Encoded Video w/ TMPGE....What about Audio?

[TicklemeBigBird]

I'm using Premiere 6.0 to edit, exported the video and audio separately to .avi, and followed the guide with TMPGE for DVD(mpegII) video, but the reccomendation is to use a separate program for the audio. I use Nero 6.xx for authoring, but don't see where I can link the audio with the video for the final merging. I've used TMPGE in years past and just left the audio linked, but I'm just getting back into editing and followed this guide http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html. Do I really lose that much by encoding the audio with TMPGE? Any thoughts?

[Gideon25]

I'm using Premiere 6.0 to edit, exported the video and audio separately to .avi, and followed the guide with TMPGE for DVD(mpegII) video, but the reccomendation is to use a separate program for the audio. I use Nero 6.xx for authoring, but don't see where I can link the audio with the video for the final merging. I've used TMPGE in years past and just left the audio linked, but I'm just getting back into editing and followed this guide http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html. Do I really lose that much by encoding the audio with TMPGE? Any thoughts?

I don't see a problem with having a multiplexed mpg as the finished product ready to burn. True several authoring progs allow you to select an audio stream separately (TMPGEnc dvd Author for instance) but I still don't see why you would gain (or lose)anything if its non ac3 audio from an avi file. If you for some reason have to convert the audio separately due to framerate conversions and/or dvd audio conversion (like vcdtodvd)you could STILL multiplex the file afterwards and have a single mpg to burn. Now if you have ac3, DTS sound or special sound that you want to keep separate then you should choose an authoring program that lets you select a different audio file other than just the mpg. If you are just dealing with an avi then perhaps you could just use BeSweet as an audio converter and then multiplex the file afterwards if you are overly concerned about TMPGEnc audio quality. Personally I use CCE with Besweet for most of my conversions (with the DVD2SVCD package). Besweet produced superb audio. So demultiplex the file (or save the avi audio as wav)then convert it to an MP2 using Besweet then multiplex it with the m2v (or mpv)video file that tmpgenc uses. THAT would give you the best audio quality/size ratio. It says (in that link):

The first is the fact that MPEG audio is not standard on all DVD players. Although it is supported by all PAL players (and many recent NTSC models), some authoring programs still refuse to add MPEG audio directly to their projects, and will instead convert it to PCM (uncompressed). Since MPEG audio uses lossy compression, the quality that was lost in the compression is not recovered. By contrast, the space that was saved by the compression is lost again. So, using MPEG audio in these programs is a lose-lose situation. The only two formats guaranteed to be compatible with all players are PCM and AC3.


Pretty much EVERY dvd player 2 years or newer can handle mpeg audio with no problems (even the dirt cheap Walmart dvd players). In addition TMPGENC DVD author does NOT convert the mpg sound (either in the mpeg file itself or in a separate mp2 or mpa audio file)to PCM! It burns it as mpeg sound and MOST players these days can easily handle that. Besweet produces excellent mp2 (mpeg sound)sound and its WAY smaller than WAV (PCM) so why eat up all that space on uncompressed sound? Sure if you want ac3 or dts its another story. I suppose it boils down to how high quality the sound is in these avi files of yours. Its like ripping an audio cd. do you prefer just the wav off the cd (a huge file)or can you live with high bitrate excellent quality mp3's? Its up to you.

it also says this:

The second reason is the fact that there are several MPEG audio encoders that produce better quality than TMPGEnc. So even if your authoring program does support MPEG audio, and if you're sure the resulting discs will only be played on DVD players that support MPEG audio, you should still use TMPGEnc only for the video, and encode the audio in a separate application (if you do a quick search on the web for "MPEG audio encoding" you should be able to find several guides about the subject).


That I can agree with. Besweet is definitely better as an audio converter than TMPGEnc.