Audio bitrate 384 too high for dvd-players to rea?

Aje wrote on 10/18/2008, 3:16 AM
I´ve just ready with a 40 min consert movie and will use PCM audio.
I´m very pleased with the soundtrack and want
as little compression artefacts as possible.
The mpeg2 PAL WIDE template/ custom/ audio/bitrate gives me
a default bitrate 224 Kbps.
Maximal bitrate setting is 384.
If I render with 384 Kbps will there be compatibility problems
when played on dvd players?
Aje

Comments

farss wrote on 10/18/2008, 4:48 AM
Render a separate audio stream at 16bit / 48KHz and let DVDA mux it into the vision. 16/48K is better than CD quality. I'm not certain if the DVD spec supports anything better, even if it did 16/48K should be good enough for all but those with golden ears and unless you've made the recording with very good audio gear It'd probably not serve any purpose going for a higher bitrate or depth.

Bob.
MarkWWW wrote on 10/18/2008, 6:19 AM
If you're using PCM audio don't include audio in the mpeg2 video render. (You'll see that by default the "DVD Architect PAL Widescreen video stream" template has no audio stream included. Just use this as is, don't modify it.)

Then render a separate audio file (with the same name) as a 16-bit 48kHz stereo WAV file (PCM). When you load the video file into DVDA it will automatically load the corresponding audio as well (so long as they are in the same location and have the same name).

The (normally unused) audio settings are for MP2 audio multiplexed in with the video stream. If you're going to use PCM audio you don't need this (it is lower quality than the PCM audio) and you don't want it. (It will take up extra space on the DVD, even though you don't use it, and because DVDA doesn't understand MP2 audio it will just recompress it to AC3, further degrading the quality.)

To summarize: use the standard template (without audio) for the video and render the audio separately as a WAV. Then let DVDA put them together foir you.

Mark
Aje wrote on 10/18/2008, 6:32 AM
Yes I used very good audio gear and recorded in 24/48.
It is a song concert with "analog" guitarr and bass in
a huge church room so it would be great to deliver correct audio,
even if it is only stereo, to those people who has good TV sound gear.
I will test your advice Bob.
Thanks
Aje
Aje wrote on 10/18/2008, 6:41 AM
Sorry Mark your post wasn´t there when I was answering Bob
I understand more when reading your post.
I´ve made an own template "PAL widescreen including audio"
which I´ve been using up to now but if DVDA recompress I certainly will end this workflow and follow your advices in the future.
Thanks a lot
Aje
MarkWWW wrote on 10/18/2008, 7:12 AM
From your previous response I can now see that your audio is 24/48. In which case ignore my advice to render the WAV as 16/48 and use 24/48 instead. PCM audio on a DVD can be 16-, 20-, or 24-bit at 48 kHz or 96 kHz. (In practice you're only ever likely to see 16/48, 24/48 and 24/96.)

DVD players are required to replay all combinations of these, though in practice many of the non-audiophile ones cheat and only have 16/48 DtoA converters - they resample to 48 kHz and truncate to 16-bit before doing the digital to analog conversion. Some even fail to pass the full 24/96 information to their digital outputs. But if you use 24/48 you are at least giving those with good equipment the chance to hear your audio in its intended form.

Some useful information about this (and other technical aspects of DVDs) here.

Mark