Comments

I heard the Wav to AC3 encoder can't work for long large WAV file..., correct me if I'm wrong...

Well, I'm happy to know if now has been updated to work..., but I heard this was one of the issue.

Hello.

Hey phil-d:

Have you forwarded that link to Magix??? LOL!!!

set:

I think that may have come from something I posted somewhere else around here. It's not the WAV to AC3 Encoder that has an issue but rather a size limitation on Microsoft WAV files themselves. This was the reason that Sony introduced WAV64 files. I cannot for the life of me remember if I tried Sony WAV64 files with the encoder. Will test and post though.

Regards,

Dale.

fr0sty:

I just took a look at that encoder. When was the last time you checked the price??? So far as I can tell it costs a whole BUNCH more than $600. But it's got all updated and current stuff so it may be worth it if that's the mind of functionality that is needed I guess. As I've noted previously though: this does work perfectly:

https://github.com/wieslawsoltes/wavtoac3encoder/releases

Not only does DVDA NOT need to recode the rendered streams but it actually has some additional options (that the Dolby Pro encoder did not have). What's more: it recognizes WAV 5.1 files and renders them to AC3 if required. It is standalone software though i.e. it does not run as a VST.

In hindsight though I do not know what possessed me to buy VP14 and then VP15 and only THEN VP13 (long story). VP13 works just fine. And, in addition, and to make matters worse, because I'm buying the suites: each and every new version of the additional plugins (NewBlue, Boris, etc.) interfere with the previous versions activations and registrations. Thank goodness support for those products is (more than) helpful.

Regards,

Dale.

This is what I was referring to:

http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=80&lang=en

It's an OLD program, I was using it back in 2003. It doesn't work with Windows 10, making it useless to me, but it did DD 5.1 pretty well way back then. It allowed me to start experimenting with surround mixes of the bands I was filming back then.

I'll check out that software you linked to.

I heard the Wav to AC3 encoder can't work for long large WAV file..., correct me if I'm wrong...

Well, I'm happy to know if now has been updated to work..., but I heard this was one of the issue.

Author here.

Yes it does support large WAV files.

In "Input options" set "Read input WAVE audio data until the end-of-file" to "Read data until end-of-file"

The Author??? That's interesting. Thanks for posting.

The ONLY thing missing is the 90 Degree Phase Shift Option (which essentially ensures that DVDA previews the AC3 files correctly). But for this not being present: your software is probably far superior to the Dolby Pro encoder (that we no longer have of course) anyway i.e. way more options.

Regards,

Dale.

The Author??? That's interesting. Thanks for posting.

Yes I am author of wavtoac3encoder GUI program (not the Aften encoder which I use for encoding).

The ONLY thing missing is the 90 Degree Phase Shift Option (which essentially ensures that DVDA previews the AC3 files correctly). But for this not being present: your software is probably far superior to the Dolby Pro encoder (that we no longer have of course) anyway i.e. way more options.

Can you use for this "Preferred stereo downmix mode" set to "Lt/Rt downmix preferred" or "Lo/Ro downmix preferred"?

The Aften encoder has lot of options, see the tooltip helps or see this help file for detailed explanation: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wieslawsoltes/wavtoac3encoder/master/src/aften/windows/help/help_long_aften.txt

Please note that I am not AC3 expert, I make GUI frontends :)

Hello.

Wow. That was quick. I wish MAGIX support ... LOL!!!

Thanks for the reply. I'm no expert either believe me.

I have not played around with those options but will surely do. This being said: I don't think they shift the phase.which is different to mixdown to two channels But then again: this really only appears to affect the DVDA preview i.e. as far as I'm aware the files render out fine from DVDA. Basically it just means in DVDA that you don't have "what you hear is what you get (WYHIWYG)" when previewing.

Thanks for the link too.

And thanks for responding. A pleasure making your acquaintance.

Regards,

Dale.

Wow @wieslawsoltes, nice to meet you here and thank you for the assistance! I haven't tried experiment your workflow, but if other have tried by following his suggestion, please let us know.

Hi

To help others my work flow to get 640Kps Dolby audio is to:

1. Render out the project with default audio settings, this gets the AVC video stream, the audio will just be discarded later.
2. Next, in Vegas with the 5.1 audio, render out a Microsoft Wave file, I choose '48,000Hz, 24 Bit, Stereo PCM' as that best matches the Dolby audio, then select Customize Template... under channels change this to 5.1 Surround. Render out the audio.
3. Start WAV to AC3 encoder, drag the wave file into the File Path box or use Add files... and browse to it. Top right turn the slider upto the maximum to get 640kbps or other bitrate as required, and make any other option settings. Render out the AC3 file.
4. We now have the AC3 file, this may be okay as a seperate file, however if it is required as one file, it needs to be muxed together with the video.

I do this using TMPGenc Video Mastering 6 (under Advanced tools), you might be able to use the trial version to have a go, or search for tsMuxeR which is a free tool, plus there are others out there. Typically you pick both the video and the audio files, where the video file will also contain the original 2 channel AAC audio, and just pick to mux the video from one and the Dolby AC3 file together. Job done.

Incidentally Video Mastering is great for encoding and supports QuickSync or X264/X265, and has advanced options allowing setting the colour space and colour range, with access to a lot of settings we don't have in Vegas. It also has Dolby Digital encoding up to 640kps unlike Vegas. It makes Vegas rendering options look like a toy in comparison!

Regards

Phil

Hey phil-d.

Thank you very much for this. Much appreciated (by all I expect).

Thanks again.

Regards,

Dale.

Vp 14 I have to buy V Pro 13 to get that to work.

Hi

To help others my work flow to get 640Kps Dolby audio is to:

1. Render out the project with default audio settings, this gets the AVC video stream, the audio will just be discarded later.
2. Next, in Vegas with the 5.1 audio, render out a Microsoft Wave file, I choose '48,000Hz, 24 Bit, Stereo PCM' as that best matches the Dolby audio, then select Customize Template... under channels change this to 5.1 Surround. Render out the audio.
3. Start WAV to AC3 encoder, drag the wave file into the File Path box or use Add files... and browse to it. Top right turn the slider upto the maximum to get 640kbps or other bitrate as required, and make any other option settings. Render out the AC3 file.
4. We now have the AC3 file, this may be okay as a seperate file, however if it is required as one file, it needs to be muxed together with the video.

I do this using TMPGenc Video Mastering 6 (under Advanced tools), you might be able to use the trial version to have a go, or search for tsMuxeR which is a free tool, plus there are others out there. Typically you pick both the video and the audio files, where the video file will also contain the original 2 channel AAC audio, and just pick to mux the video from one and the Dolby AC3 file together. Job done.

Incidentally Video Mastering is great for encoding and supports QuickSync or X264/X265, and has advanced options allowing setting the colour space and colour range, with access to a lot of settings we don't have in Vegas. It also has Dolby Digital encoding up to 640kps unlike Vegas. It makes Vegas rendering options look like a toy in comparison!

Regards

Phil

Hi, I'm giving this a try. Do I have to specify the number of channels and the bitrate or leave it at ignored? The helptip says that if the channels are not specified, the raw audio is treated as stereo. When I set anything other than ignored, the rendered ac3 file has no audio. I only get audio if I pick the Avisynth profile preset. The resulting ac3 file is audible and is also DVDA compliant. But how am I certain that it rendered in 5.1 surround sound? If DVDA sees it as 5.1 Surround. Is that good enough proof?

Tnank you.

Thanks for the help.

alex-bar presented an alternative workaround here for enabling the VP13 AC-3 Pro encoder in later versions. It's a bit more elegant than the previous workaround and it leaves the AC-3 Studio encoder exposed as well as AC-3 Pro. Here's a step-by-step for VP15. For VP14 just change the number.

1. Copy the C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 13.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\ac3plug\ folder to C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 15.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\ (if you have the Magix VP13 build 545 then the folder location may be different)

2. Copy C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 15.0\Release-x64.fio2007-config to your Documents folder or somewhere you have full write permissions.

3. Add a line to the top of the file in a text editor such as Notepad so it looks like this:

[FileIO Plug-Ins]
ac3plug=FileIO Plug-Ins\ac3plug\ac3plug.dll
ac3studioplug=FileIO Plug-Ins\ac3studioplug\ac3studioplug.dll
aifplug=FileIO Plug-Ins\aifplug\aifplug.dll
.....

4. Copy the edited Release-x64.fio2007-config back to C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 15.0, overwriting the original version.

Notes:

1. You need DVD Architect installed for either this or the old workaround to function.

2. The ac3plug folder from VP12 or earlier will not work (Vegas won't start).

3. In VP14 build 270 and VP15 this will work and the ac3 file will be rendered but you will get an error message like this:

Thanks I followed this method and it worked for me in vegas 15 build 321 and it render the ac3 perfectly with out the warning.