Encore converts 5.1 to stereo

[koberulz]

I've got a 5.1 aac file:

General
Format : ADTS
Format/Info : Audio Data Transport Stream
File size : 142 MiB
Duration : 2h 5mn
Overall bit rate : 157 Kbps

Audio
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : LC
Duration : 2h 5mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 157 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 142 MiB (100%)

I put that in an Encore timeline, along with the m2v file that contains the video, and authored a disc. Somewhere along the line, Encore seems to have converted it to stereo. Is there a setting I've missed, or some other file format I should be using?

[poisondeathray]

Convert it to 6-channel AC3 before importing to encore

In general , it's advisable to do everything in other programs, only use encore (or any authoring tool) as the last step to author . There will be less problems, and you have greater control

[koberulz]

How do I do that? And is there a way to get an AC3 straight out of Premiere (which is where this AC3 came from)? I only used aac because it was the only option I could find that would export more than two channels.

[poisondeathray]

eg. eac3to, foobar2k

look in the audio tools section, there should be a dozen or so that can do this

[dragonkeeper]

AAC audio is not part of the DVD spec. When DVD authoring i've only imported AC3 audio into Encore. But i believe Encore is only capable of transcoding audio to Dolby Digital in stereo (i believe this is the reason i started handling my audio outside of Encore). You will need to use an a seprate app to encode to 5.1 Dolby Digital I believe eac3to can convert aac to ac3.

[poisondeathray]

And is there a way to get an AC3 straight out of Premiere (which is where this AC3 came from)? I only used aac because it was the only option I could find that would export more than two channels.

I can't recall offhand, but I think you need a certain version of surcode plugin to do it directly because of Dolby licensing issues, but you can do uncompressed 6ch audio for sure (.e.g wav or aiff) export then encode 6-ch with another program e.g. using free apps like aften, eac3to etc...

[dragonkeeper]

How do I do that? And is there a way to get an AC3 straight out of Premiere (which is where this AC3 came from)? I only used aac because it was the only option I could find that would export more than two channels.

Since you already have the AAC file I would use AACDrop to convert to 6 channel wav then use eac3to and convert the resulting file into AC3 file.

[poisondeathray]

How do I do that? And is there a way to get an AC3 straight out of Premiere (which is where this AC3 came from)? I only used aac because it was the only option I could find that would export more than two channels.

Since you already have the AAC file I would use AACDrop to convert to 6 channel wav then use eac3to and convert the resulting file into AC3 file.

huh ? if he's going to use eac3to, why not skip the extraneous step? It can convert AAC too

but for learning purposes for the future projects, it's advisable to export uncompressed first, so you avoid that extra stage of quality loss

[dragonkeeper]

huh ? if he's going to use eac3to, why not skip the extraneous step? It can convert AAC too

I have had problems with AAC to AC3 using eac3to in the past, so its pretty much habbit now to import wav files into eac3to. But this was early in the tools development so it may be a none issue now.