People keep casting doubts on DMF4's Dolby capabilities. Can anybody who has tried to use Dolby audio please comment.
I will quote a few things from Ulead's features file on DMF4
* Dolby Digital Import & Burn - Enjoy smaller audio file sizes than MP3 with much higher sound quality and more video on your discs.
* Make Dolby Digital Audio DVD Discs - You can pack 45 hours of Dolby Digital Audio music onto one DVD disc. Import uncompressed CD music and it will be automatically converted.
* Easy Audio and Video Conversions - Save time by automatically converting many audio and video formats like wav, mpa, wma, Dolby digital, asf, au, avi, mov, qt, mpeg, wmv, and dat to CD and DVD player-supported MP3 and DCA.
* File Format Support
Input
Audio: CDA, MPEG Audio (MPA), MP3, WAV, Dolby Digital
Output
Audio: LCPM, MPEG audio, Dolby Digital Stereo, MP3, Ogg Vorbis Audio, WAV, Windows Media Audio, AU.
I must admit that am confused!
DMF4 - What Dolby capabilities?
Ummm... What's your question? As far as I know, the "doubts" have been with Dolby (AC3) 5.1-channel Surround. Movie Factory only supports 2-channel AC3.
I have used Uleads AC3 encoder to convert LPCM and MPEG-2 audio to AC3 on several DVDs. Although I hate the idea of lossy compression, I've been very pleased with the audio quality.
A video DVD can have 3 different audio formats:
LPCM Stereo - This is an uncompressed format. All DVD players must play LPCM. This is similar to standard CD audio, but CDs use a 44.1kHz sample rate, and DVDs use a 48kHz sample rate. WAV files are also LPCM (For some reason, they usually just say PCM for WAV files or CDs. (LPCM = Linear Pulse Code Modulation.)
AC3 = Dolby - This is a lossy compression format. All NTSC DVD players (USA, etc.) must play AC3 audio. It can have between 1 and six channels. The DVD player can "mix-down" a 5.1 channel soundtrack to 2 channels.
MPEG-2 Audio - This is a lossy compression format. All PAL players {Europe, etc.) must play MPEG-2 audio. (I think the DVD standard only supports 2-channel MPEG audio.)
So, Movie Factory can take audio from an MP3 file, or from a regular audio CD and convert it to one of the standard DVD formats. It can also convert audio to several non-DVD-standard formats.
Most of these audio formats are lossy compression. This means that you loose some quality. The advantage of compressed audio is, with the audio taking-up less space on the DVD, you can make a longer DVD, or use less video-compression for higher quality video (i.e. a higher bitrate.)
I have used Uleads AC3 encoder to convert LPCM and MPEG-2 audio to AC3 on several DVDs. Although I hate the idea of lossy compression, I've been very pleased with the audio quality.
A video DVD can have 3 different audio formats:
LPCM Stereo - This is an uncompressed format. All DVD players must play LPCM. This is similar to standard CD audio, but CDs use a 44.1kHz sample rate, and DVDs use a 48kHz sample rate. WAV files are also LPCM (For some reason, they usually just say PCM for WAV files or CDs. (LPCM = Linear Pulse Code Modulation.)
AC3 = Dolby - This is a lossy compression format. All NTSC DVD players (USA, etc.) must play AC3 audio. It can have between 1 and six channels. The DVD player can "mix-down" a 5.1 channel soundtrack to 2 channels.
MPEG-2 Audio - This is a lossy compression format. All PAL players {Europe, etc.) must play MPEG-2 audio. (I think the DVD standard only supports 2-channel MPEG audio.)
So, Movie Factory can take audio from an MP3 file, or from a regular audio CD and convert it to one of the standard DVD formats. It can also convert audio to several non-DVD-standard formats.
Most of these audio formats are lossy compression. This means that you loose some quality. The advantage of compressed audio is, with the audio taking-up less space on the DVD, you can make a longer DVD, or use less video-compression for higher quality video (i.e. a higher bitrate.)
[size=92][i]Head over heels,
No time to think.
It's like the whole world's
Out of... sync.[/i]
- Head Over Heels, The Go-Gos.[/size]
No time to think.
It's like the whole world's
Out of... sync.[/i]
- Head Over Heels, The Go-Gos.[/size]