AC-3 or Layer 2?

[Z.Sath]

Transferring my Tex Avery LDs to SVCD.

Capture was done through phono's attached to my Canopus ADVC-100 Analogue to Digital convertor.

Was going to convert audio to Layer 2 but read somewhere that this was incompatible with NTSC DVD (live in UK but LDs are NTSC).

Considering the method of capture, would I notice a significant diff using AC-3?

Will I be able to create an NTSC SVCD or DVD with Layer2?

Many thanks in advance.

Paul.

[drjtech]

Even though it is out of spec to create an NTSC DVD with a single MPEG audio track, most authoring programs will accept it and many DVD players will play it. The NTSC DVD standard requires that at least one audio track be LPCM or DD.

If the DVD is for your personal use on your own equipment then it only matters that YOUR player accepts the DVD. If you intend to play the disc on a variety of players then you run the risk of some players not accepting the non-standard DVD.

-drj

EDIT
Since you are in the UK the odds are almost certain that if your DVD player plays PAL/NTSC it will handle NTSC with MPEG audio.

[mats.hogberg]

...and SVCD doesn't allow for AC3 at all. Since you live in UK, your player meets the PAL (and probably NTSC too) standard, and that's what you'll have to consider when creating your disc, be it SVCD or DVD. I regularly create AC3 only DVDs without any problems.

/Mats

[Z.Sath]

sorry, I am an idiot:

What is LPCM and DD?

Is there a table of formats I can look at, and what would you personally recommend considering the source of the audio and the way it has been captured?

[ropdoh]

DD is Dolby Digital, same as AC3 for your purposes
LPCM stands for Linear PCM (Pulse Coded Modulation I think) which is essentially uncompressed audio. Sometimes just called PCM

Similar to an audio CD, but with a sample rate of 48,000 Hz, instead of the CD's 44,100 Hz

Most DVD authoring software will allow you to use three audio options:
1) LPCM
2) Mpeg Layer 2
3) Dolby Digital / AC3

As far as I know AC3 / Dolby Digital is the most compatible, so if you can, use it.

[mats.hogberg]

DD= Dolby Digital (AC3), LPCM=uncompressed.

/Mats

[guns1inger]

It's not so much that mpeg Layer 2 is imcompatible with NTSC, but it is not in the spec for NTSC players. There is nothing to stop you putting Mpeg Layer 2 audio on an NTSC disk, and if your player supports it for PAL, you should have no issues. My PAL player will quite happily play Mpeg Layer 2 audio on NTSC or PAL disks. Unfortunately, my app cant decode them, so I have to output PCM from the player.

As stated, AC-3 is probably to most universal. Based on your capture method, I would use AC-3 2 channel stereo at 192 khz