Comments

farss wrote on 9/4/2004, 9:23 PM
You have no read channel information to start with so all you can hope to do is create a simulated 5.1 mix. But that's pretty much how the big boys do it anyway. You can add reverberation into the rear channels, have trains, planes and automobiles whizzing around the room or whatever takes your fancy and you can do it in Vegas.
Of course you need the sounds to start with but the reverb you can do in Vegas.

But you really should keep any narration in the centre channel, tradition has it pretty much that way so having someone talking out of the LF speaker may strike the listener as just odd.
Bob.
B.Verlik wrote on 9/5/2004, 1:44 AM
If you just want to encode to AC3, just render it as an AC3. That is automatically Dolby Stereo. But if you want 5.1, you'll have to do as 'farss' said. You can also try using a quick slap-back echo instead of reverb, but you'll have to cut the volume of the echo. (echo with a little reverb, I think is best) Just check the options of the AC3 rendering section and choose 5.1 and use your regular stereo for the L. & R. front speakers, and use the echo or reverb on the rear L. & R. speakers, and center the main vocals in the front center speaker. Use your cut-off frequency for the Woofer. You will have to mix this yourself, to do this the way described.
drb wrote on 9/5/2004, 4:27 PM
Thanks for input guys!

I tried to play ac3 files in WInDVD6 platinum. But I just heard the sound only. Why video is not there?

What is the best software to test all my trial dvd movies before burning onto a DVD disc? need to test if dolby encoding or volume level etc are there. (including picture quality).

TIA.

cheers,
drb
stormstereo wrote on 9/6/2004, 7:21 AM
If you only opened the ac3 file in WinDVD you'll only hear sound. Ac3 is a sound only format just like wav or mp3. To see video you'll need to have an mpeg file to watch. An mpeg can contain sound or not, that's your choice when you render it out. To make a DVD in DVD Architect 2 you have to render the video to mpeg2 without audio and render your timeline audio to an ac3 file. Then you put them together in DVDA2. (There are templates for this in the render dialogue window in Vegas but you must tweak the mpeg template since it doesn't give you the best output as it is.)

The best software to do testing I don't know. I use PowerDVD and Media Player Classic. There is also a test mode in DVDA2 which simulates your project being played in a stand alone player complete with remote control and all. I would build my DVD in DVDA2, test it there until I'm satisfied, then build the project to hard drive and use PowerDVD/MPC to test it before burn. Then I would either go back to DVDA2 to burn it or use NERO.

Best/Tommy