mp2 files for dvd studio pro

dhill wrote on 7/25/2002, 3:00 PM
I've rendered all of my video to mpeg2 using the dvd ntsc setting on the main concept plugin and I have the files saved on my external firewire drive. My question is, will the people authoring the dvd, using apple's dvd studio pro, be able to open and use my mpeg2 files? They said the mpeg's had to have ac-3 audio at 48000k to work on their system. Is that correct? Does the main concept plugin render the audio to ac-3 audio? I don't know what ac-3 is! Thanks in advance for your answers.

Comments

vonhosen wrote on 7/25/2002, 3:40 PM
No the MainConcept plug-in is not an AC-3 encoder.
AC-3 is dolby digital (Whether it is stereo or 5.1)

It is not going to be cheap getting an AC-3 encoder because of huge licensing fees.
One comes built in with the DVDit PE authoring program (about $800) or you can get stand alone encoders.
Check here for details.
http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com/
dhill wrote on 7/25/2002, 5:34 PM
Thanks vonhosen! I guess I'll have to print to tape (assuming I can solve my print to tape issues noted in an earlier post) and give the segments to them that way so they can capture and encode it themselves in FCP and DVDSP. Let's hope SF comes out with a great DVD authoring program next year... My partner and I used dvdit on another project and it worked pretty well. Any way, I found a company called Precise Media Services in CA that will author my 80 minute project for around $500. That's a pretty good deal, but I guess they can't use my avi files, so I have to PTP. Thanks again.
JumboTech wrote on 7/25/2002, 6:05 PM
dhill

I think DVD Studio Pro can use audio as a "aiff" file which the last time I looked, I thought Vegas could render. You might want to try that. We've got DVD SP at work together with Final Cut Pro and to be honest, I'm less than impressed. Why don't you spend the money on your own burner and "do it yourself"??

Al
dhill wrote on 7/25/2002, 8:57 PM
Hi Al. Yes, I have converted my wav files to aiff for recent protools sessions, but how do I render an vid clip so that the audio portion of it is aiff? I know I can render the audio portion as aiff and then delete the wav audio and insert the aiff below the vid track and line them up, but then what? How do I make a rendered clip that I can import into FCP? I would do quicktime, but I need it to be the best quality possible, so, I thought that I should print to tape and let them capture it on their Mac.

Also, I would buy all the dvd authoring stuff (burner/software), but I'm working 12-15 hour days right now, so, I just don't have time to learn it and do it. I'm in a bit of a rush for this project. Thanks for the posts! Derek



riredale wrote on 7/26/2002, 2:13 AM
My own two cents worth:
If you're pressed for time, the solution is obvious.

However, in the future, you can do all this stuff yourself and pocket the money that would have gone to someone else.

For NTSC material, the audio doesn't "have" to be Dolby AC-3; it could also be regular old PCM audio (like that found on CDs). For an 80-minute DVD, the video portion can be encoded at about 7,300kb/sec if you use AC-3 audio. If you use raw PCM audio, the bitrate would have to be reduced to about 6,000kb/sec in order to make room for the audio. 6,000kb/sec can deliver pretty decent video, so it raises the question of whether you need Dolby encoding in the first place. By the way, I got these numbers from a slick little freeware product called "DVTool."

These days, MP2 audio works on newer DVD players also, so maybe in the future you may not have to deal with AC-3 encoding at all. Lots of consumer MPEG2 encoders can also do MP2 audio encoding.