DVD Compliancy

[EpheMeroN]

Is it true that for a dvd disc to be 100% compliant, it has to have at least one AC3 track?

I ask because I have a few XviD movies that I want to convert to DVD, but do not want to have to transcode the audio again from MP3 to AC3 / MP2. I'd rather just decode it to WAVE and leave it be.

[mpucoder]

Only for NTSC. For PAL it must have either an AC3 or MPA track.

[zilog jones]

I highly doubt there's a lot of DVD players that can't do LPCM (wave) as it would need to have some form of PCM decoder to play CD audio (and I've never seen a DVD player that can't play them!). So you'll probably get away with just LPCM audio. But unfortunately, as mpucoder said, official spec's say NTSC DVDs are required to have at least one AC3 track and PAL DVDs are required to have at least an AC3 or MP2 track.

[mpucoder]

My mistake (what was I thinking) LPCM will do. NTSC must have one track of LPCM or AC3, PAL must have one track of LPCM, AC3, or MP2. All players are required to support LPCM.

[EpheMeroN]

Great to know that I can just author a basic NTSC dvd now with a single LPCM WAVE audio track and it'll be compliant. IIRC all dvd audio (despite its format) has to have a 48000hz frequency right?

[ultimatebilly]

From the DVD Demistified FAQ:
DVD LPCM audio can use 16, 20, or 24 bit samples at 48 or 96 kHz (although PCM is not used with most movies).
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

Never tried with 96000hz though...

[mastercontrol]

Since your souce is XviD videos, I don't think it's essential for you to make the disc 100% "compliant". If you were mastering a professional disc for release/duplication, then I could see the point, but as long as it works in your player(s), I don't think it's really an issue.