Easiest way to do AC3 to MP3 (2nd Edition) - Including BeLight Guide

[killingspree]

Due to the fact that the two BeSweet GUI's in the old thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24672) are hardly available and haven't been updated for quite some time now, I have decided that it is time for a little update to this sticky.

If you do want to really have the old GUI the thread is still around and you can find information on how to get EasyBeSweet there.

Anyway, there's a new GUI in development at them moment which is also very easy to use. BeLight (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85566) - really easy to use and brand new ;)

Please do remember, to get full functionality out of BeSweet you'll have to use the standard BeSweetGUI.

[killingspree]

Guide to easily convert AC3 to MP3 using BeLight:

Due to the fact that BeLight was released as stable a few weeks ago I decided it would make sense to do a little introductory writeup on it.
Basically what this mini-guide is going to explain is the initial installation and a very simple AC3 to MP3 conversion. By no means does this claim to be a full guide or explanation of all features. In fact it should merely be a little guidance for people new to this subject to get started.

I. Installation
Installation of BeLight is rather easy, but let's go through it step by step:

Download Besweet (http://www.dspguru.doom9.net/)
Download Belight (http://corecodec.org/frs/?group_id=45&release_id=76)
Extract the Besweet files...
Extract the Belight files to the same directory - besweet.exe and belight.exe have to be in the same directory for belight to work
all done :)


II. The GUI Explained
Well, now all you got to do, is head to the directory where you unzipped both besweet and belight and execute the belight.exe file. When you first open BeLight, the Vorbis tab will be open. As you can see, BeLight and the underlying Besweet can do much more than just transcode ac3 to mp3 ;) Anyway, back on topic, hit the MP3 tab. Your BeLight window should then look something like this:
http://www.stefanstrobl.at/doom9/BeLight1.JPG

Essentially you get two different encoding 'modes':
First the old standard bitrate mode, where you can specify either a constant (cbr) or average (abr) target bitrate for the encoder. By default it is set to 128kbit.
Second, a new Quality Mode, where you specify a target quality setting. This quality mode enables you to use the vbr encoding mode. Just for reference, a quality setting of '50' is roughly equivalent to a bitrate of 128kbit, a setting of 100 is in the area of 256kbit. By default the Quality slider is set to 80. In addition you can choose between 'Standard' and 'Fast' Variable Bitrate Mode. For now i would recommend you to just leave it on 'Standard'. For a more detailed writeup on the 'MP3 tab' please see the html documentation in the 'partial_doc' folder of your besweet/belight installation.

In addition I'd like to explain the three available presets in short:
Divx: Intended for use with one or two CD movie encodes. This is the standard 128kbit abr encode.
Music: This Presets encodes at much higher quality (setting is Quality: 80) mainly intended for standalone MP3 encodes to go into your music collection
DAP: (for Digital Audio Player) this third preset is dedicated for Digital Audio Players and positions itself in the middle of the abovementioned two presets quality wise. it is roughly equivalent to a 160kbps encode.

III. Step by step AC3 to MP3 conversion
Ok, here we go. Scenario is the 'usual' conversion of a movie AC3 file to MP3 for a 1CD encode. Therefore i'll choose a target bitrate of 128kbit and leave it at an avererage bitrate so that the encoder can distribute the bits to places where they're really needed. The settings used are identical to the ones used in the 'divx' preset. But let's get started:

Hit the input button and browse for your AC3 file.
The Output field is filled in automatically, but if you want to specify another directory or filename you can change them by hitting the output button.
Now, in the MP3 tab, hit the bitrate radio button. Now the upper sider should become active. If the slider is not already set to '128', move it.
That's it. All the other settings can be ignored for now. Hit the 'Start' button and wait. A command line window should pop up and besweet will go to work. depending on your computers specs it might take between 20 minutes and an hour to do the conversion - so you can safely grab a cup of coffee ;)
PS: the job list button is disabled for now as the job list function is not implemented jet.


IV. Acknowledgements and References
For more details on Belight and recent developments you can read/follow the development thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85566

Many thanks go to:
Kurtnoise13 (http://forum.doom9.org/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=19312) for developing this nice GUI
DSPGuru (http://forum.doom9.org/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=300) for making all this possible by writing besweet in the first place.
and of course as always: Doom9 for providing this forum and site and all the other forum members for helping with the development of this app and countless hours of alpha and beta testing.

For questions/recommendations/ideas for or about this guide, please open a seperate thread either here in the newbie forum or over in the audio forum. thanks