From Pro Tools HDX to 5.1 .ac3

[Andre Talisman Studio]

I recently started recording in 5.1 surround with HDX and C24. I am trying to burn a Music DVD with 5.1 in Roxio Toast.

How do I get the 5.1 surround mixed music files encoded into an .ac3 format and then into Roxio Toast to burn a 5.1 dvd.

I have tried the multi channel interleaved bounce, and all I keep getting is two of the five tracks burned to DVD.

Can anyone help ? I have read and read online, but can't find any step by step approach to this.

Thank you

Andre Talisman Studio

[Darryl Ramm]

You need an encoder, like Neyrinck SoundCode or other.

https://neyrinck.com/products/soundc...s/features/#pm

[Craig F]

and Toast will take the 5.1 ac3 and re-compress it to a 2.0 ac3, by default

[cananball]

You can encode an ac3 file in compressor

[joachim]

I am on Windows now, but in the past on Mac : Option-Drag the 5.1 ac3 file to Toast.

[MatzeHD]

What do you want to make, a DVD Video with AC3 audio track or a real DVD Audio??
For DVD Video you need a extra videocontainer to put in your ac3 files and then you must make a VIDEOTS folder that you can burn it to dvd!

For real DVD Audio, you need a special DVD Audio authoring programm, but DVD Audio is dead only some players support this today.

Otherwise a 5.1 workflow for ac3 is like this:

-export your finished file to a 6 channel wav or 6 monofiles
-you need a ac3 encoder to convert the wav files in a ac3 file
-for a dvd video, you need a encoded mpeg2 videofile with the same length of your audiofile, then you can mux these together

All this things you can do it with a good dvd authoring tool, like TMPEGENC for windows or sorenson squeeze for mac or whatever.
They will produce a VideoTS folder that you can burn to dvd!

If you want to make a bluray, its a other way!

[1m1]

What is the best way to make a Blu-ray disk that is 5.1?

[Darryl Ramm]

"5.1" what?

What exact type of Blu-Ray for what purpose? Are you talking Blu-Ray for data transfer? Blu-Ray for consumer video playback? HFPA? Dolby Digital? Dolby TrueHD? DTS?

[1m1]

One of my clients would like to release an album project in 5.1 audio format. Ideally it would be 192k as that is what the native resolution of the project is. We'd like it to be widely compatible with existing consumer Blu-Ray players, but other than that we don't have any particular format in mind.

[Darryl Ramm]

But, but... The audio on disc market is dying, the surround sound audio on disk market is dead and buried.. Folks that care about high-end audio (what the 192 kHz part of this question implies) on disc and who also want more that stereo or 2.1 sound looks to be a very very small market.

192 kHz.... why?

The Blu-Ray format can do 192 kHz 6 channel LPCM. But I expect most consumer setups will only have stereo LPCM decode, or Dolby Digital 5.1. It would be fantastic to see some survey of what exactly consumers have at home. And folks that really care about audio quality might not want Dolby 5.1. If you are chasing consumers with a more gimmick surround sound album then Dolby Digital 5.1 may be fine. I just don't know if there is a viable high-end audiophile market that cares about 5.1 sound, but hey I still remember being impressed the first time I heard Tubular Bells on a quadraphonic system... and decades later my high-end home hi-if does nothing but stereo, including from a Blu-Ray player.

What the player supports is one thing, but it is what the overall playback system supports that is a deeper question. If you targeted high-end audio users with LPCM do enough home setups use an outboard preamp/decoder and can do 6 channel LPCM? What do the speakers look like? Are you going to target multiple different mixes to different speaker setups? Etc. it is such a mess that I feel like there is really no viable high-end market, you just do high-end stereo, or target Dolby Digital 5.1 and expect most of it to be played back on some pretty awful surround sound setups.

Whatever you do, if you intent to target high-end audio/audiophile users make sure you have a stereo LCPM mix, and if you do 192 kHz you better include down sampled tracks for high-end folks (like me) who have not inhaled the 192 kHz happy gas and who's high-end DACs may frequently do up to 96 kHz but not 192 kHz. In just could *never* see any need to do 192 kHz consumer output.