which has Smaller file size? Wav,ac3,mp2,etc?

[rion]

I was wondering if what format and settings should I use that will play to all standard Stand alone DVD players?

wav,ac3,mp's?

a smallest compression setting yet, with the quailty is still okay.

[FulciLives]

I was wondering if what format and settings should I use that will play to all standard Stand alone DVD players?

wav,ac3,mp's?

a smallest compression setting yet, with the quailty is still okay.

Well WAV takes up the most space since it uses a bitrate of 1536kbps (which cannot be adjusted).

AC-3 and MP2 use much lower bitrates. AC-3 only goes as high as 448kbps and then that is only for 5.1 audio ... for normal 2.0 stereo audio you are usually more than fine using 256kbps although you could use either 224kbps or even 192kbps but you wouldn't want to go lower than 192kbps with 2.0 AC-3

MP2 only goes as high as 384kbps but since the sound quality of MP2 is less than AC-3 you would want to use at least 224kbps if not higher. With MP2 you really don't want to go lower than 224kbps.

The size of the audio file is determined by the bitrate so AC-3 at 224kbps is the same as MP2 at 224kbps BUT since AC-3 uses better compression you will usually get better quality from the 224kbps AC-3 than the 224kbps MP2 eventhough both are the same size.

Of these format WAV and AC-3 are the most compatable. Many DVD players (at least in the USA) have "issues" with MP2 audio.

So for best sound quality AND compression I would suggest AC-3 and if you have a 2 channel source (be it stereo or mono) then I would use 256kbps as that seems to be more than high enough for quality audio. In other words going higher is not likely to make a difference in quality that you can hear whereas going lower might be ok but is not advised.

Most commercial DVD discs actually use 192kbps for 2.0 AC-3 although it is not too uncommon to run across 224kbps or 256kbps but 192kbps is the most common. However consider this ... commerical DVD discs are using very high quality audio files for the source and the people doing this know what they are doing to maximize quality. Stand alone DVD recorders use 256kbps 2.0 AC-3 and that is what I use on all of my captures (where I first capture the video as an AVI with WAV audio).

So for 2.0 AC-3 you can use 192kbps, 224kbps or 256kbps with 256kbp being my suggestion. You don't want to go under 192kbps and you could go higher than 256kbps but you are not likely to hear any difference.

In short 256kbps seems to be the "sweet spot" for 2.0 AC-3 audio encoding.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[rion]

wow! thanks FulciLives.

now I can make a better quality DVD.
with more space, I can make my bitrates higher than before.

[FulciLives]

wow! thanks FulciLives.

now I can make a better quality DVD.
with more space, I can make my bitrates higher than before.

You can't beat the quality of PCM WAV audio (assuming your have a high quality audio source) but AC-3 can sound just as good ... if you can really tell the difference then you have amazing hearing!

Some people prefer to use PCM WAV when the program is music based like a musical or concert etc. but even then I challenge ANYONE to a hearing test between PCM WAV and 448kbps AC-3 since I highly doubt they will be able to determine any difference.

As I said for just about any 2 channel audio source 256kbps AC-3 is more than good enough. Even if you are totally anal about the audio and use 448kbps AC-3 (448kbps is the highest AC-3 birate) that is still just under 1/3 the size of PCM WAV which is 1536kbps.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman