What audio format is best to use ?

[Tafflad]

What audio format should I render to for Blu-ray disks ?
Have multiple video projects reday to burn in Sony Movie Studio.

On several tutorials I have see the advice to use Sony Wave64
Yet on Sony's own site it advise that its better to use AC3 as it does not have to be re-encoded in DVD Architect.

I notice that the Dolby AC3 template states 'AC3 Stereo DVD' but that may not in itself be an issue.
I did a test render using both .... one obvious point is that w64 files are about x10 the size of AC3 files.

With templates provided - AC3 encodes at 192Kbps while w64 uses 536kbps

Source used within movie studio project are mp3 tracks .. either 192Kbps or 356kbps so going to 536kbps would seem a lot of padding.

So would I be better using AC3 ?

[julitomg]

What audio format should I render to for Blu-ray disks ?
Have multiple video projects reday to burn in Sony Movie Studio.

On several tutorials I have see the advice to use Sony Wave64
Yet on Sony's own site it advise that its better to use [B]AC3

https://www.videohelp.com/hd

[jagabo]

Uncompressed PCM.

[Tafflad]

Uncompressed PCM.

even though source media is MPEG ?

not arguing, just want to understand.

[LMotlow]

Did you happen to look at julitomg's link to BluRay specs in post #2? MPEG2 is used for BluRay as well as two other encoding engines. Most people would use Dolby or DTS, but PCM is used as well. Uncompressed audio avoids audio compression effects and is used in video processing/rstoration/mastering to avoid such things. Nothing wrong with Dolby/DTS. Let us know if you can hear the difference.

[jagabo]

Uncompressed PCM.

even though source media is MPEG ?

He said his sources are MP3.

But if his sources were already compatible with Blu-ray he could just mux them as-is with the video. In that case decompressing them to uncompressed PCM would give no benefit.

[LMotlow]

Yes, I saw MP3 audio. MP3 is pretty low-quality stuff so you're right, he won't gain anything with the prescribed audio formats from mp3 source. PCM will do the least damage. No recompression.

He has MPEG with mp3 audio? Whatever......

[Tafflad]

Did you happen to look at julitomg's link to BluRay specs in post #2? MPEG2 is used for BluRay as well as two other encoding engines. Most people would use Dolby or DTS, but PCM is used as well. Uncompressed audio avoids audio compression effects and is used in video processing/rstoration/mastering to avoid such things. Nothing wrong with Dolby/DTS. Let us know if you can hear the difference.

I did .. and if I read correctly then AC3 is supported (first in the list)
so Sony's advice to use ac3 would seem logical ?

[Tafflad]

Yes, I saw MP3 audio. MP3 is pretty low-quality stuff so you're right, he won't gain anything with the prescribed audio formats from mp3 source. PCM will do the least damage. No decompression.

He has MPEG with mp3 audio? Whatever......

My sources are MPEG Audio .... so if I need to convert to either AC3 or PCM

If it is better 'match' to use PCM then my options are Sony .w64 or Microsoft .wav any reason to pick one over the other ?

[LMotlow]

You can't use Sony W.64 for these output formats. It's a SONY propriety compressor for SoundForge. PCM is 16bit, 48KHz, 32 to 1536 kbps (1536 is usually the default).

[pandy]

If it is better 'match' to use PCM then my options are Sony .w64 or Microsoft .wav any reason to pick one over the other ?

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=296370

[Tafflad]

You can't use Sony W.64 for these output formats. It's a SONY propriety compressor for SoundForge. PCM is 16bit, 48KHz, 32 to 1536 kbps (1536 is usually the default).

In mediainfo it shows for .w64:

Audio Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 11mn 52s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits


In mediainfo it shows for Microsoft wav:
Audio Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 19mn 0s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits


They both show same codec ID and PCM ?, but does not make them teh same the ?

In many tutorials it states to use Sony w64 ......... if it is not compliant then I would have thought DVD architect would gives its usual 'not compliant and offer to re-encode'

[LMotlow]

Oh. Using SONY software? The format is PCM, w64 and wav are containers. Sony's encoding will make it correct.

[Tafflad]

So as I'm using Sony products then the choice is better to use Sony .w64 PCM
In preference to Microsoft .wav or Dolby .ac3

[Cornucopia]

W64 is just a 64bit version of WAV (helpful if you need to go over 4GB in the audio stream). Similar to R64, but there are some differences in compatibility (to WAV) and overhead between the 64bit versions.
Regardless, the contents inside - LPCM - ought to be the same (certainly in this instance).

If you are starting from a non-compatible (for BD) format, such as Mp3, you're going to have to decompress it anyway in order to use another format. I say it's smarter to leave it uncompressed (LPCM) than to compress again and lose further quality (even if it's minor).

Scott

[Tafflad]

Good explanation .. I'll do that.