Selecting DVDShrink Audio Tracks

[akrako1]

A few quick questions about selecting the bare minimum of DVD Shrink audio tracks. My DVD player will not play -RW's, so I'd like to get some advice before I burn some coasters. I have an old stereo reciever that only accepts stereo, so I am using my DVD player in simple stereo mode. I might find the cash to upgrade to a proper surround system in the future, so I'd like to preserve the surround information if possible. And, on the other hand, I am also looking to cut as much audio as possible, and maximize the movie size.

1. Can I select to use only the AC3 5.1 chanel of audio? Will the DVD player do all the converting to stereo? Will this sound as good as leaving the 2-ch ac3 track?
2. DTS tracks. I'm assuming these are digital only tracks - so they can't be used exclusively in a setup like mine - correct?

Also, I ran into a problem coping a certain episodic disc. I removed the 5.1 ch track, and left the stereo track only. The 5.1 was set to audio #1, and the stereo to audio #2. When I play the disc on my player, I must choose the stereo version thru the 'audio options' or I get no sound at all. I think the problem is that I'm disabling the primary (#1) audio track. Any workaround or advice?

Thanks in advance!

[jeremyp969]

1. It would depend on your DVD player on whether it would fix the audio for you for 2 channel. 99% sure it will though. One easy way to test would be to play a DVD and select the 5.1 Dolby Digital Track on the DVD player and see how it plays. You won't lose "quality" doing it this way, but chances are a track specifically ripped for 2 channels will sound better on a 2 channel system than one for 5.1 channels on a 2 channel system. If it were me I would keep the 5.1 because you won't even really notice a difference, and I'm sure you'll upgrade in the future.

2. DTS is another form of Digital Surround Sound. Keep in mind that Dolby is also digital, however many more receivers will accept a Dolby 5.1 over a DTS 5.1. DTS is better quality, but also takes up more room on a DVD. So you can try playing a DVD with DTS 5.1 on it to see if it will work, but it probably won't

As far as the audio track not starting by default, that seems strange. DVDShrink has always worked for me, but generally I keep the primary track anyways. Are you using re-author or full disk?

[akrako1]

Thanks for the info!

I'm using DVDShrink in full-disk backup mode. I also typically use the primary track - it's only been one series of discs (a certain long running prim time animated show) where the primary is 5.1. I doublt there's really much surround info happening, and with multiple episodes per disc - space is at a premium. My DVD player would play nothing by default (though the menu audio would work), but on my friend's player, it worked fine.