dolby 5.0 versus 5.1

You need to be given 6 files total. l,r,c,ls,rs,lfe. Bring these into Compressor and encode. Never heard of Dolby 5.0. Even if it did exist, its not compliant with DVD.

Maybe include a blank aif file for the LFE. Not sure why a musician would not want to include the LFE channel - its a quarter of the dynamic range!!!

Bill,

Most of the Dolby presets in Compressor have a check mark field to 'enable the low frequency effects'. Leave that box unchecked, setting up 3/2 for the 'audio coding mode' with 448kbs as the data rate. I posted up the other necessary Dolby settings on this board a few weeks ago.

And, just so you know, the '.1' LFE channel is not the 'bass track', you will/should/better have *plenty of bass present in all the channels*. So, as long as your music guy got the files he sent identified correctly and he mixed with surround monitoring, you'll be good. In fact, it's mostly Hollywood Films with big, sudden dynamic shifts, i.e., explosions, reentering the atmosphere, disgruntled dinosaurs, etc., that benefit the movie experience by transferring some of the very low portion of the bass onto the subwoofer. But for sure, your subwoofer will still be active in 5.0 mixes, as it is in 2.0 stereo mixes; and your 5.0 mix will no doubt contain the entire dynamic range of your concert and will be heard by viewers with good sound systems - the stereo downmix on lessor setups won't sound too shabby either, is my guess (though, you've tested this, right?).

The DVD-Video Specification books (of which I'm in possession) are very clear that there are many flavors of Dolby Surround supported; 5.0 is supported, and DVD SP will dutifully mux a 5 channel stream - instead of 6 channels for 5.1. Hint: Compressor will only list DVD Video compliant Dolby channel configurations in the pop down menu, when 'DVD-Video' is chosen as the 'target system'; and you'll see there's a lot of choices available.

Sounds like you've got a good DVD production going over there.

For further reading:

http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/zz-Shared_Assets/English_PDFs/Professional/38LFE.pdf

http://remlabs2.rice.edu/webfiles/Rm%20Main%20Documentation/SURROUND%20INFO/5.1_ mixing.pdf

Take care,

Trai

--
New Constellation Technologies / TFDVD Research Labs

And Trai proves me wrong again! 🙂

Hi Bill,

Sounds good. But I would drop the .1, and send him only the 5.0 mix, unless you are getting paid to provide a smorgasbord. And clearly, your musician already stated he didn't want the 'rumblings' of the LFE channel.

For sure, as authors, we are the "Keepers of the Specifications", sometimes having to steer our clients away from requests or procedures that would do them harm.

But all seems up to snuff here, you'll just need to do a standard proofing of the 5.0 mix on your 5.1 (or 7.1) surround setup; and then it's off to all points with the completed DVD, for approval.

Take care,

Trai

--
Trai Forrester
New Constellation Technologies / TFDVD Research Labs