Dolby Digital on Windows 7

[N McAlpine]

Adobe, you're really burning a lot of professionals here by not supporting Dolby Digital. I'm currently editing at a larger company that will not allow Windows 10 on any of it's PCs. It is not possible for me to just stay with the current versions of Premiere and After Effects since I receive project files from outside companies, a couple of which exclusively work with Dolby Digital Audio. You really left us scrambling here. We might have to purchase a new Mac system for me to work on but things move slowly and we were really caught off guard here. I strongly urge you to create a patch that supports Dolby Digital and phase it out for 2019 so we have sufficient time to adapt. I'm really disappointed in your lack of professionalism.

Nathan McAlpine

Creative Services Production

WDIV-Local 4

[kulpreet singh · Accepted solution]

Hi Nathan,

I can understand your frustration, let me explain why this has happened. Premiere Pro CC (2018 release) no longer possess the codecs necessary to export your project into Dolby 5.1. Adobe has moved to native OS support for reading/decoding Dolby files with Creative Cloud products.

Both Windows and OS X operating systems (Windows 8.1 or above and Mac OS 10.11 or above) contain this native support.

Please share your valuable feedback here: Feature Request/Bug Report Form​

I'll do my best to advocate on your behalf, as well.

Thanks,

Kulpreet Singh

[DMH79]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/kulpreet+singh  wrote

Adobe has moved to native OS support for reading/decoding Dolby files with Creative Cloud products.

Both Windows and OS X operating systems (Windows 8.1 or above and Mac OS 10.11 or above) contain this native support.

Thanks,

Kulpreet Singh

Hi!

I'm confused. I've read the various threads on Dolby and CC 2018. I have Windows 10. Should I be able to select Dolby Digital as my audio format when creating a DVD? Because I can't currently using Adobe CC 2018. I read several threads here discussing this and I understand what Kulpreet says above, but given that I'm on Windows 10, shouldn't it work? Or is there something I need to do to get it to work properly? Right now, when I try to use Media Encoder 2018 to create a DVD file I don't see the Dolby Digital option. Only PCM and MPEG. When I first opened it up I saw Dolby Digital with the code Surcode (if I remember correctly) but clicking on codec settings did nothing. Now that option isn't there only PCM and MPEG. What should I do?

FYI: I do have CC 2017 installed (the .2 version, not the updated .4 version) and it does still encode to DVD. But this project was edited in CC 2018 so I have to use AME 2018. I have read about finding the dolbycode.dll file and copying it somewhere, but I don't know where and/or if that would really solve this issue (I did find that file but didn't know what to do with it).

Please help...I'll probably also start my own thread called Dolby Digital on Windows 10.

[Ann Bens]

As of now you can only decode dolby, no encoding anymore unless using Surcode (which is not cheap)

As for dvd or Bluray: if you are using Encore and just stereo you are still good to go as Encore will encode the audio to ac3.

The dolby dll hack will only work on 2017. But as you are on 2017.1.2 you dont need it.

As for 2018 if you want to go back to 2017 with your project export the 2018 project as xml and import that into 2017.

[DMH79]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Ann+Bens  wrote

As of now you can only decode dolby, no encoding anymore unless using Surcode (which is not cheap)

As for dvd or Bluray: if you are using Encore and just stereo you are still good to go as Encore will encode the audio to ac3.

The dolby dll hack will only work on 2017. But as you are on 2017.1.2 you dont need it.

As for 2018 if you want to go back to 2017 with your project export the 2018 project as xml and import that into 2017.

Really appreciate that.

Answered all my questions. Thank you Ann.

[excited_Genie16B8]

As a point of interest, it's a pretty safe bet these days that you're filming in HD and your viewers will be watching on an HDTV.  It just makes no sense to deliver an SD product such as DVD.

Make them a Blu-ray.  Use PCM audio.  If a Blu-ray player has to be purchased, so be it.  Everyone should have one by now anyway.

[DMH79]

Jim_Simon  wrote

As a point of interest, it's a pretty safe bet these days that you're filming in HD and your viewers will be watching on an HDTV.  It just makes no sense to deliver an SD product such as DVD.

Make them a Blu-ray.  Use PCM audio.  If a Blu-ray player has to be purchased, so be it.  Everyone should have one by now anyway.

While I might agree with you, the general public does not.

Such is life. 10 years into my wedding business and DVDs are still the most popular. By far. Oh sure they get Bluray and digital master copies as well, but parents and grandparents all want DVDs. That's just life. I'm not about to tell them "no!" when it's really simple to make. There's a reason people still want their headphone jack in their phones and their DVDs...change takes time. Happy grandparents = happy couples.

[excited_Genie16B8]

While I might agree with you, the general public does not.

I get that.  I was suggesting you...nudge them a bit.  Just stop offering DVD.  It's my experience that clients who want your work will take whatever you offer.

[JacobKRiddell]

Please clarify, Adobe, with a yes or no response: if I'm using Windows 7 Enterprise, then Adobe Premiere Pro is no longer a product I can use?

Also, would an email or phone call be too much to ask for?

I think you're well aware the massive inconvenience your company has caused your customers - or at least PR professionals like me who enjoyed having the ability to edit video in their tool bag but won't drop everything to independently solve significant software curve balls.

[damiand30436604]

I work for a University that insists we use Windows 7, and now I can't use some footage I shot. And no, they won't allow update to Windows 8 or 10, so hey Adobe, you suck.

[damiand30436604]

Is there any way to add Dolby support to windows 7?

[Ann Bens]

Nope, you will have to convert the footage or just the audio to wave.

[R Neil Haugen]

First, neither I nor any of the folks with ACP or MVP 'badges' by our names on these forums are employees. We're just peer users. So we're outside the Adobe "loop" for internal knowledge just like other users. I have been to NAB for 5 years running, and in business for over 40 now. So from that perspective ...

It seems most people don't consider that Adobe was using the ac3 codec licensed from Dolby Laboratories. As that codec came "out" of patent or copyright protection, Dolby Laboratories apparently got miffed about anything of "their" remaining properties being included in products sold by other companies. At least, that is the scuttlebutt through the community.

And as no one at all from either Dolby Labs or Adobe has said one word in public, nor will comment in private, I'm guessing that people in gray suits with their power ties on and possessing no sense of humor they are aware of (nor commonsense we might be aware of!) have been involved with both parties.

So ... though I don't know any details, this isn't just Adobe throwing something at you. It seems to be a legal spat between two companies. Major ... yuck.

Neil

[John T Smith]

This seems to be a licensing issue, so don't expect Adobe to add Dolby back

No more Dolby export https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2396890

-read https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2413891 for information on previous versions being removed

[nrisenhoover]

We have the same problem. In our healthcare setting, Windows 10 isn't workable yet so only 7 can be used. I've been struggling with 4 hours of Didactics (for Residents) footage a week that I have to transcode with Sony's consumer tool, just to be able to use in in my Premier cc. In addition, the last update disabled ALL audio output on my machine. It's hard to edit what you can't hear.

Adobe MUST provide support for those using 7. We are wasting hours and hours doing unnecessary transcoding to work around the missing Dolby decoder.

[R Neil Haugen]

Legally, they can't. Sorry, I know this is a right pain.

The audio not working is not part of the same thing, though ... that's either a setting of some bug, and you need to post a new thread on that issue so we can get you working.

Neil

[nrisenhoover]

Ye losing all audio was a separate issue. I dropped back to Premiere CC 12.01 to solve it. Sooner or later I'll need to update though. Maybe they will have a fix on that golden day.

I don't see where you start a new thread but I will be glad to give it a go.

[R Neil Haugen]

Click the Content tab from the Overview page, then at the top left "Start a discussion".

Adobe chose to use the Jive forum app for some reason a number of years back. It is not to many of us the best app out there for this, but ... once you figure out how to get around, you can. Mostly. Sort of.

Neil

[digabyte]

This isn't a *solution.*  It may be an *explanation,* but it still leaves a lot of users unable to edit past projects because they have upgraded to software that no longer works with Dolby on a Win7 machine (CC).

[R Neil Haugen]

Digabyte,

I understand. As does everyone around here. I've been through this sort of thing repeatedly. I've got a drawer of the floppy discs for Major Software that our business ran on back in the 80's, and of course ... haven't been usable on any computer in over twenty years. Our business files from that era ... except for those we specifically moved 'forward' or were able to put into some format that can still be read ... are of course useless.

That's the way of this blasted computer life. The computer giveth ... the computer taketh away. Long live the computer. Right.

Adobe, as a major "partner" with other companies in this time, has to play by the rules their partners ... whether Apple, Microsoft, or ... Dolby ... lay down. Or face legal troubles. Dolby is particularly noted for going to the lawyers in a heartbeat. If Adobe made one move to put any Dolby audio capabilities back into the app, Dolby's lawyers would file suit by the time the app version was released. Delightful creative people ... but Corporate Dolby has less of a sense of humor than most other major corporations.

Which leaves us users in a not particularly good place. There are workarounds, they're a pain ... but that's all that we can get at this time. Adobe cannot legally provide a solution. It's not by their choice.

As I recall, Dolby went after some of the other NLEs also. When that "hit" ... it was rather a shock across the industry.

Neil