Hey chrissyboy, check this out, Pioneer 2/3 Fix

[TalynOne]

Check this out:

http://www.geocities.com/eby_vdo/


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Would it be possible to implement Sonic Foundry Soft Encode as the AC3 encoder used by SVCD2DVDMPG+. If you don't see this happening in the future what kind of donation would get you to change your mind?

P.S.: Thanks for the dedication you show to this program and your users!

[ChrissyBoy]

Indeed "Fix12c.exe - MPEG2 SDE patch" has been around a while. The difference between this SDE patcher & my own is that Fix12c changes the SDE headers but will not add them. Mine adds them. As it is not in the MPEG2 spec to have these headers, about 80% of MPEGS (SVCDs) I've come accross don't.

I thought Sonic Foundry Soft Encode was discontinued?

[TalynOne]

Yes, Sonic Foundry Soft Encode is a discontinued product, but that doesn't negate its value and usefulness. Remember that DVDMaestro has been discontinued now for about 2 years. Both programs still do the job well for many situations because they have a great feature set and the DVD and AC3 standards haven't changed much or at all.

If you look at these forums you will see that some people encounter problems when using besweet AC3 files in their DVD projects since its not fully standards compliant, Sonic Foundry Soft Encode is. If I have better tool at my disposal then it's a shame not to be able to use it in conjunction with your application.

Support for Sonic Foundry Soft Encode should be fairly simple to implement since the application allows automated command line execution.

Here's my semi automated solution:

Assumptions
Input file is 48khz wav file. The Program only accepts .wav file input, it's not very good at re-sampling the khz either, SSRC is better suited for that task.

I use three files for my batch setup:

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svcd.ini - Stores settings for use by encoder.

Contents of file:

[Parameters]
DataRate=224
SampleRate=0
UseLFE=Off
CodeMode=2
BSMode=0
DlgNorm=-27 dB
DolbySurround=0
CopyRight=On
Original=On
CompressionType=1
Deemphasis=Off
DCFilter=On
BandWidthFilter=On
RFCmpInUse=On

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svcd.bat - Batch file that accepts two paramters, the source wav file name (%1) and the target ac3 file name (%2). This batch file executes the encoder in a silent mode.

Contents of file:

Sftencdd.exe -A -P C:\program files\Sonic Foundry Soft Encode\svcd.ini -o %2 -L %1 -R %1 -N

Notes:
Notice that the path/file name value following the -P parameter doesn't have quotes around it. The application will not work properly if quotes surround this parameter.

-A: tells the application to run in a silent command line mode.
-P: and the value following the parameter tells the application to use the settings stored in the specified ini file for some of the encoder options.
-o: and the value following the parameter specifies the name of the output file.
-L: and the value following the parameter specifies the name of the input file for the left channel.
-R: and the value following the parameter specifies the name of the input file for the right channel.
-N: specifies to store the AC-3 file in non-Intel byte order

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batchenc.bat - Batch file used to process several input files at once.
Contents of file:

call svcd.bat P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.wav P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.ac3
call svcd.bat P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_1.wav P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_1.ac3
call svcd.bat P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_03_1.wav P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_03_1.ac3
call svcd.bat P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_04_1.wav P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_04_1.ac3
call svcd.bat P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_05_1.wav P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_05_1.ac3
call svcd.bat P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_06_1.wav P:\DVDOut\VIDEO_TS\VTS_06_1.ac3

Notes:
Notice that the path/file name for the two parameters don't have quotes around them. The application will not work properly if quotes surround the parameters.

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[joepic]

I thought Sonic Foundry Soft Encode was discontinued?

Sonic Foundry Soft Encode is a discontinued product, but that doesn't negate its value and usefulness. Remember that DVDMaestro has been discontinued now for about 2 years. Both programs still do the job well for many situations because they have a great feature set and the DVD and AC3 standards haven't changed much or at all.

I vote YES for a Sonic Foundry Encode option

As you know BeSweet does not work with the Pioneer players so I have no .ac3 option that works for me

I know you can do it

[ChrissyBoy]

TalynOne: I'll take a look at the possibility but i got loads on my to do list as it is.....

[Gurm]

Yeah I was gonna post something about that - my Pioneer just clicks and shrieks with AC3 audio from BeSweet. Bleh.

And I was given to understand that MP2 isn't as across-the-board accepted by DVD players as AC3 is... or was I misled on that?

- Gurm

[ChrissyBoy]

At least one audio track containing Dolby Digital or AC3 or PCM is a requirement for NTSC DVDs. PAL DVDs is the same but you can also have MPEG-1 Layer 2.

All other tracks can contain, MPEG-1 Layer 2 however.

Therefore all players are capable of playing MPEG-1 Layer 2 but players should only play NTSC DVDs which have, in addition, one of the aforementioned tracks (not many players are this stricked however)

[ChrissyBoy]

I think i might have to bubble this one up.....

TalynOne: I'll take a look at the possibility but i got loads on my to do list as it is.....

[Gurm]

Either that or you need to add in an option to add a dummy ac3 track when authoring DVD folders...

Since the MP2 track is proving pretty incompatible with some players.

- Gurm, who has no working audio options.