stereo & surround on the same DVD?

rs170a wrote on 1/16/2009, 7:59 AM
I'm pretty sure this can be done but I want to make sure I'm doing this properly.
A search of this forum and the DVDA forum didn't turn up this specific issue.
Some background first.
I'm working on a concert that was recorded last month and am getting ready to do the DVD for distribution.
The audio for the concert was recorded in 24 track mode and then downmixed to surround as well as stereo.
I've rendered out a surround and a stereo mix for the DVD but want to make sure I'm doing things right.
When I start DVDA, I set the audio properties for 5.1.
I then add the video and both the stereo and surround audio tracks.
A menu gives the viewer the option of which sound track to listen to.
A long way of asking, because the audio properties are set to 5.1, is this going to mess up stereo playback?
I don't think so but I thought I'd ask the experts here first.

Mike

Comments

fldave wrote on 1/16/2009, 8:15 AM
I just did this, the 5.1 properties worked fine. We had a stereo mix that most of the effort was spent on, so we made that the default (first) track. Selecting 5.1 button switched it to the second track.

You did put the additional audio track(s) underneath the first audio track under the video media, correct?
rs170a wrote on 1/16/2009, 8:20 AM
fldave, thanks for the confirmation.
Yes, I did so as you asked about the extra audio tracks.

Mike
fldave wrote on 1/16/2009, 8:43 AM
I created a second menu called Audio Setup to hold the 5.1 and Stereo buttons. The user picks one or the other and it returns them to the main menu.

Do lots of testing on the menus! That is my best recommendation.
rs170a wrote on 1/16/2009, 9:31 AM
Do lots of testing on the menus!

3 if us are going to test it this weekend :-)

Mike
musicvid10 wrote on 1/16/2009, 4:22 PM
You really don't need to do anything except put the 5.1 surround in the DVD.
Any player does a great job of downmixing 5.1 to stereo playback.

I started like you, thinking in terms of user selection or including a "better" stereo track than what the player would do. I was wrong.
1) The players deliver surround or stereo automatically depending on whether the analog or digital outputs are connected. No need whatsoever for another menu item on your DVD.
2) The resulting stereo downmix is noticeably better than anything I could create, and I've done 24->2 track mastering for thirty years.
fldave wrote on 1/16/2009, 5:19 PM
The person who mastered the stereo mix, the talent and myself could all hear a difference on several players, and the first two put a lot of time into it.

I needed to preserve the main stereo mix, and that is how I did it.

But I have to say, I still like the full 5.1 much better than the down-mixed or original stereo mix!
rs170a wrote on 1/16/2009, 5:29 PM
musicvid, the guy who did the mix for me (my co-worker) has been a musician almost his whole life as well as running a recording studio for several years.
His are the ears I trust on this project :-)

Mike
musicvid10 wrote on 1/16/2009, 11:01 PM
Mike,
I appreciate the comment, and the same applies to me -- pro musician and studio work since my teens, college training in acoustics and audio engineering, and now close to 60.

So it is humbling indeed to me to admit that the downmixed 5.1 -> 2.0 stereo from my <$100 DVD player is better than my hand-wrought stereo master (moreso because I personally mixed the 5.1 over two months from 37 original sources), but it's true.

I've got $40,000 invested in nearly every production, and I wouldn't put down my own talents on a public forum if I didn't absolutely believe in what I was saying. One word sums up the improvement -- 'transparency.'

Do this for me: Burn your DVDs just the way you planned this time, hook your player up to the stereo (not surround) inputs on a good amp, listen to the stereo mix and the downmix by clicking back and forth from the menu, don't judge by volume differences, and either way, trust your own ears, not your engineer's.

Remember, I have nothing to gain and nothing to lose by offering this advice -- been there, done that; so, if your engineer's mix is better you will know it within 5 seconds, and my hat's off to him either way.

However, my own humbling experience has proven that for my purposes, including an optional stereo mix on a DVD is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, because an end user as often as not will make the wrong choice given any option, choosing instead to play glorious stereo over his / her $3,000 home surround theater system!

To reiterate: After a year of doing so, I have abandoned the option of a 5.1 / Stereo menu choice on the DVDs I produce. This decision was not made lightly. However, it gained me disc space that is being utilized by a little higher video bitrate on my two-hour single layer DVDs.

(edited for clarity)