Add DialNorm to AC3

[heerschop]

I want to add dialog normalization to a ac3. As I understand I have to use aften to add the dialnorm to a AC3.

I found several versions of aften:
1- Soucreforge (2007-12-04) => http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32builds/files/Aften%20%28A_52%20Audio%20Encoder%29/
2- wavtoac3encoder aften-git (2009-12-26)=> http://code.google.com/p/wavtoac3encoder/downloads/detail?name=aften-git-20091226-icl11_1_054-win32-bin.zip&can=2&q=

Which version of aften is the best to use or are there better builds to find?

greetz

heerschop
AFAIK, Aften won't let you set up a dialog normalization. Plus the encoding quality ain't all that good, compared to Dolby Digital encoder.
You might want to use Sonic Foundry Soft Encode for that, it has licensed Dolby encoder on board.

[heerschop]

Originally Posted by get8p

heerschop
AFAIK, Aften won't let you set up a dialog normalization. Plus the encoding quality ain't all that good, compared to Dolby Digital encoder.
You might want to use Sonic Foundry Soft Encode for that, it has licensed Dolby encoder on board.

I already use aften to add the dialog normalization (aften.exe -dnorm). It is only for adding dialog normalization and not dynamic rang compression. It has to be a command line driven application as I want to use it in a script.

Is ffmpeg a better application to create an ac3 with dialnorm ? It's only for adding the dialnorm to the ac3 not for determining the dialnorm.

[Mug Funky]

Originally Posted by get8p

Plus the encoding quality ain't all that good, compared to Dolby Digital encoder.

care to link us to some ABX results?

soft encode is woefully old, slow and the only reason to use it would be for the DRC that aften (and it's successor that is merged into ffmpeg) doesn't implement.

quality at important bitrates (192, 224 and 384-448 for 6ch audio) has been very good for years now. short blocks and channel coupling have improved matters too.

try the ac3 encoding built into ffmpeg before making unsubstantiated claims.

[tebasuna51]

To answer the heerschop question, the best Aften version is the last aften-git-20091226-icl11_1_054-win32-bin.zip, and don't know new exe versions after this.

If you want change DialNorm to an AC3 file, you can try Change_dn.exe from here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1493146#post1493146

@Mug Funky
I know than ffmpeg AC3 encode have some improvments (also Stereo mid/side rematrixing) over Aften, but I don't know how to pass to ffmpeg Aften parameters like -dnorm.

Other Aften parameters than can be usefull was:
-readtoeof 1 -pad 0 -dsur 2 -xbsi2 1 -dsurexmod 2

Other problem with ffmpeg was the sample precission between included decoders-encoders. Last time I analyzed was limited to 16 bit.
Can now ffmpeg send 24 bit samples to AC3 encoder if source is, for instance, a TrueHD/FLAC with 24 bit?

[Selur]

I thought:

[-dynrng #]    Dynamic Range Compression profile
                   0 = Film Light
                   1 = Film Standard
                   2 = Music Light
                   3 = Music Standard
                   4 = Speech
                   5 = None (default)

source: aften -h
would add drc when encoding with aften,...

[tebasuna51]

Originally Posted by Selur

would add drc when encoding with aften,...

But don't work like other certified AC3 encoders.
I can't recommend use DRC with Aften.