Problem loading AC-3 audio (inside MPEG) in Premiere

[irving]

Hi, I'm new here, so pardon if I still make mistakes

I've searched the forum and FAQ for my problem, found a lot of information, but can not find a specific answer.

I bought my first Sony Handycam (SR300) and after a few shootings, I downloaded the MPEG (.mpg) files to my notebook. Now I want to use it in Premiere for further editing.

I usually used Premiere since version 7, and now using Premiere Pro 2.0. Usually, I use it to create movies from pictures/photos, eg. creating special birthday movies using old childhood photos of the person, with additional texts (animated or not) and recorded speech in the background.

Now, I want to do something similar, but now with additional items: movies from my handycam.

So, I created a new project in Premier, with 720x576 16:9 PAL default settings, plus 5.1 audio channel. No problem here.

The problem come when I put one of the mpg movies (from the handycam) to Premiere. Premiere only recognize the audio as 2-channel Stereo. I checked the file with Picture Motion Browser (comes with the handycam) and it clearly shows 5.1 audio. I played the file in Windows Media Player, and it shows AC-3 audio (somehow I have AC-3 codec in my notebook, maybe from K-lite Codec Pack).

Initially, I tought something is wrong with the mpg file, maybe Sony is using some proprietary format. But after searching thru this forum, I realized that maybe Premiere doesn't have the decoder for AC-3 audio.

So, here are my questions (sorry for the long background information):

1. Is my assumption correct, that I need some kind of plug-in in Premiere to decode AC-3 audio? Because I've done internet search and can only find AC-3 encoder plug-in, instead of decoder.

2. If my assumption is wrong, then it means Premiere really is not able to decode AC-3 audio? Or maybe Premiere Pro CS3 can?

3. Or maybe it is easier to just abandon Premiere and look for other software? I've tried Sony Vegas (also can not read AC-3), Cuttermaran (looks like only to cut-edit movies), TMPGEnc DVD Author (looks like only to author DVD from movies), MPEG Video Wizard DVD (looks like only to author DVD from movies too) and GUI for DVD Author (same here). Any other software that can satisify my needs but also can decode (and encode) AC-3?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for all replies.

[BJ_M]

vegas reads ac3 audio... non the less, just convert the ac3 to wav files first

[irving]

I'm not really sure about Vegas support for AC-3. I currently have Sony Vegas 7.0a in my notebook, and if I go to Help->About->Components I can see ac3plug.dll version 1.0.0.2441.

But, when I try to load my mpg file, I can only see 2 channels (stereo) in the timeline.

This is what I did:
1. File->New
2. Choose "PAL DV Widescreen" and all default settings in the Video tab
3. Choose "5.1 Surround" and all default settings in the Audio tab
4. Click OK
5. Go to explorer tab and browse for my mpg file
6. Righ click on the file, and choose "Properties". I can see Audio stream of 48000KHz Stereo MPEG.
7. Right click on the file, and choose "Add to Project Media list"
8. Go to Project Media tab
9. Right click on the file, and choose "Properties". Again, I can see Audio stream of 48000KHz Stereo MPEG
10. Drag and drop the file from Project Media tab to the timeline. I can see 2 streams: video and audio. For the audio stream, I can see 2 channels (so I assume, Stereo).

So, did I do something wrong? Other apps clearly shows the mpg file to have AC-3 audio: Windows Media Player, Sony Picture Motion Browser, TMPGEnc DVD Author, and MPEG Video Wizard.

I'm currently downloading Vegas 7.0e trial, I hope it will decode AC-3, I will post it as soon as I install it.