Reducing AC3 files

[Sargondvd]

Hi all

What program to use to reduce the size if the AC3 files to lower bit rate ,and put back to AC3 for Maestro. ( directors comments track)

what is the lowest bit rate that should be considered.

what space is it likly to save on say a 250mg file?
available space on the DVD is very very tight for the title i am working on.

regards

[slk001]

Well, if your original bitrate was 384kbps, and you change it to 192kbps, then the new file size should be roughly half the original. There's a pattern here that shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.

For audio only, 128kbps or even lower will work okay for you. You may want to experiment to determine what is your threshold bitrate for acceptable quality of your audio.

[auenf]

http://www.dolby.com/tech/

there is one specific one that will give you the optimum bitrate for each audio mode (1/0, 2/0, 3/0, etc), but its sitting on my computer at work and i cant remember the name.

Enf...

[Sargondvd]

what program will allow ac3 to ac3 , but change the sample rate ?

[benf2]

SONIC FOUNDRY SOFT ENCODE ALLOWS U TO LOWER THE BIT RATE OF AC3 FILES

[foxmolder]

I would try AC3Machine and BeSweet

[LB]

I second the besweet idea. There is no EASY way to convert to AC3 if you are new to it. It's going to require some reading on your behalf. The best way is to get ahold of besweet. If you can learn how to use that, it can do a lot more too. It's basically a gui that functions around many programs. So, if you can learn how to use it, you can convert any audio source (being realistic) you have to any output you desire.

Only thing I found it had problems with was mpa to ac3. I got some crackles. Best way around this was to convert the mpa to a wav file first and then feed it through besweet.

LB

[Sargondvd]

AC3machine works well , but i find that it drops the volume a lot ,

besweet seems to require ac3 to wav , wav back to ac3 , ill take further look , but ac3machine gies me an ac3 output easly , just that volume output is very low

regards

[UTec]

Did you try experimenting with the Dynamic compression and Gain settings?

[Sargondvd]

no not much, any good guide for settings for say 6 channel ac3 and 2ch ac3 , most of the ac3 tracks i reduce are those other than english or commontary tracks

regards