AC-3 problem?

[rcampbel]

The default AC3 template will adjust the volume of your audio based upon some default settings. This often results in the audio volume being lower. You can turn this off by creating a custom template based upon the Stereo DVD template when you render from Vegas.

On the Audio Service tab, change Dialog normalization to -31dB. On the Preprocessing tab, change the Line mode profile, and RF mode profile to None.

 

[Luke]

Thanks for the suggestion Randall, ill give it a shot.

 

[Luke]

Unbelievable, it worked! All this messing around and all it took was a few clicks. But if this is normal for AC-3 then why doesn’t anyone else have this problem? Oh well, its been eating at me for months and now it will eat no more. Randall, David and HartStudio, thanks for the help

 

[rcampbel]

Glad to help. It is a bit of black magic.

Here is a link that I found with a more detailed description of how and why AC3 does what it does. It also has some links to the Dolby documents that are broken, but you can search for them in the broken link result window and find them.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56020

 

[Luke]

Thanks again. There is no way I could have figured it out on my own. There is some very good info in that post. All that use AC-3 should check it out.

 

[David Jimerson]

He was talking about the waveform and playback in DVD Architect.

 

[scharky]

I wouldn't mess with the audio levels in the AC3 encoder. AC3 volume should be low, but when played back with a DVD player it will sound fine, even on a PC or MAC DVD player. You will find that when you play it back on a regular DVD player, the audio will be as loud as it should be, you can compare it to other DVD's that you have. IF you set the levels correctly in Vegas, your audio should match that of hollywood DVD's.

 

[Luke]

Scharky, the volume is lower(much lower) after rendering it. Even when watching on a regular DVD player. I’ve tried tweaking the levels in Vegas a number of times but nothing worked. Doing what rcampbel recommended, worked perfectly.