DVD Audio: AC3 16bit at 256Kb/s(or up to 448Kb/s) or 24bit at 192Kb/s?

Teagan wrote on 5/6/2019, 9:26 AM

I'm having trouble finding this answer on the internet and In Vegas Movie Studio 15 Platinum I have the only option of Dolby Digital AC3 24 bit at 192Kb/s for AC3 for DVD video's audio BUT I have been rendering the audio as PCM and then using DVD Architect to re-encode that to AC3 at 16 bit, such as 256Kb/s or 320Kb/s. For some reason I don't have the 16 bit options in VMS15 for Dolby Digital.

So my question is, is there any advantage of using 24 bit 192KB/s over 16 bit 256Kb/s(or up to 448Kb/s) audio for a DVD, and will all players support the playback of the 24 bit one?

Comments

Massix wrote on 6/19/2019, 5:22 AM

Hi, just for answer to your question (and for other people, considering the age of this post...), using 24 bit deth with Dolby Digital on a DVD is like trying to record a 4K footage on a VHS, and the choice 16bit/24bit as the speed of the tape... That will not change quality at all because DD is a lossy format (look at Wikipedia for definition).

So I think there is no advantage to use 24 bit instead of standard 16 bit. Also, with AC3, it is better to use the max bitrate as possible so 16bit 256Kb/s will offer better quality than 24bit 192Kb/s. And as you supposed, all players don't support 24bit in Dolby Digital because in DVD, it's not a standard.

But ! If you want better quality (and 24 bit audio), you can simply use PCM audio. That a DVD standard, it's lossless, and supported by DVD Architect ! The only one cost is in bitrate (1536Kb/s for 16bit/48000kHz !) and of course the capacity of your disc.

So if you just want using classic Dolby Digital, use 16bit with 256Kb/s or as I prefer, 320Kb/s. And for finishing, anyway, Architect doesn't support 24bit Dolby Digital...

Teagan wrote on 6/19/2019, 7:38 AM

Thanks for the answer. I did choose to use 16 bit 256Kb/s. I would do higher but I think that my clients would prefer more video quality than audio quality, and since the recordings would be very long, like 3 hours, they need all the video bitrate they can get.

 

About the 24 bit PCM on DVD Architect, as for blu rays I was using Sound Forge audio studio (came with movie studio platinum) to get 24 bit PCM files by editing it exactly at the time points like I have in movie studio, and was then replacing the audio in DVD architect with that and setting the project to 24 bit PCM and it was mastering that fine, So if anyone wants to know that, there's that method.