FCP and ac3 audio

I use 2 different versions of FCP: I have 5 at home, and use 6 at school.
Recently, I wanted to take a lot of my school files home, for future use (to create a portfolio).
At school, I used their version of Compressor to put the files onto my LaCie to take home. (I did that not just because of the size, but because I am on an older version of FCP at home, so I was hoping this would make them more compatible). I used the setting for DVD (best, 90-min) in Compressor (out of habit, I suppose).
At home, I am having trouble importing the audio files back into my older version of FCP. It doesn't want to recognize .ac3.
Having the whole FC Suite at home, I opened up Soundtrack Pro to see if I could convert the ac3 audio back to aiff. No such luck!
I even tried Garage Band, just hoping there was a chance - but no.
So how do I get these files into FCP, so I can further edit them and make a creative portfolio out of all of my work?

actually I don't think this is correct, FCS1 can encode ac3 files just fine, but that is for DVD creation not editing. If you want to transfer your audio for editing just leave them as aifs.
Best way to transfer from 6 at your school to 5 at home is through an xml file for the project, and then bring your media home.
Or if you want it all in one movie, export it as quicktime, same settings (not QT conversion).

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IDVD 6 and AC3 audio

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http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMoviejaggystill.jpg

Update 4.1. and AC3 audio

Alas no AC3 audio, anyone else experiencing this?

Bogus! I think that a lot of folk were. I could have sworn that I saw something about it being part of 4.1 - probably just one of those rumors...
Thanks for reporting, even if it's bad news,
Hunt
[Edit] I'm probaby thinking back to an issue with the SurCode DD 5.1 SS plug-in. I know that efforts to fix those issues were underway. That is obviously a problem affecting things in one way ->, but I'd hoped to see things fixed in the other way <-. Hm-m, OK, so it ain't perfect.

Need to export an AC3 audio file from FCP

Does anyone know how to export (or convert to) and AC3 audio file from FCP? My compressor is not currently working, is there another way? I have Sorenson Squeeze and FCP 5.0.4. Thank you!!!
alex

Upload your audio file to my Public folder and wait 20 mins. I'll compress the audio to .ac3 for you if you're in a crunch. Check back in my Public Folder and I'll have it there for you.
Finder/Go/iDisk/Other Users Public Folder/
Member Name: theshow2
Temporary Password is: temppass

Exporting files with AC3 audio

Forgive me if this is not the right place to post this question.
Using QT Pro, I want to trim and edit some files containing AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio. When I export or save the edited video, will they retain the AC3 audio?
More specifics: These files contain both AAC audio (in the default track) and AC3 audio (second track). These files were encoded using Handbrake, and I will be playing them on my AppleTV (hence the desire to retain the AC3 audio). The source files come from my DVR, and I want to trim some commercials. I tried to trim them prior to encoding, but I'm having trouble finding reliable software for editing MPEG2 streams on a Mac. Thus, I'm trying to figure out whether or not I can trim them afterwards using QT Pro and still retain the AC3 audio.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

Aaah, I wish I could help! I have exactly the same problem! I was going to post about it, but since there's this workaround, I didn't want to take up bandwidth with a problem that was not a total showstopper.
Indeed. I have stopped doing what I used to do before. Before, I used to select "All" in compressor - the files generated were the video, the aiff, and the ac3. Well after burning a few coasters through DVDSP 4.1 where there was picture but no sound, I realized that I needed to drag the aiff file to compressor again, and use that - at that point everything is fine. So, right now, my workflow is to export just the video from FCP through compressor, let it encode. Then export the aiff separately and encode it to a3 in compressor, then import the video and ac3 to DVDSP for good results. In short, no more exporting "All" from FCP through compressor, it's a waste of time.
But as to why, I have no idea, and I'm eager to hear what folks have to say! Anyhow, just letting you know you are not alone. Btw. my set up is: FCP 4.5 HD, compressor 2.1 and DVDSP 4.1.0... what's yours?

Can I put both an FCP video file and an ac3 audio file through Compressor t

Hi we are making digital movies of comedy performances on HDV, editing them multiclip on FCP, and successfully putting them through Compressor 3.5 to export as an MPEG2 program stream at 25mbits. These files are then shown in digital cinemas throughout South Africa. For our latest project we recorded with multiple mics and had a sound engineer make all the audio into a 5.1 surround ac3 file, which he used Nuendo for. I thought it would be great to combine the video and audio in FCP but Creative Cow herd deluxe Tom Wolsky told me FCP doesnt support ac3, so the thought is to put the FCP .mov file and the ac3 file into Compressor separately, and have Compressor make an MPEG2 file with audio in ac3. But when I try this I get either the audio or the video in preview, not both together. I would be so grateful for advice, the machine I am making the FCP file on is a 4x2.5ghz powerpc G5 using FCP 6.0.6 on OS 10.4.11. Compressor is being used on a2.66ghz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac running OS 10.6.1 and using Compressor 3.5 with FCP 7.0.
Or should I use an old Logic Pro 7.0 program to fuse the video and audiuo together, and if so, how will Compressor still give me the video and audio output codecs I want?

I may not be comprehending this fully, but you can encode audio and video separately in compressor, and then combine them in Quicktime player. In Snow Leopard, you need to use Quicktime Player 7 to do this since the new Quicktime Player X has no "Pro" features yet.
"Add to Movie" is the menu item. I forget the method to bring in the audio so it plays under the video, but it will be in perfect sync.
You then save this new file.
BTW, I would use the G5 for the compressing because 3.0.5 gives better outputs than 3.5 at this point.

Re-use of .264 and .ac3 created by compressor or fcp-share

Good Morning from Belgium
Here is my question
How do I reburn a blu-ray without having to reencode in compressor or using "share" in fcp. In other words, how to re-use the .264 and .ac3 files created in a previous burning session ? I have tried Toast 9 but get 2 files (one with audio, one with video) .
Can I safely delete those huge files if it is not possible to use them later with any software ?
Hope you can help
Michel

I can put a movie in Compressor, add the video and audio presets and then select "Create BD/AVCHD Disc" in the Job Action menu but that will only create one disc.
My idea was to save the .264 and .ac3 files so that I could burn another disc at a later date.
I can do this with Toast but there is no way I can use those files in Compressor again (that I know about).
What exactly did you mean by burn it from a disk image?
I can do that in Toast but I don't know how to do it with Compressor.

5.1 ac3 audio plays and exports as stereo in CS6

I am using the trial version of Premiere Pro CS6 at the moment. I am trying to create a short video that uses an 5.1 ac3 file that I created. I know the file is 5.1 because it plays through all the speakers on my WD TV HD Live media player, as well as through VLC Player on my computer. When I import the audio into Premiere Pro CS6, it plays as stereo. The same is true for audio from the video I imported. The video (from a Panasonic TM700 camcorder) also has 5.1 surround, but plays in stereo.
I went to Edit > Preferences > Audio and set the default audio tracks to 5.1. Under Audio Hardware, the only thing in the dropdown is Premiere Pro WDM Sound. I do not know what that is. My onboard sound card is Realtek High Definition Audio (on an Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard) and it works correctly as far as I can hear from all of my speakers.
Under Audio Output Mapping, there are only two channels listed. Again, Premiere Pro WDM Sound is the only option, and only the left and right speakers are in the list under that.
Does PrP CS6 not support my Realtek onboard sound? Why is it not listing all six channels?
Thanks in advance!

This has been an argument, discussed since at least PrPro 2.0.
Going back to about that point (when Minnetonka Audio offered a discount for PrPro users), Minnetonka Audio basically opened up their books to me, when I inquired about volume licensing. I do not recall the exact prices, or even the discount, but the Dolby Labs' charge was most of the cost, and Minnetonka Audio only made about US $50 per SurCode plug-in.
Now, with the Minnetonka Audio SurCode, one CAN use the DD logo, when certain criteria have been met. With most other 5.1 SS Encoders, they are NOT certified DD, so cannot legally display that logo. Sony, with their Vegas NLE's, seems to be an exception to that restriction. I am not sure what the legal issues are, but Sony does (or did) create DD 5.1 SS, with some of their programs. Perhaps some sort of "brother-in-law deal" with Dolby Labs?
To some editors, having fully legal DD logos is not important to them, or to their clients. In those cases, there are a few other methods (though somewhat convoluted), to Export 5.1 SS AC3's, just not DD-certified.
I used the DD 5.1 SS enough, that I bought a license for each computer, and felt that my $ was well-spent. As you, and others mention, paying the licensing fee to Dolby and Minnetonka Audio, if one never uses the SurCode plug-in alters the price-point of the program, and all users will be paying more, whether they derive any value, or not. To me, it has more than paid for itself.
It would akin to Adobe including the full Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks suite in their program. Price would go up, and many users would never need that, or want it.
If asked, my vote would be to keep things, as they are, and those who want/need the SurCode plug-in can buy it.
Hunt

Audio won't play in Premiere, but plays in QT, FCP, and Adobe Bridge.

Hi everyone,
I'm normally pretty good at troubleshooting, but this audio issue has me scratching my head. A cameraman had DVCPro tapes transferred to QT movies. All the clips playback fine if opened with QT, FCP, and Adobe Bridge. Import these clips into Premiere and there's no audio. Nothing shows up on waveform- there's nothing there.
I would switch to FCP, but I already started the project in Premiere (CS 5.5) with earlier footage- which were mxf files right off the P2 card. That works fantastic. The footage I'm having an issue with was footage that was just shot recently on DVCPro tapes- so switching to FCP isn't the most time efficient. But I'll do it if I have to.
What confuses me the most is that the clips play back fine in Adobe Bridge, so I don't think it's a codec issue.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice getting to the bottom of this.
Erik

I had a similar problem, I'll tell you how I solved it. Understand that I am a newbie at video editing and Premiere Pro. I shot videos on a DSLR (.mov) and then transferred them to my computer. I then imported them into Premiere CS6. The videos played fine, and the sound bars indicated that audio was playing, but there was no sound. The clips I imported played fine in Windows Media Player. I did everything suggested on the forums, but to no avail. Then I thought of something no one else had suggested, and it worked!
I ordered my Rain Stratus computer already set up with Premiere CS6 installed. When I opened a new project, it by default chose Black Magic Design presets, since that is the video card I have. Being a newbie, I just went with that. But since the video I was importing was not captured by my Black Magic video card, it was the wrong choice. It took awhile to figure out, but I finally realized I needed to choose Digital SLR as the sequence preset when I created a new project. Then the audio worked!
One more thing I had to do, though, before it worked: in PremierePro, go to Edit/Preferences/Audio Hardware. I had to change the hardware from Black Magic Audio to Premiere Pro WDM Sound, click ASIO settings, choose my speakers, and then check the box marked "device 32-bit playback" (even thought I have a 64-bit computer.)
I hope that helps someone else from going through the same frustration.

Audio Interface for monitoring, mixing 5.1 St Surround in FCP and Sd Tr Pro

I'm a fairly newbie with FCP and Sound Track Pro, and I am doing mostly long form, live event HDV recordings and editing. I'm about to start doing 5.1 Stereo Surround shooting and burning to Blu Ray. What do you recommend for an audio interface for my G4 PowerBook running Leopard w/2GB ram, to monitor/mix my 5.1 audio tracks in Sound Track Pro (since I can't monitor 5.1 in FCP?) I will likely be recording the tracks on the new Sound Devices 788T and inporting them into FCP and/or STP via firewire, but I need to monitor my mix before I burn to Blu Ray discs using Toast 10 and my LaCie BR burner.
Also has anyone found a way to use Bose 5.1 monitor speaker system? It would work fine for the BR player, but what about using with the Mac G4 PowerBook - do I need a digital audio - audio interface?

You'll need an audio-interface with at least 6 outputs. They should be connected to a surround processor or AV-Receiver with multichannel inputs. In line with your budget you could use M-Audio, Focusrite or Apogee products for that, they work with STP & Protools.
When monitoring, you cannot use the Bose system, because S/Pdif is for encoded audio only.

AC3 Audio and Quicktime 7.6 Problem

I was wondering if anyone else is having a problem with opening an audio file with the .ac3 extension in the updated Quicktime 7.6?
What I have been doing, for a couple of years now, is that I capture a TV program from my DVR using the firewire port. Once the file is loaded on my Mac, I then open MPEG Streamclip, trim out the commercials, Export to Quicktime using H264 and 2 channel AAC audio, after the export is done, I would then do a Demux to AC3 to get a separate audio only file containing the 5.1 surround sound.
I would open the .ac3 audio only file, open the .mov video file (both in Quicktime). I would then copy the 5.1 audio track from the .ac3 file, Go to the .mov file, perform Edit/Add to Movie. This way I would have 2 audio tracks, AAC a 2 channel track and AC3 a 6 channel track.
But now with Quicktime 7.6, I cannot open the .ac3 file at all, I get "The file is not a movie file." error message with no error code.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Bill

POSSIBLE SOLUTION
I think I have discovered a way to workaround the AC3 5.1 sound problem.
I found an old 20GB drive and installed Tiger 10.4 onto the drive. I then downloaded the "MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.11PPC.dmg" file and updated the system to Tiger 10.4.11. I performed all of the updates (System Security updates and the Java updates) through Software Update except for iTunes and QuickTime.
I then downloaded the "QuickTime755_Tiger.dmg" file from Apple and updated to QuickTime 7.5.5
DO NOT UPGRADE TO 7.6
I then opened the TV show in QuickTime 7.5.5, I extracted the audio file from the program and saved as a separate audio file (it saves as a .mov file).
I opened this audio file in QuickTime 7.5.5 and then exported the audio
selecting Export Movie to QuickTime movie,
clicked on the options button,
the sound box should already be checked,
clicked on the settings button,
under the Format drop down I clicked on AAC,
Channels: I clicked on 5.1,
then Rate:48.000,
checked on Show Advanced Settings,
Quality: Normal,
Encoding Strategy: Constant Bit Rate,
Target Bit Rate: 384
(used MediaInfo Mac to gate this information),
clicked OK,
Clicked OK,
then named the file, saved it and then waited for audio to be converted from AC3 5.1 to ACC 5.1.
If you now open up this file in QuickTime 7.5.5 it is an ACC format with 5.1 and plays fine.
I then restarted to my regular drive with QuickTime 7.6 loaded and it plays the audio file without any problems.
I'm sure that there must be a way to repackage the AC3 audio file in an AAC container that will work better and faster, but for now this seems to work, so I am going to try some other shows that I have.
Let me know if this works for others.
Bill
Message was edited by: Boliver
Message was edited by: Boliver

Way to edit and save .AC3 audio files?

Anyone know if there is a way to edit and save .AC3 audio files in Audition 3?

Every time you open any coded file at all in Audition, you lose quality if you resave it in anything other than an uncompressed format. With most formats, what is even worse is saving them in a different compressed format, because you end up with twice as many different coding artefacts.
What you need to understand is that all of these formats are distribution formats, not editing ones. The basic principle is that you work in an uncompressed format until the last possible moment - ie, distribution. And that, ideally, is the only time you use a compressed format at all. So if you want to use something that's compressed, you uncompress it once, and don't recompress until you absolutely have to.

Quick time audio, and ac3 filter

I recently downloaded some video clips, the video played well in Quicktime but there was no sound; one message from QT said ac3 audio isn't supported since it' no good I (QTpro) will dump the audio.
Hm....it came with High-Definition video clips.
A friend told me to go to
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27300
-there I got MacOSX4 compatible software: the ac3 audio plugin, as well as instructions on which folders I should copy the software into, in OSX4.
Now my clips plays beautifully WITH sound- except if I try to merge 2 clips using QTpro-then the sound disappears-thanks to lackings in QTpro.
My questions: 1) What's with that arrogant "is no good" message about ac3 audio? No QT audio was ever better....
2)When does Apple pull itself together and provide full ac3 sound support in QT??
Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)

1) What's with that arrogant "is no good" message about ac3 audio? No QT audio was ever better....
Have never seen such a message. If I attempt to open an AC3 audio file (without AC3 codec installed), I simply get a modal error message saying the file could not be opened. If I open a video file with an AC3 audio track, I am simply notified there is a missing component. Could you describe how you get this message?
2)When does Apple pull itself together and provide full ac3 sound support in QT??
Am hoping that Apple will be addressing the problem the first quarter of next year with the release of the "iTV" device. Seems like it would be a real waste to have a Toslink optical connector and not be able to connect AC3 to your A/V Dolby Digital decoder. Don't even care if the add any AC3 support. All I want them to do is add the pass through (encoded output) capability to QT/iTunes just as they have to their DVD Player or as VLC has had in their media player for some time now.
Now my clips plays beautifully WITH sound- except if I try to merge 2 clips using QTpro-then the sound disappears-thanks to lackings in QTpro.
Muxed MPEG-2 files are only MPEG-1 Layer-1/Layer-2 audio supported. If you want, you can use MPEG Streamclip (free) to convert files like decrypted/unencrypted VOBs directly to MPEG-2 with MP2. Files are simply de-muxed and the AC3 mixed down to stereo (default setting), converted to MP2 and muxed back with the original MPEG-2 with no loss in video quality. Files play fine with audio in QT Player with MPEG-2 component installed.

Help! Audio for 16mm project, material to FCP and back again to 16mm

I am getting ready to send an AIFF file of the audio I created on FCP, working with video that was created from a 16mm to video transfer at my lab. They tell me the transfer was a non-drop frame transfer. The lab made a digital file from the transfer, which I imported into a FCP project with 23.98 sequence settings.
I want to compare the frame length of my WP to that of my video file so that I can determine how the audio house who will be transferring the AIFF to mag needs to compensate, and I am confused about how to measure the video file's frame length. If the sequence settings are at 23.98 fps, and the project runs from 1:00:05;12 to 1:11:49;08, to determine the frame length should I be assuming there are 24 frames per second or 30?
I don't have access anymore to the FCP so I can't check but a basic question is: if the sequence setting are set to 23.98fps, does that mean the timeline only has 24fps? When I convert at 30fps, my video file is 22 frames longer than my WP...
Thanks for any advice and questions--that all may be explained poorly...

When your project and sequence settings are at 23.98, it is for two main reasons. 1. ou are working with video footage shot at 23.98 and 2. you are working with film (24 fps), which was ultimately telecined to video which runs at 23.98. This is mainly implimented because you plan on either going back to a higher resolution "online" which you will be synching up the timecode with a better quality copy of the tape at a coloring house, or you will be using the edl from the 23.98 sequence to give to a negative cutter, so they can cut the negative correctly according to the timecode and how it links with the keycode.
I assume you are making a final product that will be on celuloid- an actual film print, not a video copy. is this correct?
Please clarify the following: did you shoot on film, get a telecine to a beta or dvcam, do you have a timecode burn-in on the tape and when you captured the clips into final cut, did you utilize Cinema Tools?
If you did run your clips through cinema tools, did you do it correctly (starting the process on the "aa" frame).
Is your project set to 23.98 or just your sequence? when you place captured clips onto the timeline do they have to be rendered? Is this a sync project or was it shot MOS?
And lastly, as I previously asked, are you sending all of your negative, the edl from FCP and the aiff to a negative cutter?

Making FLVs with FCP and Compressor causing audio Clicks.

I have run into a very specific error that I can reproduce and would love some help solving or finding a decent workaround. Please note that I am converting 1000s of videos in "DV/DVPCRO NTSC/48Khz audio" into FLVs and the workflow I am using creates the FLVs in one pass rather than two. I much prefer this to creating a two step process where I would render our all the movies once and then re-batch them in a completely different program to create the FLVs.
Hardware/Software
I am using FCP 5.1.2, Compressor 2.3.1, and Flash Video Exporter 2.1d494 (From Flash 8) all on an Imac Core2Duo 2.0, 4gig.
Workflow:
All my original footage is in DV/DVPCRO NTSC/48Khz audio. From within FCP, I create a simple sequence that I export via Compressor. In Compressor, I export using Quicktime Components, and select FLV. In the FLV options I select 700kps for the the video and for audio its .mp3 (only choice) and 96 bit rate. (I have tested higher and lower bit-rates and I get the same problem).
Problem:
When using the above workflow, the resulting FLV has loud audio "clicks" a few times a second... pops... like digital hits. Now if from FCP, I either export the sequence in its native DV/DVCPRO format and then use Quicktime to covert the file to FLV, or I export it directly from FCP using "Quicktime Conversion", there is NO clicking in the FLV file. I only get the clicking when Compressor is involved.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
Doug

Hi,
9mbs is too high if the discs will be duplicated (as opposed to replicated). 7 would be better. Be sure to compress the audio as Dolby Digital.
Do your color correction in FCP before compression.
Best Wishes,
Mitch

FCP and ac3 audio

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