Editing AC3 files??

[johneboy]

Question....
AC3 files that are 5.1 channels...
(this is where i may make no sense cause im not sure i have any clue what im talking about)
is there a way to edit each individual channel?
Like for instance..
with a stereo WAV file, i can open it in Goldwave, and i can edit, left and right, meaning i can make a sound the will make the right speaker play one thing, and the left speaker play another.
with AC3 files, is there 5 different, distinct "speakers" that i could make all 5 different things?
I really hope someone understands this, cause reading over what i just typed, confuses me just a tad bit more

[Thorn]

Dolby (ac3) sound isn't a well supported format (well, not for the cash-challenged). Since it's compressed, you basically can't really edit it. You can decompress it back out to separate channels as wave files (using programs like headac3he and such... check the tools section here and at doom9.org). Then re-encode it again when you've got everything going. This shouldn't be too hard once you get the programs to encode and decode working. I've seen a program that can cut segments out and (I think) work on only specific tracks, but I didn't get it to work so I don't know.

Typically when the media is created you have some source wave files and you encode them into AC3 and then don't edit the file after that (except maybe to mux it).

Maybe someone else has better methods for working with ac3

[LanceSteel]

Question....
AC3 files that are 5.1 channels...
Is there a way to edit each individual channel?

I don't know if there is a program that allows the editing of AC3 audio in .ac3 format but what you could do is extract each channel as a wav file, edit the wavs and then reencode them as a 5.1 channel ac3 file.

Edit: Your post beat me Thorn!