Comments

ScottW wrote on 1/30/2005, 8:14 AM
I think this is a philosophical issue. AC3 is a lossy encoding format and like MPEG-2 it's meant to be used for delivery, not editing.
SiXXGuNNZ wrote on 1/31/2005, 12:40 PM
I agree with that, it would be useful to directly transcode ac3 from soundforge or acid. besweet does it and is a freeware application. just gives me an extra step when using my sony products to edit.

thanks for the input :)
bStro wrote on 1/31/2005, 8:26 PM
just gives me an extra step when using my sony products to edit.

Just out of curiousity, whose product(s) do let you edit AC3 directly?

Rob
ZumaZ wrote on 2/1/2005, 6:08 PM
I know when I use my Vegas Studio software it gives me the option to let me open the audio in Sonic Foundry Sound Forge which I also have installed. When Sound Forge opens , however, it says you need the ac3 encoding plugin and offers to sell it to you for something like $40.

I was seriously thinking of buying it but I don't know if it will also let me encode my DVDA projects with the same plug in or if DVDA even has that capability. I am actually using the DVDA that came with my Vegas Studio software (2.0 Build 22).

Any thoughts on this? Does DVDA let you use the Sony ac3 plugin to encode your projects?
ZumaZ wrote on 2/1/2005, 6:21 PM
Ok, I made a mistake, After reading some more threads I now realize that Sound Forge is offering to open my MPG audio files NOT AC3 files. Sound Forge can't open ac3 or Dolby Digital files. Sorry! It then offers to sell me an MPG plug-in NOT an AC3 one.

I am still curious, though, if DVDA 2.0 can encode to AC3 with the right plugin.
ScottW wrote on 2/1/2005, 7:24 PM
Vegas provides the AC3 encoding ability, DVDA 2.0 makes use of that functionality to encode AC3 - This assumes you aren't talking about DVDAS which is a different product entirely and doesn't have AC3 encoding support (neither does VMS).
SiXXGuNNZ wrote on 2/3/2005, 11:57 AM
hey rob, I guess that's my point, none, I can't do any real editing of an ac3 file without first transcoding it to a wav. but, I also can't directly transcode ac3 to ac3 or ac3 to whatever extension I want with SF or AP like I can with besweet, unfortunately, the ac3 encoder on besweet is not so good.