burning a 5.1 dvd

[hef]

anyone know how to burn a 5.1 dvd on a mac? i'd like to take a surround mix i just did, marry it to picture, and burn a dvd with the 5.1 mix. we don't have a dolby encoder in our studio and i was trying to avoid outsourcing this. i've tried doing this with final cut pro and dvd studio pro but it won't play on multiple consumer dvd players.

Compressor for Final Cut Pro has an option to import the L, C, R, Ls, Rs, Lfe, and it lets you convert this to an AC3 file. i believe that's the encoded surround mix?? if it is how do i marry the AC3 file to picture. anyone ever do this or have a clue how to, without using the expensive dolby hardware?
thanks.

[minister]

you have the tools.

read the manuals.

[georgia]

Hi, as Minister said... ya got the tools!

If you have FCP pro and DVD studio pro...

If you have the picture in FCP or in an MP2 file AND you have the sound mix in 6 track raw files. Then import the MP2 file into FCP and verify the EXACT lenght of the pix file that is being encoded to the DVD. take the 6 track mix, drop it in protools or finalcut pro and verify the sync, start and end times so that the two play together. Then. If the picture is in FCP native use compressor to export the picture file as an M2V file. Take the audio that is correct for sync and open the DOLBY AC3 encoder that comes with FCP/DVD studio pro. If you don't then use COMPRESSOR to do the same thing.

Encode the audio as AC3, no compression, standard or light film compression ( its a matter of taste ) and set the DIALNORM to -27 for a start, until you figure out what your doing. Encode the audio as a 5.1 AC3 file.

Open DVD studio pro and create a TRACK... (for now delete the MENU box that comes up with the opening of a new project in DVD studio pro. Drag and drop the M2V file and the AC3 file into DVD studio pro's assets list and then drag the files from the assets list into the track. Right click on the track box and select FIRST PLAY. Then, well, hit the play button.

there's a lot more to creating a DVD but this will get you started.


IF, you have the AC3 file and the M2V file alpready created then simply drag them into the asset list. then drag them from there into the track.. Then open the track and play the files. If the AC3 file is off or out of sync you can slide it around in DVD studio pro's timeline.

cheers
geo

[hef]

thank you! yeah...i wasn't sure if i needed to use FCP, or if i could just use the compressor and then DVD Studio Pro. i think one thing we were doing wrong was our video wasn't th same length as audio- we were just lining them up in DVD Studio Pro. i don't think we were making an M2V file either.

Originally Posted by georgia

and set the DIALNORM to -27 for a start, until you figure out what your doing.

what does setting the DIALNORM for the dvd do?

going to try this tomorrow, thanks again.