7.1 channels - I plan to have it on my Bluray. Premiere Pro? TrueHD? PCM?

[Asterra]

I'm already beginning to approach perhaps the biggest single hurdle in my latest home video project. A brief summary:

I acquired and made use of a 4.0-channel portable audio recorder called the Zoom H2, which seems to have performed nicely. There are ways of converting the 4.0 into a proper 5.1. Meanwhile, the actual camera recording the footage was sitting in the back (it was a family fireworks show), and sound-wise it mostly got the spectators' reactions. It was always my plan to convert the H2's 4.0 into the center, front-left, front-right, middle-left, middle-right and LFE, and then use the camcorder's audio for the rear-left and rear-right. And fortunately the video will be watched on a home theater with a 7.1-channel setup and a PS3 doing movie duty. The final movie format will almost certainly be a Bluray disc (BDMV), like my last video project.

Now then. I really am not expecting Premiere Pro to be able to help me with this. I'll do most of the editing there but the final creation of the 7.1-channel audio track seems destined to involve the use of one or more additional apps. My guess is I will need to come up with the 8 audio channels with the help of Audition, and then throw those 8 channels at some app which is able to convert them into a format that can be accepted by one of the Bluray authoring apps, or else forced into acceptance with some sort of trickery.

TrueHD / DTS-Master may be out of the question. I don't yet know for sure. But if that is the case, then does the Bluray format allow for 7.1-channel PCM? I'm not looking for anything fancy; it just has to work. And since this evidently isn't a popular topic (yet), maybe the info will be of immediate help to anyone else who was thinking of upgrading their presentation options.

[edDV]

First, you don't have 8 tracks, you have max four from the H2 and a redundant stereo set from the camcorder. There are very few 7.1 Blu-Ray discs. In most cases 7.1 is synthesized from 5.1 in the receiver.

But if that is the case, then does the Bluray format allow for 7.1-channel PCM? I'm not looking for anything fancy; it just has to work. And since this evidently isn't a popular topic (yet), maybe the info will be of immediate help to anyone else who was thinking of upgrading their presentation options.

The Blu-Ray format allows 8 PCM tracks.

Your project seems to me like 5.1, Four from the H2 plus a center narration and derived LFE. The camcorder stereo adds nothing except for sync of H2 tracks to video.

[Asterra]

First, you don't have 8 tracks, you have max four from the H2

It is not at all complicated or unheard of to take four-channel audio and derive 5.1 channels from it. I could do it with Audition and a little patience. But see: http://lehmayr.de/e_misc.htm

and a redundant stereo set from the camcorder.

This is all a matter of opinion but I'll address this. The H2 was about 15 feet away from the fireworks platform. The camcorder was a good 70 feet further back from that. The six audio channels are plenty discrete, and, with a little tweaking, will result in an excellent sound space.

The Blu-Ray format allows 8 PCM tracks.

Good to know. That is probably the route I will go, once the specifics are ironed out. Or else, I have recently read that Sony Sound Forge can encode AC3 7.1. Perhaps it will be as simple as taking AC3 from that app and feeding it to Encore.

[edDV]

Update: According to "What is Blu-Ray" https://www.videohelp.com/hd, you can have 9 PCM tracks, also 9 DTS. But you will probably be encoding DD 7.1.



Your 7.1 mix is your own creative decision.