Audio on DVD, 44.1 or 48 kHz?

[dphirschler]

I have been capturing my shows from VHS at 480x480 and making VCDs and SVCD of them. For archival purposes, I have also been saving each episode as a MJPEG AVI file. It takes 5-6 CDs. I would like to start archiving to a DVD format to save on the hassle of splitting the AVI and burning multiple CDs. I cannot burn DVDs yet, but will be Christmas.

Audio is the thing I am unsure about. Can I encode an mpeg with all the DVD specs along with the mp2 audio as I always have done with SVCD? Or do I need to instead keep a 48 kHz audio wave file?


Darryl

[rick-kim]

DVD audio MUST be 48 kHz .

[dphirschler]

So do I have a 48kHz audio wave file and encode that into the mpeg or do I just keep it separate and let the DVD authoring software figure it out?


Darryl

[curritch]

I don't know about all authoring programs but the ones I have will not accept anything bur 48KHz. You have to have correctly encoded audio before entering the authoring program.

[BJ_M]

if you have the space -- just leave it as pcm audio , second choice is encode it to 2ch ac3 , third choice is mpeg 1 layer 2 audio .. in all cases it must be 48khz as others have said ..

[dphirschler]

Thanks BJ_M.

So now this begs the question.. should I encode the video with no audio if I keep a separate 48 kHz pcm audio (wave) file?


Darryl

[BJ_M]

Thanks BJ_M.

So now this begs the question.. should I encode the video with no audio if I keep a separate 48 kHz pcm audio (wave) file?


Darryl

yes that is ok -- encode with no audio ,,,, but if you have problems with sync .. encode it w/ audio and demux the audio/video stream ,,,

[DJRumpy]

If this is just for archive purposes, you can just create a non-video DVD (DVD-ROM), and put the files on without any additional work. If you want to be able to play them directly on DVD, you will need to re-encode the audio to 48Khz, and resize the resolution to any dvd standard (352/704/720 x 480).

On a side note: If your capturing to SVCD, I would suggest you capture to 352x480 instead of SVCD standard 480x480. 352x480 (CVD) is resolution compatible with DVD, where SVCD 480x480 is not. That way, you can move them to DVD without having to re-encode the video.

[dphirschler]

I hear ya DJRumpy, but my plan is slightly different.

I plan to resize the video to 704x480, encode to DVD specs, (and per advice from BJ_M), keep a 48 kHz pcm audio file, and store it on CD until such time I can burn it to DVD.

I don't want to lose horizontal resolution byt capturing at 352 width. In fact, if I can get my fast harddrive working, then I will be capturing at 640x480 and then performing the resizing to 704x480. I doubt seriously that capturing above that resolution will give me any improvement since this is coming from a VHS source.

For my viewing pleasure in the mean time, I have made VCDs to watch. They are quite enjoyable, but not good enough quality for me to feel good about erasing the VHS tapes. DVD quality whould be good enough.

Then the question for me is, do I archive an untouched version along with the version edited by filters? I think I should. so now, it looks like the answer is to do the above method, but to also encode to the highest possible bitrates and save an untouched archival copy.


Darryl

[DJRumpy]

It sounds like your working on the same sort of project I am. I'm currently converting VHS to DVD. I would definately hold onto the original source files until your comfortable with the end result. I've found myself re-doing the same VHS extract over and over again due to minor glitches, video noise, and general tweaking.
For mine, I'm capturing directly at 720x480 to save the resize step. I'm fortunate enough to already own the dvd burner, but I haven't quite gotten to the point where I'm happy with my DVD copy. The only exception is Aladin, and I'm told that animated videos are impossible to screw up (which is probably why mine came out so well).

I would suggest resizing in VirtualDub, and Lame for the Audio bump to 48KHz. TMPGenc tends to make the audio a bit squeaky for VCD/SVCD to DVD projects. You can change the audio encoder used in TMPGenc in the environment settings.

Last but not least, you could always use TMPGenc to split the files into nice little 700MB chunks. You could either rejoin when you have your burner, or just drop them into a authoring program as chapters.

Just a suggestion, as I am by no means experienced.