What encoder for ac3

[777sp2]

Hello,

I have procoder 2.0, Adobe Premiere pro, Adobe encore and Adobe audition. I will of course be encoding my video to mpeg2 using procoder2.0. Procoder 2.0 does not convert audio to AC3. I have not yet learned Adobe Audition.

Can I encode my audio to AC3, using premiere or encore?

If so, will using premiere or encore give the same quality results of converting my audio to AC3 as other applications such as Audition?

[admin]

I am not aware of any Adobe application encoding to AC3. I've never been fond of Audition, which is based on another piece of software they bought out and basically just renamed. The older versions never had AC3, so I'd be surprised if the Adobe renamed one did.

For AC3, you have a number of options. Free methods exist, and work great, although they are technically not 100% perfect AC3 files. However, the only time I have known them to be a problem is on Pioneer DVD players from about 5-6 years ago. I've been using AC3 from free methods for years now, and I've never had an issue, aside from the old Pioneer DV-333/334/444

Free software versions include:
(1) BeSweet with Besweet GUI and AC3ENC.DLL
(2) BeLight with AC3ENC.DLL
(3) FFMPEG

There is also some older software that I used, but it's no longer made. I have the old Sonic Found SoftEncode, made by the people that made SoundForge. Sony now owns SoundForge and Vegas and other SF products, but SoftEncode is discontinued. You may be able to find it used on eBay.

The other options tend to be AC3 conversion at authoring. Software like Sonic DVDit! PE and Ulead DVD Workshop 2, even Tsunami DVD Author, all have built-in AC3 encoding available. Many home uses use this, they don't encode to AC3 beforehand, and that's fine.

Professionals tend to use AC3 encoders that come with their pro authoring software. Sonic Scenarist and Apple DVD Studio Pro both come with professional AC3 encoding software. Many pros even use AC3 encoding hardware.

Let me know what route tickles your fancy, and I'll try to give you more detailed information on it.

I currently use BeSweet. I have no problems. Although it can be a bit more difficult than some of the other options.

[777sp2]

Thanks for your help,

Until I figure out what audio encoder to go with I will use PCM. I noticed that Procoder 2.0 will default to a bit rate of 7800 for video when I select PCM for my audio. Being that Procoder 2.0 is a high quality encoder I might be happy with the video at 7800 CBR and the better audio can only help the veiwing experience.

On a related subject I created an elementy audio PCM file from an AVI file using Procoder 2.0. The source was captured from an SVHS concert. The specs. of the PCM wav. file were 48k 16 bit. I burned this file to CD with NERO. It played fine on my home stereo.

Do stereo CD players play 48k files or does NERO down sample?

Or....does the stereo CD player simply only read 44k samples and ignore the other 4k samples?

Thanks

[admin]

I would suggest VBR rather than CBR, but yes, that setting will probably create video that is overall great quality. Anything different would mostly be tweaking for slight quality gains, and maybe slight filesize decrease.

Nero probably downsampled, yes. It had to if this was burned as a standard CD-Audio. CPUs are so powerful these days that adjusting audio is usually not very resource-intensive, so the time required to make that change is easy to not notice. Unlike video, which would take hours. Audio can take mere seconds for certain things. I would question the quality of the Nero audio editing, however, usually you want to apply an anti-alias filter when changing the hz, and I don't know if Nero is doing one. SoundForge does, that's what I use for my audio editing.

[777sp2]

Thanks Lord Smurf,

I now have some issues with my video freezing while capturing with my all in wonder x800xt at only around the six minute mark. Yet it still continues to capture the audio. I need to do some further testing and then I will give you all the particualrs on the appropriate forum, see you then.

[admin]

You know, somebody else here is having the same issue.

Some things to consider:

- The MMC version are you using. I know that 8.7 and 9.02 are most stable. Some of the others have odd quirks and bugs.

- Defrag the hard drive. This can sometimes cause issues. (And if you don't know what that means, just ask. It's not complicated, just standard maintenance.)

- Other codecs installed recently. Codec "packs" are especially damaging.