DVDLab Pro Questions

tygrus2000 wrote on 1/30/2005, 10:19 AM
I have been using this software for a day now and I am a convert - this is what dvd authoring should be, full control without confusion.

I am wondering about the dual audio track abilities - If I drag a stereo wav to one audio track and a 5.1 ac3 file to the other audio track in the same movie, how do I go about selecting either one from a main menu? or is it meant to use system defaults?
thx.

Tygrus

Comments

ScottW wrote on 1/30/2005, 10:51 AM
First off, I wouldn't bother with having both 5.1 and Stereo - players will automatically downmix 5.1 to stereo if they need to (it's required by Dolby).

create 2 buttons on the main menu. Right click on the first and select "Link" then specify the movie. The right click again and under the "Link" section you'll see "Audio" - open that up and select the audio stream you want. Do the same thing for the second button but specify the other audio stream.

By the way, this is a Vegas Forum, not a DVD Lab Pro forum. You'd probably have much better luck getting your questions answered on the DVD Lab Forum hosted by Mediachance.

--Scott
tygrus2000 wrote on 1/30/2005, 11:17 AM
Scott, thanks for the tip. I was planning on putting stereo only track on the disc for people who do not have a reciever/decoder.
Wouldn't playing 5.1 on a dvd player with no decoding ability result in static or no sound at all? I am trying to cover every possible situation here.

Tygrus
RichMacDonald wrote on 1/30/2005, 11:33 AM
>First off, I wouldn't bother with having both 5.1 and Stereo - players will automatically downmix 5.1 to stereo if they need to (it's required by Dolby).

Yes, but...that downmix can sound awful and ruin all your good work. Make sure you check the downmix yourself if you plan to do this. You might be in for a shock. IMHO, if you care about the sound in a stereo environment, make a second audio mixed specially for stereo.
ScottW wrote on 1/30/2005, 11:44 AM
The decoding of the AC3 signal is peformed by the DVD player; the decoder in the player is required to be able to downmix a 5.1 signal into stereo - Rich makes a good point though, you should check the downmix to make sure it sounds ok if you decide to go the "only 5.1" route.
riredale wrote on 1/31/2005, 7:55 AM
To my knowledge, there isn't a chance that your 5.1 might be played on a DVD player that can't decode the 5.1 signal--it's a requirement that if you're building a DVD player, it has to be able to decode DD 5.1, as well as a few other protocols.
Coursedesign wrote on 1/31/2005, 8:29 AM
Yes, but as Rich pointed out, a simple downmix to stereo sometimes sounds aweful because of phasing problems and a few other things.

You can check it yourself, or have your customer do it for you before returning it for a refund with bad word-of-mouth after that.
Jsnkc wrote on 1/31/2005, 8:40 AM
"this is what dvd authoring should be, full control without confusion."

Well I guess when you allow people to author discs that aren't within the DVD spec you can take lots of shortcuts and make things easier. I'm sure you will eventually realize that this program is far from "pro"
Just be VERY careful when using it or you will most likely run into a lot of playback probles with your discs.
logiquem wrote on 1/31/2005, 9:11 AM
Jsnkc,

In the first release, DVD-Lab indeed processed one big, non fully compliant, VOB file.

Did you refer to this in your remark? If so, i must say by experience that this has been fully adressed in subsequent versions (since a long time in fact).

Could you indicate us specifically others out of spec issues you are aware of?

Indeed, DVD-Lab has this soooo simple, logical interface and no nonsense workflow that is refreshing for a DVD authoring soft (and some really usefull features like auto marker). The only big drawback for me remains the questionnable (the say the least...) stability with Win 2k.

Jsnkc wrote on 1/31/2005, 9:14 AM
I haven't used the program in a long time, but I know that it allowed you to import non-compliant MPEG streams, allows you to use MPEG audio, and I know there were some other problems as well that I can't think of at the moment.
B_JM wrote on 1/31/2005, 9:49 AM
testing dvd lab pro created dvd's with philips dvd checker shows no more or no less errors than DVDA2 (or most any other authoring app - they all how some errors except scenarist) - when you use compliant mpeg2 streams AND compliant ac3 streams

or with D-Probe , i see no muxing errors ..

any problems right now are minor bugs and stability and if you elect to use non compliant streams ..

of course Philips wrote the specs on dvd , but their own recorder doesnt meet the specs ..


more info on the test software http://www.licensing.philips.com/ordering/soft/

Jsnkc wrote on 1/31/2005, 10:09 AM
"when you use compliant mpeg2 streams AND compliant ac3 streams"

That's the problem, there are TONS of people out there that think they know how to author DVD's and encode files properly for DVD, but most of them know just enough to be dangerous. If programs allow you to use non-compliant video or audio files people are under the impression that they did everything right since the program doesn't let them know that there is a problem. Then they bring these discs to people like me to duplicate them and they are just nothing but problems.
tygrus2000 wrote on 1/31/2005, 4:06 PM
I would prefer to have my authoring package to be a little forgiving rather than be too tight on the specs.

I have seen too many programs that want to rerender or convert audio when I am 100% positive its already a compliant file.
scdragracing wrote on 2/1/2005, 11:25 AM
i believe that dvdlab pro will check and then tell you if the streams that you are attempting to import are not fully dvd-legal... it also always demuxes and remuxes every single muxed file that's imported, just to make sure that it is legal... most of us know better than to feed it files that are already muxed, but the app tries to cover all the bases.