problem with burning .ac3 in 5.1 DVD project in DVD-Arch 1.

[Yi Fong Yu]

in vegas4 i can hear the 5.1 and dialogue in center channel. i rendered a .ac3 track and played that back in powerDVD, it was in 5.1. then i pieced it together in DVD-Arch. under the object properties i selected the .ac3 file as the audio for the video object it went with and when i rendered DVD-Arch told me it needed to recompress the audio portion. i chose 5.1. then when i playback the FINAL DVD powerdvd does say it is in 448k 5.1 but the dialogue is NOT in the center channel. what have i done wrong?

[Peter Jefferson]

Wheres the dialogue coming out form then??

You WILL get audio bleeding in the FL FR as do most commercial DVD's

[Yi Fong Yu]

well it's from my audio portion of my dv tapes. anyway the point is i'm trying to keep all of it dead center in the center channel. for example open rage's kevin costner commentary is dolby 1.0 96k where his voice is ONLY coming from center channel. that's what i'd like. when i playback the .ac3 file with powerdvd it works. no bleeding. when i burn it with dvd architect... it loses that. i wonder how to make a 5.1 DVD. anyone experienced?

[Peter Sieben]

I've done different 5.1 projects with Vegas 4 and 5. If you a specific audio track only sound through the center speaker, open that audio track it's surround mixer and mute the other 4 speakers by mouse clicking on them in the mixer windows. This will give you want you want. Remember to:
- raise the volume of the center speaker using the slider visible down below in the mixer window;
- only render the AC3 5.1 file using the templates inside Vegas.

If DVD-A tells you it wants to re-compress the audio file (AC3), try to specificy in the Optimize (?) window that it's already a 5.1 AC3 file (there is a selection list in DVD-A version 1 that you can use for that - I haven't tried version 2 yet for that part).

Peter Sieben

[Peter Jefferson]

its the same pete, u hit the nail on the head though re: - raise the volume of the center speaker using the slider visible down below in the mixer window;

anywyas moving on

well it's from my audio portion of my dv tapes. anyway the point is i'm trying to keep all of it dead center in the center channel. for example open rage's kevin costner commentary is dolby 1.0 96k where his voice is ONLY coming from center channel. that's what i'd like. when i playback the .ac3 file with powerdvd it works. no bleeding. when i burn it with dvd architect... it loses that. i wonder how to make a 5.1 DVD. anyone experienced?

"well it's from my audio portion of my dv tapes. "
sarcasm aside.. what pete has mention is correct.. heres a step by step.. and yes i am experienced.. hehehehe

okies when u have ur audio in the time, right click ur audio and combine the stereo tracks to make one mono track.

doublick on the surround panner.
A close up view with a smoothness filter and gain adjustment will pop up (usually near your video preview window)

Now double click on the pan marker to bring ur pan to the centre.
now in teh gain slider, double click th enode to bring it on par with the rest ur pans (-6 dB default)
Now do as Pete Says and mute all other tracks :) U do this by clickin on the lil speaker icons

Voila instead centre channel with zero bleeding..
now go back to the timeline and duplicate that audio track u jsut worked on
now do one single left click to seperate this new clone.
In the surround panner (near the timline) highlight the lil + and select LFE
This new track is now set up as LFE for ur speech
Make sure u run a tight compressor and a clean filtered EQ.. maybe even noise reduction on this especially in high wind areas ;)

good luck

[Yi Fong Yu]

i have taken care of the vegas part. Thanks for the effort =).

my problem lies in the burning of the project, specifically with DVD architect. when i try burning it, it will always recompress the .ac3 regardless of whether i tell it it's 5.1. the end result is always a FINAL DVD that displays info that it is a 5.1 track (448k) but it is actually just stereo and NOT center mono.

[Peter Jefferson]

are u using DVDA2??

Ive noticed it sometimes overrides manual settings, and u are forced to recompress elements which do not require re-encoding (it does it with video too)

Until they sort this out, im still using DVDA1

i use material supplied by other filmakers which is perfect, i also use material from Dolby Labs (trailers) which is basically untouchable, however DVDA2, seems to think the files should be re-encoded when there is no need.

[Yi Fong Yu]

i'm using 1.

[Edward Troxel]

I would not go back to DVDA1 for anything. DVDA2 has too many good new features.

Does it show the files will be re-compressed in the optimize screen. If yes, can you change it there to tell it no?

[Yi Fong Yu]

i don't think you can change whether or not audio portion is to be recompressed in either v.1 or v.2

[Peter Sieben]

In DVD-A v1 you can. If you import a 5.1 AC3 file from Vegas into DVD-A and in the Optimize window you see it's being recompressed to PCM or whatsoever, change it's properties to 5.1 AC3 using some selection list. You'll see that it's changing the status and that it doesn't need recompressing. But with v1 you must have used the standard AC3 settings, by using the templates.

Peter

[Yi Fong Yu]

i did that but it still recompressed the .ac3 file.

[Peter Jefferson]

"I would not go back to DVDA1 for anything. DVDA2 has too many good new features.

Does it show the files will be re-compressed in the optimize screen. If yes, can you change it there to tell it no? "

Hey Ed, it Does have the option to turn it off, but DVDA2 DOESNT retain these commands..

i can throw in a compliant MPG with a complaint 5.1 ac3, and even if i elect to NOT re-encode, as soon as i move th ecursor, BANG, its changed itself back.

I think it has to do with the "Optimise Disc" button runnin some type of scripting command prioritising the main feature (or largest file) as opposed to allowing me to systmatically configure each file within the disc...

I dont like this bug and for some reason theres no way around it..

[Yi Fong Yu]

so the question remains... has anyone burned a successful 5.1 DVD?

[Peter Sieben]

Hi Yi,

This is becoming a strange thread. I have good results with Vegas 4, 5 and DVD-A v.1 (haven't tried v.2 yet). And you keep saying it isn't working. Are you able to give screenshot info about your workflow, settings etc so that we can monitor all your steps. In the weekend I would like to simulate these steps if that can be helpful. I have a full blown 5.1 realtime monitor setup with Vegas so I can compare before and after rendering in a 5.1 sound setup.

Let me know...

Best,
Peter