I see what you are saying under "normal" circumstances.

However, with this project there fundamental differences between the two .ac3 files.

The 5.1 .ac3 file contains a "special" center channel that I specifically do not want to exist in any way on the stereo .ac3 file. (It's a long story but think of them as being two separate mixes that contain "different" and unique content...but the both match video perfectly)

CT

You can have up to 8 audio tracks.

There is no need to add the video twice if you want to have two alternative audio tracks for the same video - just follow the procedure in chapter 8 of the manual to add an extra audio track once you have added the video and the "main" audio track.

Mark

Thanks!!!

(I'm an idiot)

CT :-)

You're not an idiot at all, Cliff. And many of us know it is often necessary to create BOTH versions of the audio for the picture, if you really want the best results.

Like Cliff, I need it to be user-selectable right at the start, not "automatically" selected by the end-users DVD player.

I often have soundtracks that work dramatically different in stereo vs. 5.1, and I do not want to just let the down-mix function do it for the end-user automatically. I mix full length operas, concerts and plays in both formats from multitrack audio sources on a separate DAW (in stereo and surround) for specific targets, and they indeed are very much diferent. (For example, one target audience is the laptop crowd, watching the DVD in their office, boardroom, etc. The other group is watching it in their home theater, in full glorious surround, with a sub, etc. You get the idea... ;-)

Like Cliff, I often have to create a dual layer DVD with two menu choices; one is a menu button taking the user to the "Stereo" version, and the other button takes them to the "Surround" soundtrack. I've gotten good feedback on this approach from my clients; it takes all the guesswork out of things, too, but it's a huge waste of data space on the disc.

Doing it the suggested way (two AC3 files in the same timeline/menu) has simply never worked out for me, but I keep trying to find out why. My DVD players usually just default to the 2.0 version, and no matter how I play with it, it doesn't come back up in true 5.1. (Frankly, I don't know WHAT is being played most times by doing it this way.)

So to repeat myself: I want my clients to have the option of manually choosing, onscreen, right at the start, which soundtrack they want; not chancing it to the DVD Player's defaults or whims. I do NOT want automtatic 5.1 down-mixes mangled down to stereo, nor do I want the stereo mix "Up-mixed" to faux 5.1 either....again, neither was mixed for the other.)

But, as we all have found, doing it with two separate menu items tends to double the size of the project, and it's almost a given that I have to use a DL DVD, even for Standard-def 2 hr movies/productions.

Still looking for a way around this....(aside from going to blu-ray for the sheer size of doing a 2 hr (Doubled) video this way... ;-(

Anyone else with a suggestion or fix for this?

The normal way to do this is to have buttons on the main menu page (or perhaps on a "setup" sub menu) so that the user can select which audio track they wish to hear - stereo or surround, English or foreign-language dub, etc.

This is done in DVDA by setting the "Set audio track" action of each of the buttons to whichever is the appropriate track. This has always worked fine for me - are you saying it doesn't work for you? Or am I missing something?

Mark