Encode to mp2 or ac3 for dvd?

[bruce_lee]

I was wondering if I should encode the audio to ac3 or mp2 when making a video to put onto dvd? Also right now i'm using TMPGEnc and it automaticlly encodes to MPEG-1 Audio Layer II, so how would i go about encoding to ac3? Thanks

[Matthew]

For NTSC only PCM/AC3 is DVD compliant. mp2 is also compliant if you are making a PAL disc. So from a standards viewpoint, mp2 ain't the best for NTSC DVDs.

You can use BeSweet (GUI) to make an AC3, but better quality commercial solutions include sonic foundry soft encode (discontinued), sony/sonic foundry acid, and surcode. You just all these wav input.

[bruce_lee]

How much better would the commercial products be from Besweet? Can you really notice the difference? Not looking into 5.1 surround sound or anything like that, just standard stereo for now.

[Matthew]

My understanding is that AC3s outputted by BeSweet are crap, DSPGuru has said - at least in the past - that they should be used for testing purposes only. But I can't comment on the basis of personal experience because I have none, I just use soft encode at the command-line.

[Malcolm]

in my tests every ac3 produced was crap! i'm only using mp2 and i'm very satisfied.
if you don't have to worry about space, then you can use 192 kbit/s for stereo (joint-stereo) material.
often, i'm reencoding audio (DVB stuff) from 256 kbit/s to 128kbit/s (stereo) because even this is sufficient!
btw. i'm using BeSweetGUI (Wizard) for this. But you can also use HeadAC3he or ffmpegGUI.

greetings,
Malcolm

[bruce_lee]

Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated. =)

[Chainmax]

Taking into account the best commercial encoders for both MP2 and AC3 (whichever they are), which codec would you guys say should perform better at bitrates equal or higher than 192kbps for 2_0 output?

[Chainmax]

Well?

[Malcolm]

I was on holidays 'till yesterday! :) Climbing up the mountains in the french Alpes with our bicycles! GORGEOUS!

MP2 Encoder:
1. BeSweet
2. HeadAC3he
3. tooLAMEgui
3. ffmpegGUI

I would say, at bitrates at/above 192 kbit/s they're all producing a quality that is indisconcernable from the source!
Just use the BeSweetGUI Wizard. There is no need to us any commercial MP2 encoder!

I can give you no recommendation for any (commercial) AC3 encoder.

greetings,
Malcolm

[hendrix]

Vegas 5 has a very good ac3 encoder...

*NOTE* SoftEncode is also a very good encoder but it's old and uses an older encoder v6.2.2 - Vegas uses Dolby Digital Encoder v7, plus SoftEncode is not longer being sold.

as for besweet...i wouldn't use it for ac3 encodes...it's NOT Dolby licensed - plus it's buggy thats why it's support was dropped

stereo AC3 is fine enough at 192kbps
5.1 should be encoded at 448kbps although i've seen some encoded at 384kbps but that rate only has an audio bandwidth of 18.09kHz

[Chainmax]

Ok, so let's say you have TooLAME for MP2 and Vegas5 for AC3, both at 192kbps stereo, which one would you choose regarding sound quality alone?

[hendrix]

dont know...never had a reason to encode to MP2...i say listen to both and trust your ears...but if youre a NTSC user better use AC3