DVD Authoring-Audio HELP

[Rui Filipe]

Hi! all... I'm new in this thing of DVD Authoring, but I've been recording home videos and some stuff that I have into DVD... everything goes well... I have a Hollywood DV-Brige to pass the vcr or camcorder into the PC... I'm using ULEAD Studio to capture the videos...

Well... but my doubt is about SOUND, when I capture the film from my vcr or camcorder ULEAD has an option for the captured sound, I can use MPEG or PCM... I've been capture it with the MPEG option, cause I've never heard about PCM... now I've been reading stuff about it, and I a bit confused...
- Can anyone tell wich is best? MPEG or PCM ???
- And can I make from a captured Video a recording with 2.1 or 5.1 sound into a DVD ???....

I don't know if this are objective questions, but I'm new at this, and my ignorance is way too big... Sorry...
Can anyone give me links so I can learn more about this...
Thank you very very much
Rui from Portugal

[Cobra]

Rui Filipe,

MPEG is the standard that MP3 falls under. It is compressed audio. If you are capturing, you would do well not to use MPEG but to use PCM. This stands for Pulse Code Modulation, and is totally uncompressed. You will lose no quality. Also, when capturing your PC needs to concentrate all its power on not dropping frames. If it has to compress the audio too this will sap precious speed. It takes up a fair bit more hard drive space, which is the only disadvantage.

With regard to your question about types of audio (2.1 or 5.1), the camcorder and VCR will not have 5.1 surround on them. You will therefore only need to make a DVD with stereo sound on it.

Try checking out the guides on this site to learn more about capturing.

Hope this helps,

CobraDMX

[daamon]

Hi Rui Filipe,

cause I've never heard about PCM

PCM (also LPCM I believe) = WAV or wave files. Uncompressed audio format. Takes up 1,536kbps of a total bitrate allocation of 9,484 kbps per DVD disc - i.e. a fair bit.

Can anyone tell which is best? MPEG or PCM ???

By MPEG, I'm assuming you mean MP2 audio format. This is compressed audio at whatever bitrate you set (or is set as default) - 192 to 256 kbps is general. The quality is less, but only slightly.

Compare MP2 to PCM (WAV) and you'll see that it's very comparable in quality, and takes up a lot less. Usually only played by DVD stand-alone players in Europe, so you should be OK in Portugal.

And can I make from a captured Video a recording with 2.1 or 5.1 sound into a DVD ???....

My knowledge is a bit sketchy on this one, so can someone else confirm: Only if the original audio is in that format I believe - I think converting to PCM may lose the 5.1 and only keep the stereo (2 channels).

The format (at least 5.1) is AC3. You can convert WAV -> AC3 or MP2 (192 - 256 kbps will be sufficient) using ffmpeggui, but you won't get the 5 channels if they're not in the WAV.

I hope that helps. Good luck...

EDIT: Seems CobraDMX and I were responding at the same time, and I came in 2nd...