Basic Newbie PCM audio to AC3 process question.

[Augster]

Hey,

I have captured VCR in Premiere and edited it. I have exported it to a .avi file outside Premiere. It is at this point that I usually go to TMPGenc. to compress to MPEG-2. This I've gotten and had no problems. Everything I've read though, has said to only use TMPG for Video. So, I select ES Video, and compressing away I go.

My totally basic question is, WHAT do I do with the audio? I haven't tried BeSweet yet. Is that the next step? I am going to look for a BeSweet tutorial, but asking is a good way to find out too. Am I correct to, open BeSweet, or a different encoder, load the .avi file I exported from Premiere, then extract and convert it to AC3 @224 or 256 or something?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Spentfire]

Actually, I am interested hearing peoples answers to this question also.

Is BeSweet the answer? In the guide at...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/129419.php

...the author states that "Besweet with ac3enc does NOT create 100 % compliant ac3 audio files. It doesn't work on some Pioneer players for example."

How complaint are they? Moreso than MPEG layer II for DVD?

I'm on the edge of my seat for the answer to this one

Thanks

[fmctm1sw]

I use BeSweet for that purpose. Save the Wav file off your Avi and convert. Are you having problems with BeSweet? I don't recall hearing about non-compliant AC3 files.

@spentfire - In order to be DVD compliant (for NTSC) one of your audio tracks MUST be either PCM or AC3. You can have other tracks that are MP2. I've made many with MP2 sound and they've all played though.

[hiptune]

I have also read (here) that BeSweet does not make fully compliant AC3.

My DVDs with Mpeg audio have so far played on ever player I have tried.

I have read that Adobe Encore will do proper AC3. So that is my next step to try this weekend.

Jeff

[mats.hogberg]

For all my wav to ac3 needs, I use ffmpeg with ffmpegGUI. Much simpler than BeSweet. ffmpeg extremely powerful, and can do a lot more than wav to ac3, so it's worth taking a look at anyways.

/Mats

[daamon]

Or, if you're in Europe (or have a European made stand-alone DVD player), you can use MP2 audio. ffmpeggui is my preferred WAV -> AC3 @ 192kbps (128 - 256 kbps is a reasonable range, depending on source quality), and it also does MP2 (as does TMPGEnc).

Sure, it may not be fully compliant AC3, but if it's a case of "doesn't play on some Pioneers" then that reads as "plays on all other models (Pioneer or otherwise)" -i.e. you should be OK. Also, if it works in mine then that's fine by me.

[Augster]

Thanks for the replies folks!

I'll take a look at that fff thing-a-ma-jig.

Quick question. At what point in the process do I use ffmpeggui? I have my .avi exported from Premiere and it's a HUGE file. Where do I go from here? To TMPGenc Plus and do ES Video or ES audio or ES Video+Audio OR do I go to ffmpeggui with the .avi and split off the audio then encode to AC3?

Whew. I'm confused. THis damn process must be so easy once you understand it. I'll bet it's quicker to do than to explain.

Thanks for any help!

Augster

[Poppa_Meth]

encode a video only stream in TMPGEnc Plus. choose ES Video for this.
Load the AVI in Virtual Dub. Open the audio menu and set it to Full Processing Mode. Open audio menu and set compression to PCM no compression. Open Audio menu and set conversion rate. set it to 48,000 16 Bit Stereo for DVD compliant. Now open the File menu and choose the Save WAVE option to extract the audio to WAVE format. Now you just load that WAVE file into FFMPEG GUI and convert to AC3. I usually use 256 for a richer sound.

Then you may have to MUX the two together. Many Authoring Programs like TDA let you load the Video stream you created and the AC3 stream seperately. If your doesn't I believe you can use the MPEG tools in TMPGEnc to mux the elementary streams together.

[Augster]

That's the kind of info I'm looking for PM! Thanks.

So you suggest Virtual Dub for this? I'll have to d/l that and try it. Any other programs? I am surprised that Premiere wouldn't do this actually.

I'll give it a whirl.

Thanks.

[Melkor]

I use the process as Poppa Meth outlined (V-dub to .wav to ffmpeg to ac3) then put the encoded video file with the ac3 in my authoring program... let it mux them together.

I'm rather new to this myself, but using this method on downloaded avi files, I've had ~30 successful burns and NO ruined discs. No synch problems either.

Good luck!

[Augster]

Thanks for the input Melkor.

I'll definitely have to learn how to use VirtuaDub I guess.

[daamon]

Hi Augster,

Check out this link:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=725433#725433

It's not designed to be a definitive guide, but it may help as a step-by-step (ish) point in the right direction. Note the edits that I've put in too.

Hope that helps...

[Augster]

Great Info Daamon!

I read that post earlier, then when I went to look it up again, I couldn't find it. Thanks for the link. It sure shows the way to do it in Premiere.

Hey, Did you ever figure out why the audio says 1536 instead of 192/224/256? I get the same thing.

Thanks.

[johns0]

1536 kbps for 48 khz stereo pcm wav and 192,224 and 256 kbps for ac3,mp2 audio

[Augster]

So it's PCM that's that big....ouch. Thanks for the info!

[daamon]

Great Info Daamon!

I read that post earlier, then when I went to look it up again, I couldn't find it. Thanks for the link. It sure shows the way to do it in Premiere.

Pleasure, glad it was of use. If I find any topics I'm interested in, I click on "Watch this topic for replies" (at the bottom) as it keeps it in my "Watched Topics" list for future reference.

If you click on the little "page" icon next to a specific post's date and time, the resulting URL, when used, takes you direct to the post in the topic.

Hey, Did you ever figure out why the audio says 1536 instead of 192/224/256? I get the same thing.

Yep - I was getting confused between my WAVs and my MP3s. johns0 is spot on, much to my embarrasment.

[Spentfire]

Thats for all the good ideas people!

One quick question....I use Ulead's Moviefactory. Is there a way to remux the dvd compliant video and ac3 audio using this proggie?

Thanks