Which encoding option to use for DVD?

[TheManuel]

Hello.

I was starting to use FFMPEG to encode into ac3 the audio from my camcorder captures to create DVD's. I chose the tool because of the good reviews on the tools section but today read somewhere in the web that the output quality is not quite high with its ac3enc.dll. The post was 21/2 years old so I am wondering if the quality of the tool has improved since then. Does besweet use the same dll for ac3 encoding or does it use a better one?
If there is currently not a very good free ac3 encoding tool, should I rather do mp2? What would be the best free tool for this.

Thanks in advance

[Awatef]

If you're doing PAL DVDs, it would be much more simple for you to encode in MP2, since it's as easy as MP3 encoding (if not even easier!). No DRC hassle and less encoding time.
224kbps is good enough a bitrate.
The freeware MP2 encoders available are very mature and offer a very good quality.

As for your AC3 question, I don't want to give bad advice, so I'll leave that to other forum members :)

[Skelsgard]

Use aften for AC3 encoding, it´s free and it´s currently under development so u´ll can be sure that u´ll get support if needed.
As new as it is, it already offers more encoding options than any other free AC3 encoder.

[marnix88]

I'm also looking for a way to encode various audio properly to AC3 to create DVD's.

Aften only supports WAV -> AC3 and no other input, right?
FFmpeg only seems to be able to encode to 2 channel AC3.
ac3enc.dll has a bug that reduces the volume with 50% or more.

[danpos]

Aften only supports WAV -> AC3 and no other input, right?

Yes, correct.

FFmpeg only seems to be able to encode to 2 channel AC3.

No, it encodes to 6 channels too.

ac3enc.dll has a bug that reduces the volume with 50% or more.

Yes, it's based on old liba52 ffmpeg code, which was buggy. The Aften's author corrected this bug through a patch which was officially accepted by FFMPEG Team and it is present at Aften code as well.

[TheManuel]

Thanks Danpos.

It looks like Aften it is. Like you said it is actively under development so good things should happen. The fact that it corrected the audio volume bug is already a significant improvement.

My thanks and encouragement go to the author.

[marnix88]

No, it encodes to 6 channels too.
But unfortunately the channel mapping is wrong (well, it is for me), so it can only be used for 2.0 channel output.

If I have 5.1 channel 448kbps AC3 and try to encode it to 5.1 channel 384kbps AC3, then all the voices from the center channel are moved to the right front channel.

ffmpeg -i "D:\TestAudio.ac3" -ab 384 -ar 48000 -ac 6 -acodec ac3 -y "D:\TestAudioEncoded.ac3"

[danpos]

@marnix88

The channel mapping must be done prior use of ffmpeg.

[marnix88]

Thank you, danpos. I just downloaded BeHappy and it also showed me the correct command. Specifying the amount of channels is not necessary. It will automatically keep all the channels the same way they are.