Would you use AC3 or .WAV files for your DVD?

[RB4580]

Our DVDs are under an hour long, so my replicator said I could use PCM wav files. But I also have TMPG to convert to AC3, what's the best route to go? Thx

[MOVIEGEEK]

Either one is supported by all players,for best fidelity choose LPCM.

[RB4580]

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it.
What exactly is LPCM?

I record all of our audio for the DVDs thru Audio Studio 8.0 and then save them in 48khz in .wav format.

Are you saying to save them differently?

Thanks

[pijetro]

What exactly is LPCM?

Linear Pulse code modulation

If your editor/encoder/output thingy supports .AC3 output, go for it..192 kbps for stereo..

Believe it or not, i can't get my darned DVD player to recognize LPCM..Probably my fault..

[David K]

RB,

You are saving your sound files correctly. A .wav file is the same thing as LPCM.
LPCM is uncompressed audio, like you would find on a CD.
AC3 is a compressed format (like mp3). The advantage with AC3 is the smaller file size (around 1/10 of LPCM). But unless you are a real audiophile, a good AC3 encoding at 192 to 224 kbps should sound fine (especially for home movies). You can easily get up to two hours good quality video on a DVD using AC3.

[FulciLives]

When you MAX the video bitrate at about 8000kbps and use LPCM WAV audio you will find that you can fit about 60 minutes per DVD Video disc.

So if your project is 60 minutes or less then you might as well use LPCM WAV audio since that is the best sound format for the DVD Video format.

However as mentioned ... AC-3 can sound nearly as good to just about all but the most anal as long as you use a good bitrate. For AC-3 the "sweat spot" for 2 channel mono or stereo audio seems to be about 256kbps although some claim that 320kbps is better yet. No reason to go highter than 320kbps though unless you have multi-channel audio (i.e,, 5.1 Surround Sound).

In contrast LPCM WAV audio has a "fixed" bitrate of 1536kbps.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
CD audio is LPCM WAV at 16-bit 44.1k but LPCM WAV for DVD Video is 16-bit 48k

[RB4580]

Thanks for the excellent responses. I'm going to stick with the basic .wav file as long as we can keep the DVDs under 1.5 hours.

From what I understand from ya'll, is .wav is the best most compatible anyways. Thanks again.

[FulciLives]

Thanks for the excellent responses. I'm going to stick with the basic .wav file as long as we can keep the DVDs under 1.5 hours.

From what I understand from ya'll, is .wav is the best most compatible anyways. Thanks again.

Actually we are saying (at least I am) to go ahead and use LPCM WAV audio on a DVD if the running time is at or below 60 minutes.

However if you have to go over 60 minutes then you should use AC-3 audio instead.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RB4580]

Thanks for the excellent responses. I'm going to stick with the basic .wav file as long as we can keep the DVDs under 1.5 hours.

From what I understand from ya'll, is .wav is the best most compatible anyways. Thanks again.

Actually we are saying (at least I am) to go ahead and use LPCM WAV audio on a DVD if the running time is at or below 60 minutes.

However if you have to go over 60 minutes then you should use AC-3 audio instead.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

Thanks a lot John for stickin' it out with me here. I bought TMPG AC3 Encoder and did a drag and drop and converted to AC3, is this all I need to do and them dump it into DVD Lab Pro?

I keep hearing to keep the bitrate a certain way... 256kbps is what I hear. Do I do this in TMPG or Audio Studio 8 which is where I record?

Thanks in advance!

[ixyk]

Something else to keep in mind with regard to avoiding any playback issues with certain system configurations is that many DVD players (such as my Toshiba SD-4900 as an example) will NOT output MPEG-2 audio streams from the digital outputs of the player, so if you are hooked up digitally you will at first think that there is no audio on your disc. This isn't quite what you were asking with the AC3 vs. WAV issue, but I've found it to be a more important issue than that--especially if you're using a capturing program that automatically captures everything in MPEG-2. Converting from MPEG-2 to AC3 doesn't really save as much space as converting from WAV to AC3, but I would definitely recommend converting to AC3 if you have that option. Anyway, just my $.02 on the topic...

[FulciLives]

Thanks for the excellent responses. I'm going to stick with the basic .wav file as long as we can keep the DVDs under 1.5 hours.

From what I understand from ya'll, is .wav is the best most compatible anyways. Thanks again.

Actually we are saying (at least I am) to go ahead and use LPCM WAV audio on a DVD if the running time is at or below 60 minutes.

However if you have to go over 60 minutes then you should use AC-3 audio instead.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

Thanks a lot John for stickin' it out with me here. I bought TMPG AC3 Encoder and did a drag and drop and converted to AC3, is this all I need to do and them dump it into DVD Lab Pro?

I keep hearing to keep the bitrate a certain way... 256kbps is what I hear. Do I do this in TMPG or Audio Studio 8 which is where I record?

Thanks in advance!

The word is this ... TMPGEnc AC-3 Encoder is very good at making good AC-3 files. In the past the only freeware programs for making AC-3 did so poorly. I think the freeware programs are better now but you probably did the right thing buying TMPGEnc AC3 Encoder. However I haven't used that one myself so I cannot comment on how to use it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman