dolby audio addon

[2tired]

HI all,
I just downloaded the Dolby addon to VS8 and installed it. At least I think it is installed as there is nothing in VS8 that points to any new attributes. With or without a studio project in the timeline there's nothing. Is there a way to check and see if it is installed? If so is there a tutorial on it's use anywhere; there doesn't appear to be anything at the ulead site. I tried the audio tutorial there but nothing in there about it.

The reason I got it was to convert the LPCM to AC3. Anyone have any ideas?

thanks

[THoff]

The only time you'll see a change is during the Create Disk stage, where you can now select Dolby as the audio compression method. If you don't customize the settings of the default templates, UVS will still use LPCM audio.

[2tired]

Thoff,
I must be missing something. When I go to the create disk or 'share' there is nothing in the succeeding boxes that resembles anything to do with selecting the audio. Exept for '"create sound file" and that seems to be there to make a separate wav or rm file. I see nothing in the File, Edit, Clip, and Tools menu about templates.

Sorry. But there doesn't seem be anything here. I am using VS8; perhaps that is different?

Edited:
In looking around I found on the tools menu the make movie settings and found the ntsc dvd one with the added dolby audio possibility. So I changed it to dolby and then tried again in create disk. It is running now; hopefully encoding in ac3.

Thanks for the help.

[2tired]

Well, the thing ran and produced the folders (video_ts + audio_ts) but nothing changed. The audio was almost 1 gigabyte of LPCM.

I went to Tools | Make Movie Manager and then selected NTSC DVD. On the compression tab I modified the Audio to 'Dolby Digital Audio' and 'Audio bit Rate' to 256.

That was the setting when I ran it. It didn't convert to AC-3. So, is there something else I need to do?

thanks

[THoff]

Try this, this is the procedure I use -- I'm encoding a DVD with Dolby audio as I write this: go to Create Disk, click on the gear icon at the bottom of the screen to bring up the Project Settings, click on Change MPEG Settings, then Customize, then go to the Compression tab. From the Audio Format combobox, select Dolby Digital Audio.

PS: If this doesn't work, I would uninstall and reinstall the addon.

[bunclark]

2tired,

To find Thoff's suggestion in Create Disk stage: In the first window click the small wheel (project settings) in bottom left, Change MPEG settings, customize, compression, audio format.

I can see: LPCM audio, MPEG audio, & Dolby Digital audio.

God bless you all.

[2tired]

Are these things purposefully tucked away with low contrasting colors and no Identification? There is plenty of room there to ID those icons. Particularly for us with fading eyesight. Oh well, it's fantastic that there are those of you out there willing to give advice (and good advice) to us nebishes.

Thanks very much to you all!

[jchunter_2]

Video Studio is full of surprises like this and worse, which is the reason that the Recommended Procedure was written - by users who have already experienced the problems. BTW, it describes the shape and location of the tiny gear icon that is so crucial to successful DVD burning.

You can save yourself a lot of grief, in the future, by reading and following the Recommended Procedure.

[THoff]

I think Ulead should be smacked upside the head for not including ANY sort of documentation with the Dolby Digital plugin that would tell their customers how to verify that it is installed correctly, and how to access it.

Even if all they did was include a README file that is displayed at the end of the installation process, it would be a good first step.

[2tired]

Well, after all the help here and after reading the ''Recommended Work Flow' (which I admit should have been done long ago) I think I have it. One of the things that I don't do is run through using the wizard because I already have mpg clips from other sources so it is merely editing to bring them together.

Just for a comparison, the audio that came out using the default lpcm was around 950 megabytes for this 1:35min movie. When using the dolby plugin, it dropped to 160 megabytes. This is worth the $30.00 over the long run.

Again, thanks for the help!

[THoff]

Keep in mind that the AC3 plugin also allows you to select the audio bitrate, which can further reduce the storage requirements for your video production. I typically use 192kbps, and sometimes 160kbps, which is roughly 1/10th the space`required for LPCM.

Using MPEG audio will also save space over LPCM, but it is only part of the PAL standard. Some standalone NTSC players will handle this, but it's a hit-and-miss deal. Software DVD players generally handle both LPCM and MPEG, but not necessarily AC3, since it requires a license from Dolby Labs. In the end, LPCM is the only universal audio format for DVDs.

[2tired]

Thanks for info. Because everything I make is used on only two or three players for our own use (and occasionally for friends on theirs) I will stick with the ac3 for now. One thing that I have to keep in mind because I personally have a very low high frequency cutoff (rapid drop at 3500~); it seems that all the sound coming from the speakers is pushed towards the low end so that I sometimes have a hard time hearing what women's voices are saying. So I am making the asssumption that by keeping the bitrate higher, the higher frequencies will be more available and distinct.

I am surprised that mpeg audio doesn't compress quiet as well as ac3. However the dvd players that I have all play the ac3 very well.

Again, thanks for the info