Audio on first burn too hot

mlane2 wrote on 3/29/2003, 7:20 PM
I have a wedding project that I completed and printed to tape with no problem. Then I put the project into DVD-A and set up menus. All looked (and sounded) great on the preview before burning. I burned the DVD and tried it out on several players. It works but sounds horrible. It sounds like the recording level got cranked up somehow. All audio on the DVD is blaring and too hard to listen to.

I think its the ac3 encoder but not sure. The reason I think its the encoder is because it would not properly encode a 4 channel mix. When I go right to ac3 from the timeline, one (or more) of the tracks lose their synchronization. I had to go to wav first, then to ac3 to solve that problem.

Then I rendered the ac3 by itself and played it in the computer before buring it. Still get the out of kilter recording level.

Any suggestions for these two problems with DVD-A's ac3?

Comments

AlistairLock wrote on 3/30/2003, 5:19 AM
Just out of curiosity, is the level raised by 27db?

I don't have the problem you describe when playing my DVDs on my stand alone player, but the level of AC3 files is raised by 27db when I play the DVD (or any commercial DVD for that matter) on Power DVD on my computer. Any other sound file type, .wav .MP3 plays fine.

I determined this level by encoding a test tone at -30db and the AC3 file played at -3db. +27db!

So I would surmise that it is the AC3, but what I don't know.

I remember seeing somewhere in an AC3 sound ripper program a line about "dialogue normalisation", and the figure of 27db followed.

And there my knowledge ends. Thoughts anyone?
DigVid wrote on 3/30/2003, 5:47 AM
"I remember seeing somewhere in an AC3 sound ripper program a line about "dialogue normalisation", and the figure of 27db followed."

Yes, in Vegas 4, if you "render to" .ac3 you can adjust the "dialog normalization" and it defaults at -27 dBs. It can be adjusted from -1 to -31...
mlane2 wrote on 3/31/2003, 1:47 PM
Ok.
So is Vegas supposed to take care of that automatically? Or is the user expected to adjust it?
AlistairLock wrote on 3/31/2003, 2:18 PM
What is Dialogue Normalisation? I've never encountered it before.