Joining AC3 files

[Aaron407]

hey everybody,

I've been at the svcd game for years now but have recently acquired a dvd burner, so I'm looking to convert to dvd. I have a video in two parts with ac3 audio, and I was wondering, is there a way to join the ac3 audio from both parts into one? I can join the video parts but I'm unsure how to do the audio without decoding to a 2 channel wave and using an audio editor. Basically, I just want to burn to dvd in one file instead of two separate parts while still retaining the ac3 sound if possible. Hopefully somebody has some idea how to do this and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
407

[BJ_M]

in a cmd window

copy file1.ac3+file2.ac3 newfile.ac3 /B

[Aaron407]

That only seemed to leave me with an 856 byte file. Is there another way to do this?

407

[BJ_M]

try copy /B file1.ac3+file2.ac3 newfile.ac3

copy file1.ac3+file2.ac3 newfile.ac3


it will work one way or the other

[BJ_M]

make sure you specify the location also ... if ac3 not in path

if you put the ac3 files in your path - no problem

(like put them in root of c for example )

[Aaron407]

Beautiful! thanks, now I just have to try to find a way to normalize the ac3 while still retaining the 5 channels...any suggestions?

407

[BJ_M]

you have to re-encode then ... not good ...

[Aaron407]

Maybe it's not worth the fight...

[BJ_M]

that means -- convert to wav , normalize , convert to ac3

and not normalze all chanels the same as the levels WOULD/SHOULD most likely be diff.

[Aaron407]

what channel is normally the loudest? I was thinking about decoding all channels, normalizing the loudest channel and using the same normalizing factor for the others. Would that work to get all channels up to the same relative level to eachother as before, but at a higher overall volume?

407

[BJ_M]

i would to suggest not doing that -- why do you want to increse the volume ?

if you want to increase the overall volume - turn up the volume OR change the compression settings when re-encoding .... dont change the channel balance

[midnightsun]

I too would compress the dynamic range if the dialogues are too low for your taste. Normalizing channels on their own is not a good idea