Soundcard,video card combo that captures ac3.

[bmiller]

I am using an ATI all in wonder to capture mpeg2,but is there a sound card that will capture and encode ac3 dolby digital.I have a soundblaster 5.1 platinum,but it won't encode ac3.The all in wonder accepts stereo input for recording.
I don't know if there is anything out there that will do this,so i thought i would ask all the afficionadoes out there if they have any experience with this.
thanks again.

[Thorn]

If you're using an ATI to capture... you won't be able to afford AC3 capture hardware. It's professional level and expensive. Typical AC3 users re-encode the audio into AC3 in software. Unfortunately, if you capture in mpeg audio you'll loose some audio quality when you decompress to wav and then recompress to AC3, but it should be minimal.

[bmiller]

I had an idea this wouldn't be easy or cheap.I just thought if i could record tv programs or movies that had dd 5.1,i would look at upgrading my hardware and software.I'll wait until the right equipment comes along.

[Thorn]

If it's already encoded in DD 5.1 it there may be other hardware for it (since it wouldn't need to encode)... I really don't know anything about that since I've never had digital cable or satellite. My comment was in reference to hardware that can encode an analog signal into DD in realtime.

[dcsos]

Cheapest AC 3 card
http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com/

[Nelson37]

That site does not appear to offer any hardware.

A "bit-accurate" soundcard is apparently required, Digi-96 reported to work, $450.00 or so. This capability should be appearing on consumer-priced (under $100) fairly soon.

[cuervo]

Actually, there are a number of AC3 encoding solutions available now. Sonic Foundry's video editor Vegas 4 will encode ac3 files and SoFo's DVD Architect will burn it to DVD. Ulead also has a new ac3 encoder just released. I've only used the SoFo software..it works OK.

[dcsos]

Thanks Nelson I stand corrected...but I see one of thier products even supports the CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 to make Dolby AC3 5.1 audio
maybe with our 'all in wonder's doing the video
also they support a wide variety of regular audio cards (layla multichannel
& others) to do DVD audio
and make a plug in for premiere to create ac3 for 279.00
(SurCode Dolby V-Plug PC Premiere Host Stereo Dolby digital AC-3 encoder plug-in for Adobe Premiere.)
www.minnetonkaaudio.com
ps i don't work for them

[Nelson37]

CREATING an AC-3 file is one thing, CAPTURING true AC-3 is another. Creating it from a Stereo file will not yield true Surround Sound, but only a reasonable imitation. Capturing the real thing, in real time, is the goal.