Need DVD Authoring software that can accept AC3. Help!

[bek]

Hello.

I have a DVD that was recorded with some sort of sound besides AC3. I want to change the menu and add chapters using my DVD Authoring software. I am using ULead Movie Factory 2, and the more I learn the more I think it sucks. It won't accept AC3, and tells me to convert the sound to another format. However, the sound isn't playing on my DVD player, and I've heard that AC3 and PCM are the only 100% compatible sound formats available.

Can anyone suggest Authoring software that will accept AC3 as input?

I'm aware of the new "Ulead DVD Workshop AC3". Is there anything else on the market?

Or another method I'm not aware of?

Thanks,
Brian

[dcsos]

Sonic Foundry's DVD architect is out
Dunno how expensive yet..but since I've been using VEGAS 3.0 to make and transcode files flawlessly..I'll stick my neck out and reccomend it
Also ADOBE is readying an app.

But right now I'm using DVDit PE (which accepts AC3 and sucks like ULEAD'sMF1)
or
Spruce Maestro (not sold any more, thousands when it was)

both of which accept AC3

[bek]

But right now I'm using DVDit PE (which accepts AC3 and sucks like ULEAD'sMF1)

So DVDit PE sucks too, eh? What are your major gripes with it? I am trying to evaluate packages for my personal use and would be interested.

Thank you for the info.

[dcsos]

The PE application is buggy.
I can tell you that sometimes after fixing navigation links from one menu to another, the application quits unexpectedly without saving anything.
It has a bug when you update the "BIT BUDGET" that crashes the computer.
And It also has quit transcoding on me from unknown errors (thats what it says anyway)..after, in one case, 27 hrs crunching what was readily acceptable to PE after trnscoding in VEGAS

[Nolonemo]

Sonic Foundry DVD Architect is only available bundled with Vegas 4. It's not the greatest app, needs to have functionality added.

DVD Workshop will acccept AC3 files for authoring if you already have them made up. You have to use TMPGenc or similar to mux the AC3 with an elementary mpeg-2 video stream, then you can import the muxed mpg into DVD WS no problem.

[bek]

For anyone interested...

After some research, it seems as if the authoring packages that import AC3 is fairly limited. The choices are:

DVD Studio Pro 1.5 (Apple software)
Impression DVD-Pro 2.2
DVDit! PE 2.5
ReelDVD 3.0

I ruled Studio Pro 1.5 and ReelDVD 3.0 out immediately because I have a PC and because ReelDVD doesn't import AVIs (which I use a lot). I'm going to give DVDit! PE a try. If that doesn't suit my needs, I'll do some research into Impression (I know nothing about it right now).

Thanks to everyone for the input!

-Brian

[Mxjshaf69]

Ifoedit 0.95 accepts AC3 and DTS.

[dcsos]

Good Luck, save often...and if something seems amiss, close the application , REBOOT and open the working project again.
If its still buggy, Start from Scratch..
Every time I have a bug really, I just start from scratch in DvDitPE..and it works the next time!
Also be careful removing and importing assets
because when you right click to REMOVE potential clips..a powerful prompt offer to DELETE YOUR FILES instead of merely removing them from the project..BEWARE!
also when importing, DVDit cannot see all the usable files on your hARD DRIVE as the version I use (2.3 I believe) blocks certain either .mpeg or was it .mpg
files from view. I just pull down to "all files" and wait for a REJECTION message if they're not compliant

also, can't remember if it was DVDit cheapo or PE that seriosly suffers If you IMPORT ASSETS and do not remove them manually after BURNING and BACKING UP
that Is, i did a projcect, burned and finally 2 weeks later, deleted the raw materials -.WAV and M2V from the hard disk..
Believe me DVD IT would never open again!
I saw that everytime I tried to open the app, the message would come up "cant find assets" but wouldn't say which or where the file it needed
was missing from..
So I had to format the hard drive to get it to run again -as a reinstalled fresh install still had shortcut to the last installations files!!!,, then never had a repeat because now with the clean install it would ask to "IGNORE? "the missing stuff id deleted before removing from a saved project manually one by one (there's no select all assets!)
GOOD LUCK