A.Pack Alternative?

[willrob]

I don't have DVSP, but I want to "hand adjust' the bitrates of a film for DVD. I know that A.Pack will enable the creation and file size adjustment of the AC3 audio track, thus creating more room for video. But I don't have A.Pack. So is there another application that will provide this functionality? I am aware of apps that go in the other direction—convert AC3 to AIFF (or whatever).

[Frobozz]

Although Toast with Jam and the CaptyDVD 2 that comes with the soon-to-be released LaCie FastCoder can encode AC-3 they really don't give you much control of the video bitrate.

My recommendation is that you get a standalone DVD recorder (I recommend the Pioneer & JVC models) that has a Firewire DV input. My Pioneer has 32 bit rate settings of which one has PCM audio and 31 have AC-3 audio. There's a DVD recorder forum here at videohelp and user reports on different models in the DVD recorders section.

[terryj]

But for the cost of the Standalone recorder,
provided he has a fast mac, he could just buy
DVDSP3 and get A.Pack?

Standalone recorder is $399 or thereabouts?
DVDSP3 Educational Edition is $339.

[sdm]

ffmpegX can encode ac3 from mp2 and mp3 and .wav and more? (suprisingly, it doesn't recognize .aif)

or you can encode ac3 from the audio track of a .mov, .mpg, or .avi too (provided the audio codec is supported)

give it a try