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deusven
4th January 2005, 15:51
Hi,

I'm fairly new to all this so forgive my newbieness...

When I demux and play back the AC3 track off a dvd, the ac3filter in windows allows you to select DRC or not and when you do use DRC you can see the little slider move up and down depending on the coming scene loudness etc. You can also choose the strength of the DRC and it all seems to work fine.

If I understood well, there is something called 'metadata' on the original AC3 track that allows such a decoder to 'know' what type of volume is coming up in the next scene and hence that little slider moves on its own to apply variable loudness.

Now what I don't understand is that when I simply change the bitrate of that same soundtrack with besweet (from 448 Kbps to 384 Kbps for example to reduce the size of the file) that same DRC system doesnt seem to work anymore...

Unless I don't understand something, the advantage of what I ve just described is that I can have the original AC3 track and apply custom levels of DRC without altering the source audio... the DRC is done when decoding rather than coming from the source (even if DVDs do have some DRC to start with).

Basically, if size wasnt a problem, i would just use the original AC3 track, but is it possible to lower the bitrate and keep those metadata things or whatever makes the decoding DRC possible?

thx for reading.

Sven.

Brother John
4th January 2005, 16:33
Welcome to the forums!

BeSweet is using ac3enc, wich is far away from being perfect or complete. If you absolutely need to to encode AC3s professionally you'll have to buy a (rather expensive) commercial encoder.

For backup purposes I don't really see a disadvantage in applying fixed DRC via BeSweet (Azid or Boost). After all both fixed and dynamic method do the same thing: lowering the volume range of the track. AC3's one advantage is that you can change the strength of that compression without reencoding.

If you don't play your files on a standalone, have a look at Nero's AAC encoder. In HE-AAC format it can produce decent 6ch sound at as low as 128 kbit compared to 384 or 448 kbit for AC3. However, you won't be able to keep automatic DRC either.

deusven
4th January 2005, 16:41
But what if I want to have a stronger or softer DRC depending on my environment (new speakers, different room etc)?

I suppose a fixed DRC can't be changed afterwards...

Brother John
4th January 2005, 16:47
Yes, fixed compression cannot be changed afterwards.

As far as I know dynamic DRC is not possible with free tools. With commercial AC3 encoders I don't have any experience.

deusven
4th January 2005, 17:12
...maybe I could train a monkey to adjust the volume knob for me ;-)