AC3 volume low on DVD. Spot??

dand9959 wrote on 5/24/2006, 2:24 PM

I mentioned this on the DVDA forum and got little response.

I'm a complete audio neophyte, so bear with me...

This following is new behavior since my V6d upgrade. (Nothing else in my workflow has changed, so either the upgrad echanged something...unlikely IMHO ...or I've inadvertently flipped a switch somewhere.)

The issue in its most basic form:

I take any audio file (mp3, wav, whatever), put it on the timeline, and render to AC3 and mpg2 using DVDA template.

In DVDA, I import that AC3 file (Actually, I import the mpg2 file of the same name) into the project and drop it onto the menu page.

I ALSO set the menu background audio to be the original audio file (mp3, wav...)

Create DVD. Burn DVD. Play DVD on any player....

The problem: The menu audio plays at a much much higher volume than the same audio in the movie. I'm not talking a slight amount, either...but a great difference.

I know this has not been an issue before (I surely would notice something like this in the past.)

I can partially solve the problem by returning to Vegas, adding a volume envelope cranked high, or boosting the audio track DB...but I never had to do that before.

Question: what could be going on? Help!

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 5/24/2006, 2:30 PM

You likely have your AC3 management kicking in. John Cline mentions this in a thread just a few posts down.
Set your LMP to none. (Line Mode Profile in DVDA)
Set your Dynamic Range Compression to none as well.
Also set your Dialog Normalization to -31
Save as a template.

riredale wrote on 5/24/2006, 4:32 PM

I have come to the conclusion that the Dialog Normalization is one of the biggest goofs to come down the pike in years. In theory, it's a great idea, but in practice it can be a disaster.

I've had to laugh at commercial Hollywood DVDs made where the Normalization is set so low that I have to have my TV cranked all the way up to get normal audio levels. My wife has also complained that there are many commercial DVDs that are useless on her portable DVD player on flights, simply because she runs out of volume control before the audio output is loud enough to hear even with noise-cancelling headphones.

The Dolby guy who got the DVD committee to adopt ac3 should get a huge bonus. The guy who insisted on Dialog Normalization should be fired.

craftech wrote on 5/24/2006, 7:39 PM

The guy who insisted on Dialog Normalization should be fired.
================
The standard was actually inspired by complaints to the Broadcast industry. Remember when the commercials were intentionally made so loud by advertisers you could hear the from the toliet? Complaints about that obnoxious trend is what prompted the standard.

John

dand9959 wrote on 5/25/2006, 7:46 AM

Thanks, Spot!
That fixed it!!!

Now a question is : Why did this just start happening for me? Did a default setting change in V6d? (I can guarantee you I did not accidently venture into the ac3 template settings, preprocessing tab, set values, save as default.)

birdcat wrote on 5/25/2006, 9:58 AM

I've had this behavior all along - I thought I was doing something wrong so thanks for the workaround. I used to just build the MPEG2 with audio and let DVDA rebuild it as AC3 when I created my DVD's there.