbps. You can't just come up with an arbitrary rate--they are tiered. Your authoring programs will hopefully accept all the standard tiers, but even that can't be guaranteed.

#3 Besweet has been known to put out AC3's that are incompatible with some authoring apps. It's hit an miss here. I'm sure you're probably using it cuz it's free, but there are better and more compatible AC3 encoders out there (for a price! ).

#4 Make sure your order of work is correct. Here's how I'd do it...

• Rip CD tracks to 44.1kHz PCM stereo WAVs.
  Sample Rate convert using best available quality to 48kHz WAVs.
  Encode directly to <valid bitrate here>kbps 2ch AC3s.
  Import, Author, and burn.

If you're doing DVD's you ought to have plenty of space for WAV files, no need to compress to mp3 first! If you've already got mp3's cuz of downloads, well, that explains it. :P

Scott

[Lounger]

1st of all, thanks allot for your helpfull reply Scot.

The advice of your order is the same as I used.
(I also tested from MP3 source because I was lazy to RIP again)

I used "Audio File Encoder/Decoder/Converter" from the "Easy CD-DA Extractor" package. I'm not sure if that's a good tool to transcode to 48kHz. So some comments on transcoding from 44.1 to 48kHz would be nice.

I've read something about an codec called Linear PCM Codec (LPCM), that it is able to RIP from CDDA to 48kHz in one step using Exact Audio Copy. Anyways, I couldn't find that codec...

About the AC3 Transcoding.....
What's a good alternate to BeSweet, wich is able to transcode at the highest possible quality AND standard?

The best thing (application) that would be perfect for my situation is able to eat 44.1kHz PCM and convert to Full-DVD-Compliant 48kHz AC3. Doesn't have to be on-the-fly, but it needs to be done in one cycle without any prompt or questions. It also needs to have command-line support. (no GUI at all, is fine too)

Hope some of you understand completely what I'm trying to do, and have some answers/tips ready

// LouNGeR

ps. I am working at an record-label company in The Netherlands, and prices of software needed is not a problem.

[Lounger]

[kick]

Anyone?

[/kick]

[pharlap]

oh to make things nice an easy just bring the files in with Tmpg Author and it will convert your whole collection to 48Khz so it will play nicely

[Lounger]

oh to make things nice an easy just bring the files in with Tmpg Author and it will convert your whole collection to 48Khz so it will play nicely

You mean TMPEGEnc DVD Author?