Lowest common audio format for a video DVD?

[deadlettr]

I'm posting a couple different questions in this forum in a row....keeping them seperate to hopefully keep the confusion to a minimum Hope no one minds my three posts one after another....

I recently lent a home made DVD to a coworker and he told me he couldn't get any sound from it when he went to watch it (on his laptop). Checking the stats on the disc shows that the only audio track is in AC3 format (it's not a disc I made). Now I've messed around making DVDs for a little bit now and have been using AC3 audio too, as I thought that was the best format to use (saves space) but now this has me thinking....
...I know that people talk about stuff you should do to make a disc as compatible as possible (i.e., always include a Audio_TS folder.....don't encode at too high a bit rate as some older players can't handle...etc), but I've never really thought or seen anything about audio compatiblity like this.
So my question is, how much of a problem is using AC3 audio ONLY likely to cause? Granted this problem happened on a laptop, but what if my "great-grandmother Martha" has that old DVD standalone player from a couple years back.....is there a standard audio that should be included or have all standalone players been made to play all the DVD complient formats that are around nowadays? I'm not as worried about computer based compatibility (although with so many people watching them on computers it might not be a bad idea to get some input on that as well). Shouldn't be relevant to my question, but I'm talking NTSC here.

Thanks for your inputs-

[GreyDeath]

AFAIK the AC3 audio format IS the standard for DVD's since it can carry the Dolby Digital signal on it (at least with Vegas it does).

Does your friend have the AC3 codec on his laptop? Maybe the player he was using doesn't support the DVD format wholey (sp?).

I actually have a problem with the MPG-1 audio that DVD Complete will only output. On some DVD players, you have to manual switch the audio mode to get sound to your TV.

Is this a ripped disc you made or something you encoded and authored yourself?

[greymalkin]

AC3 is the dvd standard. any standalone has to play ac3. also, software dvd players will decode the ac3 audio so i'm not sure why this computer wasn't playing the dvd.

[deadlettr]

No, this isn't one I did myself, but I verified that it's not just the one disc by supplying one of my own (with AC3 audio only). I'm not sure why neither won't work on his laptop, but I figured that it's probably something to do with just that computer.
My main concern was if there were any worries I should have in not including any other audio formats (for standalone players). I figure that a computer that won't play it is an oddity, but if someone out there were to say, "...blah, blah,...up to this year DVD players were only manufactured to play _this type_ of audio." .....then I might be a bit more worried about compatibility with old or cheaply made players..
You've both confirmed what I had thought (AC3 being standard on standalone) so I'm not going to sweat it now. Was just worried that if I give a disc to someone if I should include anything else.

Thanks for the advice from both of you.

[GreyDeath]

You might also want to make sure your AC3 file you encode is compliant ==>48,000khz between 192-384 bitrate

[deadlettr]

Oh, yeah...no problems there. I just think it's this one persons laptop at this point (Mr "I've got a computer science degree so it's not my laptop")

Actually I should ask now that you mention bitrate....no problems known for using high(est) bitrates in AC3 audio are there? Just thinking of it so I should ask since some players have problems with high bitrate encoded video from what I've read.

[jimmalenko]

What software is being used for playback ?


I'm fairly confident it's his laptop. To test, either get him to come around to your palce and play it on your PC or use a settop DVD player and show him that it is his laptop. Either that or install AC3Filter and see if it then plays.