Set DVDSP 4 to produce AC3 audio

Is there a way to set DVDSP 4 to produce AC3 audio?
If not, could I import into Quicktime and export in that format?
I have a large video file and an AIF file of 1.11GB. I have looked and cannot seem to find any way to change the audio output.
Compressor is out of the question as it will not connect to background processing, hasn't done it for a while.
Thanks

Which update? My compressor (and Quicktime, for that matter) conversions all starting to hang, crash, or otherwise misbehave when I installed iLife '09 and it software udpates. I finally got back to sanity by doing the following to my misbehaving systems:
1. Download and install the 10.5.7 Combo update (my system had already been so updated, but I reapplied the update).
2. Download and install Quicktime 7.6 (again, over the same version I already had).
3. Download and install "ProApplicationsUpdate2008-05" (that I likewise had already installed)
Then my Compressor and Quicktime issues seemed to just go away. Oh, and between each of the updates, I did a "repair permissions" and reboot. My iLife '09 stuff seems to work (I really just wanted iPhoto and iWeb updates), as does FCS 6.0.5 and Compressor 3.0.5.
Just started a new FCS project (HDV tape to ProRes 422, compress (frame on) to mpeg2, ac3 (stereo) for DVD S4, also to mp4 for web use and it all worked fine.
Eddie O
Message was edited by: Edward A. Oates

Similar Messages

How to Produce AC3 audio with video to play surround sound 5.1 on an AppleTV

I have produced a short video with a SONY video camera that records AVCHD in AC3 surround 5.1.
When I edit it in FCP I can see the six channels both beside the time code and to the right of the time line.
When I go to share the video to my iTunes library, it indicates that the output will be stereo or two channel.
I have also tried this in COMPRESSOR and selected the various Apple settings. These too only produce stereo out put.
Can anyone suggest what might be preventing the AC3 output?
Thanks
Barry

I think that you are out of luck as the table shows on page 62 of your manual at http://www.docs.sony.com/release/BDPS350_US.pdf
Note 1 on this table says "When Audio Output Priority is set to stereo analog, LPCM 2ch signals are output from each jack. I would check this setting. I would also check out notes 2 and 4. According to their own table, the player should output bitstream in 5.1 D or DTS.
Out on http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1046952&page=3 it appears that another person is having the same issue and someone recommended this:
Double check the following settings:
Audio Output Priority: HDMI
Audio HDMI: Auto
BD Audio Setting: Direct
Audio ATT: Off
Dolby Digital: Dolby Digital
DTS: DTS
Audio DRC: Standard
Hope this helps....
I do not work for Best Buy and am not affiliated with them in any way. I like HT and want to help people improve their HT experience. "There is a LOT more than just having a TV to make a home theater"

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?

Sync AC3 Audio to Video function problem

Hi there,
I have an AC3 audio track with embedded time code and a video mpeg-2 segment with embedded timecode that I want to sync together. I use DVD Studio Pro 4.0.3.
In the help file it tells me to drag the audio from the Asset tab to the track editor while holding down the OPTION key.
But, when I do this, the track doesn't synch automatically and I have to do it manually anyway. Any thought on why it won't work ? It works on the Scenarist stations we have here and the tracks are made on profesionnal-grade encoders.
Audio track (AC3)
start time: 09:59:55:00
end time: 10:59:36:12
Video track (Mpeg-2)
Start Time Code:09:59:59:00
End Time Code: 10:02:41:07
I have searched the forums and support pages without finding any hints. Your help would be very appreciated. Thanks !
Arnaud
4 x 2.5 Ghz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Thank you Colin. Yes indeed, I have read that part in the help file, but it just didn't make any sense to me at the time.
After running some test to figure it out, I found out that DVD Studio Pro will only sync my audio when the audio starting Time Code is later than the Video starting Time Code.
So in other words, DVDSP only adjust audio start time automatically but does trim the audio automatically, which is just a partial sync function according to me.
I sincerely hope that the development team will add this functionnality in a near future. As it is right now, the DVDSP auto-sync function is almost useless for us here. Moreover, the ability to sync AC3 audio to multiple video segment in the same track would be a great plus. I don't think it would be that hard to implement, but who knows ?
Well at least we can do it manually ! Thanks again Colin !

Joining .m4v H.264 files that contain AC3 audio

Hi,
I have several .m4v files with AC3 audio created for home movies using Handbrake.
I am trying to find a way to join these files into a single .m4v file while retaining the AC3 audio track.
QuickTime Pro allows pass-through for the video to eliminate the need for H.264 re-encoding but I don't see a "pass-through" option for AC3 audio in QT Pro.
QT Pro only allows an option for conversion to Stereo AAC.
Does QT Pro simply NOT support AC3 pass-through? Or is there some setting I need to know about?
If this is a known limitation of QT Pro, are there alternative options on Windows 7 for achieving what I am trying to do here?
Thanks,
Kevin

Never mind - I figured it out.

Accessing center channel in Sony AVCHD video AC3 audio (5.1 surround)

I have tons of video shot on Sony HDR-CX7 and HDR-CX12 camcorders (AVCHD) in 5.1 stereo. iMovie '09 and Final Cut Express import the audio as two channel stereo, which is normally fine for a consumer app.
I use a Sony wireless microphone to record interviews, and I normally set the camera to record only the monophonic microphone audio. But, there is also a setting to let the camera record 5.1 stereo from it's built-in microphone, and use the wireless mic as the center channel audio.
I have footage recorded this way, and I find that when I play it back in stereo, I get a slight delay/echo caused by the wireless mic recording voices, and the camera recording voices (slightly offset). I cannot use the audio this way.
I want to extract the center channel audio from the AVCHD .mts files. I can then line that audio up with the video in Final Cut Express (or even overlay it in iMovie '09).
Does anyone know of a free utility that can strip out audio from AVCHD files?
It looked like Handbrake might work, but it errors out when it tries to convert more than two channel audio.
I believe the AVCHD audio is AC3 format, so if I can strip that out, Quicktime is able to mute the other surround channels.
Any tips?

Here is my current status, and a work-around method to accomplish this.
First, using "ffmpeg" it is possible to extract just the .AC3 audio stream from a .MTS AVCHD camcorder file. I have tried to do this with the Mac OS X GUI version, ffmpegX, but it errors out. It looks like it is sending the wrong parameter to ffmpeg internally (or perhaps it is using a different ffmpeg command I have on my machine). Anyway, the command looks like this:
ffmpeg -i 00000.MTS -acodec copy audio.ac3
That will extract just the audio stream from within the MTS file (which is an AC3 file). By default, you cannot play .AC3 files in QuickTime. It turns out, I had "Perian" installed, which is an extension for QuickTime that allows it to play a bunch of other files. One of the settings was a Stereo mode, which was causing anything I tried to play mix down to stereo. Aha! So, I could toggle that off and actually get to the audio track I wanted.
BUT, since native Mac OS X does not read .ac3, my workaround is to again use ffmpeg to convert the .ac3 file to a .aac:
ffmpeg -i audio.ac3 -acodec ac3 -ab 512k audio.aac
Since the source AC3 file was 448kb/s, I just manually chose 512k as the conversion rate, so it shouldn't lose too much quality. That value can be changed to decrease file size.
The end result, "audio.aac", is now a 6 channel 5.1 audio file. You can open it in QuickTime, and go to Window->Show Movie Properties then select the "Sound Track" track, and the "Audio Settings" tab of that track, and you will see tracks 1-6 (Left, Center, Right, etc.). You can toggle the tracks off to get to the one you want (in my case, just Center).
From there you could export this out to a file with just the track you selected, or drag the .aac file in to Final Cut Express.
If you drag in to Final Cut Express, you will see it takes up five audio tracks. I drug this under the original imported video track, and was able to mute the ones I did not need. I also found I could unlock the audio from the video, and then delete the ones I didn't want, just to clean up the edit window a bit.
The end result is now I can import the AVCHD file in to Final Cut Express, and bring in this converted AAC under the video to access just the center audio I wanted.
When I have time to streamline this process a bit more, I will update this topic.

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).

AC3 audio is VERY low compared to apples menu presets

AC3 audio is VERY low compared to apples menu presets,
The original aiff files are at a good level, concert footage professionally recorded, nothing peaking, nothing too low.
THe AC3 is at minus 10DB on the vu meter, the aiff peaks at 100.
The apple menu music, which are .mov files, peek at plus 1-2.
My old version of compressor did not do this.
I do not have enough room on my disk for all AIFF but I do want to use the Apple Menus and provided music.
Any thoughts?

You can increase the Ac 3 "reference level" to 0 dB (it should be -27 dB)
Reference level? There is no such thing - I believe you are referring to Dialog Normalization, and it is extremely unwise to set this to zero... it is most certainly not a good way of increasing the overall volume of the file. -27 happens to be the application's default value, but it in no way means it should be set to -27. There are a few factors you need to consider when using AC3 encoding...
The DNV setting is the amount of attenuation that the file will get, according to a formula:
attenuation = 31 + DNV setting
Therefore if you set the DNV to be 0 you will alter all AC3 streams by 31 Db, which is enough to make it unplayable without serious distortion:
0 = 31 + (-31)
If you want to get the exact same audio levels out of A.Pack (or Compressor 2, if you are using that) then your DNV setting should be set to -31. This means there is absolutely NO attenuation to the file, meaning you get the same levels out as went in...
What I recommend here is to edit the audio in an application such as Peak and get it sounding exactly as you want it. When you encode to AC3 set the DNV to -31 and set the compression to 'none' (not film standard or anything else, there's nothing worse than badly applied compression). These settings then give you a basic output which is nearer to what you start off with. The other setting much talked about is RF Overmodulation protection. This is useful to turn on if you think the player will be sending the output signal to an RF input on a TV rather than through scart or something else. It certainly used to be the case that such signals were boosted by 11db, causing overmodulation. The setting is a way of preventing that hapening, but as more and more folk have stopped using RF as an input it makes sense to turn it off. If in doubt, turn it on, but listen to the output file and see if it is acceptible.
As for the basic bitrate, for a stereo file, lower it to no less than 192kbps.
Now, if you want to run a few tests, then keep all the settings above and encode the same 10 second piece of audio. Change the DNV to -31, then -20, then -8 and then 0 and play the resulting files back and listen to what happens each time.
Head over to http://www.macprovideo.com and download some of the tutorials there for A.Pack. They have been created by Martin Sitter (who has helped and guided me more than once) and will give you a far better understanding of AC3 encoding than anything else I can think of. You will pay for them, but it is a wise investment if you are at all unsure of how to get the best audio onto your discs. Let's face it, audio accounts for at least 2/3rds of the experience when watching TV - it is as well to get it right.

Exporting 5.1 ac3 audio from Premiere Pro CS4

Hi there,
I wonder if anybody can help me out with exporting 5.1 ac3 audio from Premiere CS4 version 4.1.0?
I have a 3min long HD 5.1 clip that I need to cut down to 60seconds and add fade transitions to. The final clip will be used in a media player with very specific spec - the clip needs to remain HD 1080p with a frame rate of 29.97 and a maximum CBR of 38. The audio must be 5.1 aac. The format can be mpeg 2 or h.264. The overall quality loss needs to be minimal.
Up to now I have been cutting up footage that only needs to be stereo and I found the best way to to this while keeping quality was to use Prem Pro and export as mpeg 2 1080p 29.97, quality:5, bitratre: CBR 38, audio as mpeg layer 2 (as these clips were stereo only). These clips played back fine and looked great so I wanted to keep the 5.1 clip process as close to this as possible.
So far all I have been able to get from Premiere Pro is an audio codec called DVD_LPCM which the media player will not recognise. I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to 5.1 audio so I may be doing something obviously wrong...
- I have purchased the 5.1 surcode codec and its activated.
- I have started a new AVCHD (I need 1920x1080) 1080p 29.97 project with a 5.1 audio master
- The orignal file is an mpeg which I have pulled into PPro and selected Clip > Audio > Breakout to mono
- I take the 6 mono channels in the project panel and put them into thier own mono tracks in the sequence.
- the video I use is the original mpeg with the 5.1audio muted in the sequence.
- When i select each track in the project panel and go to Clip > Audio > Source channel mappings, I see that track has already been allocated a source channel. So I go to the Audio Mixer panel and adjust the 5.1 panners for each tyrack according to what the Source Channel Mapping window has told me - Audio 1 is is L, audio 2 is R, audio 3 is LS, 4 - Rs, 5- C and 6- LFE
- I cut the video and all the mono track to the 60seconds I need and export using these settings:
Video - exactly as before
Audio -
Format - Dolby Digital, Codec - SurCode, Audio Coding Mode: 3/1 (L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs - 5.1 Surround), LFE: on.
The clip exports with DVD_LPCM 5.1 audio. Is it to do with the AVCHD preset? Could anyone help me get aac? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Using AME and the SurCode Plug-in, here's how the dialog screen looks for the Audio Tab in PrPro 2.0. It should be similar in CS4:
You do have the Minnetonka SurCode DD 5.1 SS plug-in, right?
Good luck, and hope that this is helpful.
Hunt
PS - note that in the screen-cap, I have composited the dialog box, as though it fully displayed, with no need to scroll it. Depending on your display, you may need to scroll, and your scroll bars will look different from what you see here - just ignore that part of it.
Message was edited by: the_wine_snob - Added PS

HT3775 This file contains a track in the Dolby AC3 Audio (code "8192") format. You may need to install a QuickTime component for this audio format in order to hear the soundtrack of this file.

This message appeared and does this just mean I need to upgrade Quick time player? This file contains a track in the Dolby AC3 Audio (code "8192") format. You may need to install a QuickTime™ component for this audio format in order to hear the soundtrack of this file.

Luckily, there are DOZENS of video/media players and extensions avaliable for the Mac. Many of them are FREE, some of the better FREE ones are...
PERIAN (quicktime extension)
http://perian.org/
QUICKTIME 7.6.6
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL923
VLC media player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
NICEPLAYER
https://code.google.com/p/niceplayer/
And if none of those work, there is a possibility that those video files may be corrupted.

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.

IDVD 6 and AC3 audio

Does iDVD 6 do AC3 audio? No? Still only bloated PCM audio, right?
...reportedly iMovie 6 STILL has the same jaggy still image bug that has haunted us since v3 and which keeps the iMovie forums busy. I'm afraid that many other old bugs are still there.
AC3 audio support for iDVD might have been a good cause for me to upgrade but maybe I'll have to use iWeb as an excuse to take a dive into the new features and bugs in iLife 06...

So what does it look like and when does it happen?
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_bugs.html#jaggystills
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMoviejaggystill.jpg

HT1338 Im trying to watch a film downloaded from Bit Lord, I'm getting 'Error Dolby AC3 Audio". Player does not recognize the audio in this video, how do I fix this?

Im trying to watch a film downloaded from Bit Lord, I'm getting 'Error Dolby AC3 Audio". Player does not recognize the audio in this video, how do I fix this?

Download VLC and try playing the video...
http://www.videolan.org

What can i do to fix the following : You may need an additional audio decoder to play the soundtrack of this file. This file contains a track in the Dolby AC3 Audio (code "8192") format. You may need to install a DirectShow decoder for this audio format i

You may need an additional audio decoder to play the soundtrack of this file.
This file contains a track in the Dolby AC3 Audio (code "8192") format. You may need to install a DirectShow decoder for this audio format in order to hear the soundtrack of this file.

Luckily, there are DOZENS of video/media players and extensions avaliable for the Mac. Many of them are FREE, some of the better FREE ones are...
PERIAN (quicktime extension)
http://perian.org/
QUICKTIME 7.6.6
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL923
VLC media player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
NICEPLAYER
https://code.google.com/p/niceplayer/
And if none of those work, there is a possibility that those video files may be corrupted.

HT204382 Dolby AC3 Audio (code "8192") format

What do I need to get and to install so I can get sound on the videos that tell me,"You may need an additional audio decoder to play the soundtrack of this file.
This file contains a track in the Dolby AC3 Audio (code "8192") format. You may need to install a QuickTime™ component for this audio format in order to hear the soundtrack of this file."

JOSDIOR wrote:
dear all i have this message on my computer when a try to play a dvd:"this file contains a track in the DOLBY AC3 AUDIO CODE"8192" format
From what I can read, downloading and installing Perian may fix your issue.
You can download Perian for free from here
http://perian.en.softonic.com/mac
Good luck
Pete

Set DVDSP 4 to produce AC3 audio

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