Dowmixing to 2.0 - what setting and software would you recommend me?

[tufffta]

1) Is Eac3to a good program for downmixing 5.1 movie audio to 2.0? It only supports "Dolby Pro Logic II" - is that a good thing or would a plain 2.0 be better for movies?

I watch movies on Media Player Classic Home Cinema and I only have a plain stereo sound system, and I wonder: is MPC-HC internal audio filter's downmixing technique better or worse than Eac3to? I mean, what is the better result: using the 2.0 tracks downmixed with Eac3to or using 5.1 tracks and allowing the MPC-HC to downmix them?

2) Is the Foobar2000/Aften Methode described here: http://www.schudy.de/dts/dts2ac3-e.htm - as good as Eac3to? Or should I better use Eac3to?

3) Most movies' 5.1 audio tracks in AC3 I met are encoded in 448 kbps, so it seems it's an optimal bitrate for 5.1 audio. If I have a 1510 kbps 5.1 DTS audio track and want to downmix it to 2.0 and encode to AC3, what bitrate should I choose so that it was on the same quality level as 5.1 at 448 kbps?

Please keep in mind this is being encoded from a lossy DTS, so the bitrate should be a bit bigger than if encoding from a lossless source, I think.

4) Would it be reasonable to downmix DTS 5.1 1510 kbps tracks to 2.0 and encoding back to DTS? If yes, what bitrate should I choose?


5) And the last thing: since I am playing movies on MPC-HC through a plain stereo system, are there any advantes to me in using DTS over AC3, both for 2.0 and 5.1 audio?

[Atak_Snajpera]

1) eac3to is good but it is easier to just use downmixer in MPC-HC.
3) 224kbps or 256kbps your choice
4) AC3 is more efficient than overrated DTS. AC3 640kbps = DTS 1.5Mbps in terms of quality. Besides DTS encoder costs $$$.

[tufffta]

Thanks. And here's one more question:

When should I use the "-blu-ray" switch in eac3to? And what happens if I should use it in a particular situation but do not use it?

[tebasuna51]

The problem with downmix is the output level.
We need normalize the audio after downmix and this is make in a second pass.
Foobar2000 method can't do two pass, only eac3to or AviSynth methods can do two pass.

Use -normalize with eac3to or if you want a plain stereo downmix use BeHappy selecting the downmix method required and Normalize.

The -blu-ray parameter is deprecated since (see Changelog.txt):
v1.09
...
* "-blu-ray" option removed

Edit: For stereo I recommend AAC or even MP3 before than AC3 or DTS

[RainyDog]

I always downmix if older films only come with 5.1 'remixes' and don't include the original stereo or mono audio.

Something I've always wondered, though... Is it recommended to mix in the LFE? I tried testing it once by encoding with and without the LFE channel mixed in and I did feel that the track without sounded slightly better balanced. So since then I've just not mixed it in but often wondered whether I should be or not...

[tebasuna51]

Dolby Digital recommend don't include LFE in downmix.

[tufffta]

We need normalize the audio after downmix and this is make in a second pass.

Use -normalize with eac3to

I did not ever use "-normalize" in eac3to, but it almost always reports that clipping is detected and automatically does a second pass with some negative gain applied. So should I use "-normalize" or does it mean eac3to does it automatically?

[tebasuna51]

... almost always reports that clipping is detected and automatically does a second pass ...
Not when use -down2

eac3to only normalize automatically when a clip is detected, but is very strange when downmix because a security matrix is used to avoid clips.

Most the times the problem is the inverse, low volume than need be increased.