Decode vs Demux

[muralin]

i do DVD rips using GNot & VDub. With DVD2AVI, Doom9 guide says use demux. if i use decode, it spits out a wav file and thus I dont have to go thru the azid step. what are the disadvantages of using decode?

i dont have fancy 5.1 systems so I am not looking for super quality audio.

[bb]

It's just a question of quality. Azid is the best free AC3 decoder ever made, so I recommend to use it. The dolby surround downmix will be useful for you if you upgrade your sound equipment some day.

bb

[Shabubu]

Also if you use besweet on a demuxed audio track you can go straight to mp2/mp3 without the rather large intermediate wav file (and the quality as mentioned above will probably be better)

[Mac Sidewinder]

If in your encode you include the AC3 stream and play it on just a 2 speaker system do you still hear all the sound? Or do you lose the information that is being sent to the rear and center channels?

Mac

[Shabubu]

If you mean muxing in the ac3 stream then your sound will be processed the same as with the original DVD, so you'll get all the channels mixed into the front 2. If you mean using axid there's an option whereby the ac3 is downmixed to a dolby surround stereo track, and this includes all the data in a way that allows a DD processor to recreate surround sound.