New to AC-3 encoding: what's good to use?

[DRP]

I'm new to DVD authoring and hence also new to AC-3 encoding. I have been making SVCD with MP2 audio using tooLAME @ 224kbps which was fine and worked well. Now with DVD, I want to make 2 channel only AC-3 audio instead. I have the TMPGEnc AC-3 sound plug-in installed. Is that considered a good encoder for AC-3 or is there something better available?

Also, what's a good bitrate (roughly equivalent quality-wise to tooLAME @ 224) for AC-3? Can I stick with 224 for 2-channel stereo? Is that good enough?

[Soopafresh]

Yes, the TMPGENC AC3 product is fine, but I Find FFMPEGGUI to be much easier. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of TMPGENC, but it is truly as simple as it gets.

[johns0]

Ffmpeg is alright for free ac3 encoding but its not true ac3 thats accepted by all dvd players,most but not all.224kbps is good enough.

[DRP]

Excellent, thanks for the suggestion. I'm downloading it now and will try it out. It certainly looks good. What about the bitrate question? What's considered the acceptable bitrates to use for AC-3 audio? What's "normal" for commercial DVD's for example?

I've seen 448kbps AC-3 files but I think they were 5.1 surround sound ones. I don't have a 5.1 speaker system, so I only need 2 channel stereo. What would be an acceptable bitrate for that?

[johns0]

224 kbps is good enough for 2 channel ac3 and i would stick with the tmpgenc dolby ac3 encoding.

[jimmalenko]

Yes, the TMPGENC AC3 product is fine, but I Find FFMPEGGUI to be much easier. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of TMPGENC, but it is truly as simple as it gets.

Ditto. Never tried the TMPGEnc AC3 (haven't purchased it), but have tried ffmpeggui and I'm quite impressed. Works for me every time and is very very easy to use IMO.

[Soopafresh]

Hey Johns0, in what way is the AC3 file created by FFMPEGGUI non-standard?

[johns0]

Its not licensed plus it doesnt fully have all the ac3 details as proven by one of the moderators here.

[mpack]

I'll add my vote for ffmpeggui - I've not tried any other since ffmpeg works for me.

I think john0's comment about non-standard is out of date. There was a bug in the ffmpeg output bitstream syntax that some players would tolerate, others not. Make sure you get the latest ffmpeg, in which this bug is fixed.

[johns0]

Not out of date,its still non standard in my books and by the way i said it was not truly ac3 to begin with,not non standard.

[jimmalenko]

Works for me

YMMV though.

I thought it was besweet that created non-standard AC3 ?

[johns0]

Im not saying it dont work or that its not good,just that its not true ac3,close enough for most dvd players to accept,better than besweets ac3.

[mpack]

Im not saying it dont work or that its not good,just that its not true ac3,close enough for most dvd players to accept,better than besweets ac3.

I think what many of us want is a free tool that creates audio tracks which are accepted by the Dolby logic in every player. If ffmpeg does that then we are happy. In fact I can't think of what else I should care about.

[DRP]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll take johns0's advice that it might be non-standard though and continue to use the TMPGEnc plug-in instead. It seems so far at least that no one has anything bad to say about it, so no dramas.

FWIW DVD-lab Pro can act as a front-end for the TMPGEnc plug-in and it must hide all the fruit I guess because it's very simple indeed. You literally have only one decision to make and that's what bitrate to use and it does all the rest for you. So it's hard to imagine it being any easier actually.