AC-3 Dialnorm for Hi8 to DVD transfers

CoolBlue wrote on 8/16/2007, 10:54 PM
I'm in the process of converting a lot of Hi8 home movies to DVD. The audio has been captured with peaks up to -3db. So obviously, this is really loud.

What is the best way of determining the correct Dialnorm value?

Sound Forge has the "Scan Levels" option for Average RMS Level. Do I select the entire audio file, or just select the parts that have dialogue and take an average value?

Dialnorm is supposed to be calculated using the average volume of Dialog in a soundtrack. But with home movies that have other stuff mixed with the dialog, this is a difficult decision to determine the correct level.

What about the Dynamic Range Compression Line Mode options ("Film Light, etc)? Do I enable this too? Previous posts say it only is for "Night Mode" on DVD Players.

I want all my Hi8 tapes to have roughly same volume level, so I don't have to mess with volume control on TV when switching DVD's.


Comments

newhope wrote on 8/19/2007, 4:07 PM
DialNorm is only going to give you a reference level for the overall replay volume of the AC3 audio file.

If you are trying to achieve an overall level between different tapes then apply some compression and limiting in Vegas before rendering the AC3 files.
Use the track limiter in Vegas and set the compression so that on the peaks in level you are getting mild gain reduction. You do this with a combination of threshold and compression ratio settings. You can also adjust the input and output levels of the signal into and out of the compressor.
Add a limiter, i.e Wavehammer or similar, to the Master output and set it so that is only reacting to peaks, not continually limiting and squashing the signal.

I'd avoid turning on Dynamic Range Compression Line Mode options. They act like an automatic gain control (AGC) and tend to rasie the background noise in quiter sections while squashing the dynamics in the louder sections of program material.

As a rule of thumb try setting your DialNorm to between -27dB and -31dB . The lower the figure the louder the replay volume.

New Hope Media