mp2 or ac3 for home videos?

[RathO]

I encode my DV content to MPEG-2 (to become DVD at a later point).

To encode audio to mp2, i can encode directly from MSP7. If i want to do ac3, i have to do some more steps then mux everything together.

I wonder if i should encode my audio to mp2 or ac3? I don't want to ask the "best settings" question, but maybe there is a technical matter i should know.

Regards

[stickboy]

NTSC DVD players are not required to support MPEG1-Layer II audio, and there are many that don't.

OTOH, PAL DVD players are not required to support AC3 audio (but almost all of them do).

[RathO]

Hum... i should stick with the harder way then: AC-3
:scared:

Thanks for the reply!

[bb]

My MediaStudio Pro 7 supports AC3 output. Yours doesn't?

bb

[RathO]

It does, but only when i output to DVD NTSC. I now use frameserver 2.0, and i don't seem to be able to encode only the audio to ac3.

Do you mean you are using Ulead MPEG.Now to encode?

Regards

[bb]

True, I can only use AC3 audio in conjunction with MPEG-2 output, too (PAL in my case). I haven't found a way to encode the audio alone.

AC3 is the better choice for compatibility reasons and regarding quality at a given bitrate. You need to encode the AC3 separately, e.g. as described in the "DV to DVD" guide. If you can live with MP2, you can still get very good audio quality. And remember that usually you lose more audio quality during recording than during encoding, despite you're using studio equipment.

bb

[RathO]

Ok, so i encode my AC-3 alone, then mux my MPEG-2/AC-3 to VOB. Wonderfull! :p

I'm still looking for a proggy that's only mission is to mux to vob 'cause i backup my VOB to hard drives before i burn my DVD. I know bbmpeg, but im not too sure of the settings to make the vob perfectly compliant to DVD. Any guide or settings?.

PS i was looking for the DV to DVD guide comments thread and couldn't find it.. i guess i'm blind :cool:

[bb]

Don't use the bbTools for DVD muxing. IfoEdit is good for the purpose and free. You may use any authoring tool, too, like TMPG DVD Author or DVDlab.

And I bumped the comments thread for you; it had dropped down to page 9 already.

bb

[ADLANCAS]

I haven´t seen any problem with bbMpeg.
Is there something wrong with such tool ?

Alexandre

[bb]

The author himself said that DVD muxing does not exactly comply with the DVD standard. That's the reason why there's a "~" before the DVD Program Stream Type settings. The muxer is excellent for SVCD, though.

bb