Audio Masters: How would you do it?

[raygeorge]

Task: Converting years old music videos on VHS to DVD to play on set top DVD player. Using digital cam-corder/firewire DV capture to hard drive.

Steps:
1) Capture video as AVI file using Ulead VS6 - Done
2) Edit video using Ulead VS6 - Done
3) Convert/Process video to MPEG-2 using TMPGE - Done
Ready to create menus, create VOB files, & burn to DVD...
WHOOPS!! Read in other FAQ guides that TMPGE's MPEG 1 layer 2 sound is not fully part of the "official" DVD standard & some DVD players will not play them.

I know Ulead VS6 can save my sound as an uncompressed WAV file....
I know I can use TooLame/Be Sweet/etc to encode my WAV file to a AC3 file....

Questions:
a) do the files remain seperate until I burn my DVD (ie: just use TMPGE to encode the video portion to MPEG-2 ) or do I point to the two files & have TMPGE "join" them when processing? (won't this save the audio as MPEG 1 layer 2 again?)
b) what does encoding my sound to AC3 do to the file sizes? It would be nice to use some sort of compression due to the fact the original sound is good FM quality at best. I would rather maximize video quality over audio quality.

Any audio advice appreciated, I have lost my way & need help....

[snowmoon]

Try and think of your mpg files as containing two seperate files one video one audio. Multiplexing/Demultiplexing allows you to manipulate these files independatly.

So use whatever you would like to conver the audio to a .mp2/.ac3 file and then demultiplex your mpeg's with improper audio and remultiplex the video and the new audio. Tmpgenc has a multiplexer/demultiplexer under filt/mpeg tools or you can use bbMpeg to merge the streams.

There is no reason to re-encode the video.

[BJ_M]

many authoring programs need separate elementary streams anyway for audio and video -- if you have the room on your disk and audio is the crucial quality -- use PCM audio only as its better than 2ch ac3 ..

[raygeorge]

So let me see if I follow:
a) I use TMPGE to create the MPEG-2 file of audio & video as before
b) Use whatever program I favor to create the AC3 audio file from the uncompressed audio-only WAV file.
c) Use TMPGE (or BBMPEG) to demux the MPEG-2 file with the improper audio & then remux it pointing to the new AC3 audio file.

So you create the actual MPEG-2 file BEFORE you demux/remux? I think this was the part I was missing.....

And you still end up with only 1ea MPEG-2 file (composed of the video & the AC3 audio) ready to create the DVD?

Thanks for tips, I'm trying to get it !

[SLK001]

A LPCM audio file is roughly 3-4 times the size of an .AC3 file - but the LPCM file is lossless, while the .AC3 file is not. If you convert your audio to .AC3, useing 384kbps 2/0 will give you considerable compression (~4:1). I usually operate on individual video and audio elementry streams and only combine them when I need to either cut or merge a file. You don't say what app you are using, but most DVD authoring apps require the audio and video separate.

So you create the actual MPEG-2 file BEFORE you demux/remux? I think this was the part I was missing.....

No, this is not what we are saying. All multiplexing should be done in the DVD authoring program (by the DVD authoring program during the compile stage). Leave your audio and video separate when you import them into the app.

[raygeorge]

I plan on using Ulead DVD Workshop to author my DVDs.....

OK, here goes another try:

a) Create my MPEG-2 file with the audio/video combined as usual...
b) Create the AC3 file from the uncompressed WAV...
c) Demux the MPEG-2 file with TMPGE to get the file WITHOUT the audio
d) When I go to use Ulead DVD Workshop, I finally point it to both the MPEG-2 file AND the AC3 audio file during the DVD creation?

Thanks for the quick replies....