Previewing Dolby Digital.

[wado1942]

Hello,
When I mix/master something for surround sound, I can listen to analogue sources trough my console just fine. When working with the digital files, I listen to discrete PCM through my DACs. If I want to hear how Dolby Digital encoding is going to affect the sound, I have to encode the PCM files as AC3, burn a DVD and walk it over to my home theater in the next room to play. Is there a simple, inexpensive way to just encode AC3 on the fly right out of the multitrack or mastering software and beam it through S/PDIF or Toslink to my home theater where I can just give a listen without making disks? All of the software I have that will handle surround will only output PCM in real time.

Thanks.

[Thor]

Hi Stephen,

I would never bother burning a DVD. Try this: SoundCode For Dolby Digital

Encode and playback in the comfort (and tuned listening environment) of your studio. No home theater necessary :-).

Minnetonka makes a similar plugin, but as much as I try and like them, I'm not a fan.

Cheers,
Thor

[Greg Reierson]

You can do it the old fashioned way.

Dolby DP569 DP 569 Multichannel Digital Audio Encoder - Professional DTV | eBay

GR

[wado1942]

Originally Posted by Greg Reierson

You can do it the old fashioned way.

GR

I may have to do that. I can already render mixes offline and play them back on my DAW. I really want to listen to the decoded signal on my home theater for a different perspective.

Thanks.

[Colin Leonard]

Doesn't it suck to spend all that time on a glorious sounding surround master just to encode it into what is basically an mp3? That always bothered me. You could use Dolby TruHD for blu ray though right.

[wado1942]

Yeah, for sure. I'm not up to Blu-Ray yet, unfortunately. At least I can do 24-bit quad PCM on DVD, but that's not very good for long run times! At least DVD's DD sound is better than the theater sound... six channel audio in 320 kbps is NOT what I call high resolution. About eight years ago, I decided to not go to any movie that was DD.

[quadraphonics]

One solution would be to use the Dolby Media Emulator, which does pretty much what you are asking for. I have not used it myself.

Dolby Media Emulator for Metadata Authoring

Randall

Originally Posted by wado1942

Hello,
When I mix/master something for surround sound, I can listen to analogue sources trough my console just fine. When working with the digital files, I listen to discrete PCM through my DACs. If I want to hear how Dolby Digital encoding is going to affect the sound, I have to encode the PCM files as AC3, burn a DVD and walk it over to my home theater in the next room to play. Is there a simple, inexpensive way to just encode AC3 on the fly right out of the multitrack or mastering software and beam it through S/PDIF or Toslink to my home theater where I can just give a listen without making disks? All of the software I have that will handle surround will only output PCM in real time.

Thanks.