Why No Dolby Digital (AC3) Software Encoder for PT

[Samhein]

Hi,

Am I missing something, or is there currently no Dolby Digital (5.1) encoding plug-in for the world's leading ProTools DAW? Don't cheaper solutions like Adobe, FCP, Steinberg all have Dolby AC3 encoding plug-ins?

What are the options for ProTools? And we don't think SRS Labs cuts it as that's their own surround format. And SurCode Dolby Digital doesn't run on Macintosh. Do we have no choice but to run Surcode Dolby Digital via Virtual PC on Mac?

Help

[kurt]

http://www.uaudio.com/products/softw...pro/index.html

[jeremyroberts]

SmartCode Pro System Requirements

Macintosh Computer running Mac OS 9.2.2

Pro Tools 5.0 or greater software running on a Pro Tools |HD, Pro Tools24|Mix, or Pro Tools LE system.
Mac OSX: To be determined

Windows XP: To be determined

http://www.uaudio.com/products/softw...pro/specs.html

Most pro user have been on OSX for at least a couple of years... I don't have any OS9 compatible machines anymore -- all have been replaced with faster/newer/better.

A solution is to make your 5.1 stems, then use A.Pack (DVD Studio Pro)

[Ducky]

You can use Sony's Vegas +DVD (V5) through ASIO to compose 5.1 AC3 file. Vegas has a nice automated panning utility but nothing fancy.

A careful search for the best deals will show that 5.1 Dolby is attainable for about $300- through PTLE using ASIO into Vegas and the right monitoring system.

[kurt]

Ok. Than we have: http://www.discWelder.com/ They make OSX versions too.

[the dude]

Apple's (( A.Pack )) works great and extremely easy to use
usually bundled with DVD studio Pro which is also a good program along with A.Pack for making the 5.1 audio DVD's

Dolby Digital Professional

A.Pack encodes uncompressed audio into highly compressed Dolby Digital Professional AC-3 streams for full 5.1-channel surround sound. You can also use A.Pack to create compressed PCM stereo.

Dolby Digital Professional Encoding


Dolby-certified encoding to Dolby Digital Professional AC-3 format

Accepts QuickTime (single or multi-channel), AIFF, Sound Designer and WAVE format sound files for encoding

Supports all channel formats from mono to 5.1 surround sound

http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/advanced.html

[Samhein]

Kurt,
Unfortunately, Universal Audio don't make OSX versions of their software, and Disc Welder (aka Minnetonka), also don't have a Mac OSX version for their Surcode Dolby Digital encoder plug-in. They suggest running it via Virtual PC (which is another buggy software).

Ducky,
Where can I get more info on Sony's Vegas +DVD (V5) ?


theDude,
Is this how you've been encoding your surround mixes? I take it that we need to create a real-time 6 tracks 'bounce' of the project, so we get the individual sound files. Then use A.Pack encoder to pick up these 6 files for encoding? How long does the encoding process take in relation to the project length? The only thing about this is the time wasted on creating these 6 tracks in realtime, especially if it's for long projects. And then time again for encoding. A direct TDM or RTAS type ProTools plug-in directly being able to encode to Dolby Digital would have been ideal. So I guess that means we will need to run Surcode Dolby Digital via Virtual PC on our Mac OSX machine if we wanted to save a step....

[audiogeek1]

we use A pack to encode our AC3 files for dvd and it usually works at 3X speed. Not a severe time waster but can be a bit of a hassle. But it works on OSX and is not super expensive.

Mike

[David McCarthy]

APack works very well, but I don't know if you can buy it outside DVD Studio Pro. As for time to encode, it depends on the machine. Our G4 400s used to take a fraction less than realtime; our current G5 1.8s are around 3-4 times realtime.
Samhein, I think however you do it it's going to take a realtime bounce. My memories of SmartCodePro under OS9 was a realtime bounce which included the conversion, but still took a load of extra time after the bounce. This was before the days of the "convert while bouncing", but I think with the amount of calculations involved the bounce handler wouldn't be able to keep up! On some long projects, rather than bounce, I'll record to a new 5.1 track in case I discover some issue along the way, or the bounce fails. I can then take those six files and dump them into APack. How would SurCode on VirtualPC save a step?

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Sony's Vegas family Info