As many of you whom haved lived in Japan have discovered, while watching the news you can switch to a sub-audio channel to get a translated english version.

How does one enable/produce a program (dvd and video) with this secondary audio component kept in mind?

Is it as easy as left channel-Japanese , Right channel-English? Or vice versa?

Stereo would represent both channels (J/E) simultaneously? and monaural?

Thanks in advance
A little lost in Kyushu...

If you are talking about a TV signal then we have the same or
a similar system here as well. I'm not exactly sure how it works.
There are two (stereo I think) audio tracks embedded in the
signal.

If your making a DVD and you want multiple audio channels get
a program that supports that (most simple authoring packages
don't have support for this!). You can even mix that with different
subtitles if you want.

An older list of some programs with different supporting things
can be found here (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdauthoring.htm).

To the best of my knowledge DVD-Architect from Sonic Foundry
only supports one audio stream per title.

Victor,

Do you use PC or Mac?

Rob L-
Thanks for the comments- i assume this bilingual audiosystem is used everywhere but have only used it in Japan. And i take a look at those software links.

John L-
Mac or PC? Primarily Mac (imac slot loading) for editing and audio. I used Final Cut version 1.x then migrated to imovie and still enjoy the simplicity. But IMovie will not allow me to separate left/right audio channels?!

Assuming, I'm in FCX how would I want to go about preparing for the multilingual option?

Victor, welcome to Japan and you should know you are not alone... in Kyushu.

Well just a post from a neighbour from Oita.

I don't know exactly the whole technolodgy behind the bilingual but from what I see and hear it's simple stereo - left chanel usually Japanese, right English.

You can chose of coarse which chanel to hear or you can mix them so you hear Japanglish coming from everywhere (just jocking).

What I don't know is how to achieve the automatic switching to only one chanel. What I mean is when you go from stereo normal TV chanel to a bilingual TV chanel the audio is automaticaly switched to either right or left so you start hearing only one of the languages. There might be additional TV signal controlling that.

Hope that helps.

I believe it is called the SAP or Second Audio Program.

When programs are distributed, there are IIRC, 6 'stems' which contain the sound. Some of them are sound effects, some music and another is the speech stem. There may be several speech stems.

Anyway, you can have several audio tracks associated with a single video stream. I think the audio is transmitted in the Vertical Interval but its just been too long since I studied the issue.

Bogdan-
I was suprised to see so many members in Japan, let alone Kyushu. Thanks for the holler!

Mike-
So it is matter of accessing those stems to make a program bilingual. Sounds very complicated but thanks for the in depth explanation.

The commments in regards to stereo and left/rigth channel input seems the most logical.

The stems are distributed with the visual program to allow changes for local culture/language differences. You cannot access them in the normal sense as all the stems are combined into a single sound track.

The SAP can be generated but you need (I think) special equipment. Sort of like the Subtitles you can switch on and off? Those require special equipment (read as not cheap).