MP2 or AC3

[FT Shark]

I have a Sony stand alone dvd player which plays DVD's with MP2 audio. Do most DVD players play MP2 audio? If not, do most new ones?

Surecode's web page says

Dolby Digital encoding is an excellent option for audio on a DVD-Video disc (and other media) because it reduces the size of the audio files typically by a ratio of 8:1, yet still achieves excellent sound quality.

I believe the 8:1 ratio pertains to wav or pcm audio and not mp2?

I guess my main question is, since my DVD player will read mp2 audio should I just keep it or should I convert to AC3? If I do keep it will the DVD's I create be compatable with other players in the present and future?

[Theophilus]

This is just the question that has been on my mind as I search the forums today. From my research and short experience with the BeSweet audio converter (2 days), it seems to be much more difficult to get a decent ac3 audio file for free than it is to get a good mp2 audio file for free. If I think NTSC players in the future will continue to support mp2, then I will continue to produce mp2 audio on my DVDs, but if the current commercial market, which is dominated by ac3 audio, leads DVD manufacturers to drop mp2 support, then I definitely want to be prepared to make projects with ac3.

I don't know if I have made much headway into answering this question. I just want to reemphasize it along with FT in hopes that many of you will post your opinions.

[FOO]

I don't think MP2 will go away.
PAL required it , and the trend is to be able to play ANYTHING.
SVCD requires MP2 that's still popular. I still use SVCDs for short videos

[Gazorgan]

MP2 is complient for DVD's only in PAL land, whereas AC3 is complient only in NTSC land. Needless to say most players support both without blinking (in fact most DVD players don't care about NTSC/Pal, it's just a setting....why make 2 models when 1 will do???).

The point is MP2 may work for you now, but not the next DVD player you buy (well, most of 'us' check prospective DVD players with a stack of mixed disks ), or your friends. Go with what works best for you and don't worry about it.

[SaSi]

MP2 is complient for DVD's only in PAL land, whereas AC3 is complient only in NTSC land. Needless to say most players support both without blinking (in fact most DVD players don't care about NTSC/Pal, it's just a setting....why make 2 models when 1 will do???).

The point is MP2 may work for you now, but not the next DVD player you buy (well, most of 'us' check prospective DVD players with a stack of mixed disks ), or your friends. Go with what works best for you and don't worry about it.

I think your comments are a bit inaccurate.

Certainly, NTSC requires - at least the original specs - that at least one audio track is LPCM or AC3. And if I remember correctly, it may be that this must be the first audio track. However, recent NTSC DVD players seem to accept MPEG-2 only streams also.

PAL is not incompatible with AC3. Most DVDs I see (in PAL country) ONLY have AC3 audio. I rarely see any PAL DVD with MPEG-2 audio.

I disagree that MPEG audio will become extinct, at least not without changing the DVD specifications.

The issue is that for any given bitrate, AC3 is considered to have better sound quality compared to MPEG. AC3 is also used for multi-channel audio, although MPEG-2 audio allows 5.1 audio as well. Just did not catch popularity with DVD productions.

The only "safe" rule on this is that for NTSC DVDs, it's better to make the first track AC3 - I assume nobody would deliberately choose LPCM. For PAL DVDs, you can make them as you like (AC3, MPEG, DTS).

[andkiich]

Every DVD that I have ever made used MP2 only audio, and I have yet to find a DVD player that would not play it with the sound file as such.

[Nelson37]

I believe one of the Mods stated in a recent post that the requirement to play MP2 for PAL DVD players has been dropped.

While it is true that MPEG audio can be 5.1, there are an extremely limited number of players that can actually play such a file.

Have processed and burnt about 35 movies to DVD with AC-3 sound, using BeSweet for AC-3 conversion. No problems with this procedure to date.

It is likely that MP2 will continue to be supported. It is closer to an absolute certainty that AC-3 will be. Bet as you wish.