How do I get 5.1 surround audio into Encore?

[davidp12273650]

Trying to get my 5.1 surround mix from Premiere CC into Encore to author a Blu-Ray and DVD. Exported AAC file from Premiere. Imported it into Encore. When I look at Quality Presets in Encore, the audio tab shows basic audio settings as Dolby Digital Stereo with no option to change it to 5.1. I built the project anyway and played it on a Blu-Ray player and heard only L & R audio channels.

[Richard M Knight · Accepted solution]

You have to make the 5.1 file in Premiere and export it as an ac3. If you are on CC 2015 you can find the required Dolby Digital exports using Mpeg2 dvd or H264dvd presets. Import the ac3 into Encore, it should not be re-transcoded.

[davidp12273650]

Thanks, Richard!

[SquareEyz]

Glad to have found this current thread on the issue!
I have followed the above steps, and others, and have not had any luck with getting 5.1 out of BluRay burns.
Encore appears to be making a stereo mixdown out of exported files from Prem/media encoder that I have verified to be 5.1 [by reimporting into premiere to check].

I have used all of the bluray presets, and have had the same results.

In this similar thread I found this 5.1 Export in Encore, and am now attempting a new test burn using an AAC audio file instead of the presets default AC3, as well as a single file mp4 h.264 compressed 5.1 file [ modified from a non bluray preset].

I'm just putting out feelers for anyone in the community that has actually had success burning their own 5.1 BLURAY outputs? Not exaclty a bustling trade these days, and I'm finding it very difficult to find good documentation or troubleshooting.

Using Creative cloud 2015, with a DL CS6 Encore.

Have tried Toast 11, to no avail.

Many thanks! Screening is booked next week 😕

[I'll of course update this with my results]

D

[Richard M Knight]

Could you post a screen shot of the audio export details in Premiere of the Dolby Digital file that doesn't work. As we speak I am burning a Bliray with 5.1 with no problems.

[SquareEyz]

Thanks so much for your reply Richard. Well that's good news that its working for you- gives me some hope!

The AAC test I just did was actually worse, as only the left channel was output 😕

These are screen grabs of the dolby audio interface invoked by choosing a 5.1 output, selected from the bluray presets. I've tried both the MP2, and the h.264 presets.

{please pardon the markups ups of areas that I was asking for guidance from our sound engineer]

5.1 is coming out of premiere exports, in lots of formats- as you can see when I bring in a tone test I did of all 5.1 channels [ LFE is missing, another issue I'm debugging].

I made a 30 sec  5.1 channel assignment layout test, with 5 sec of tone sweeping the 6 channels. I can concretely say that I have only ever gotten a stereo L/R output from any bluray I've burned so far.

I'm convinced the issue is happening in Encore, either in that the file format I'm supplying it is not compatible for some reason, or some other reason[ firmware, hardware,drivers]. It seems a barely supported product, so these forums are about all we've got to go with.

I'm using Encore CS6 V 6.0.1.013, and my creative cloud desktop app says that its as up to date as it can be?

Also using an external Lacie BL burner that shows up as PIONEER BD-RW BRD-208M (Firmware 1.10].

System is a Mac Pro late 2013, running 10.11.3 El Capitan.

I'd be curious to know what you are using, and if its 'just worked' for you from the get go?

We are likely going to look into file based playback for our screening next week, as I've burned a lot of time on this already...  I'd still like to know what the deal is though.

Many Thanks!

[SquareEyz]

... So on a hunch, in Encore I made a new timeline based on the AC3 audio file, instead of the video file [ or from having both selected], and it seems that I am now listening to a BluRay output that has the 5 channels I need.  For the first time, after burning 5 or more tests disks. I can't see any other difference to the workflow other than that one choice.  I hate that kind of 'sacrificial chicken' solution, but I'm happy to have what appears to be working 5.1 BRD

Sorry for all the desperate traffic here- just not the most bulletproof workflow apparently, and of course we are on a deadline doing something we've never done before.

Again- Thanks Richard for the speedy reply.

Cheers,

David

[Richard M Knight]

If it is of any use here is a Dropbox link to a project and files of my surround test showing how I generate 5.1 from 6 mono files.

Dropbox - Surround-Stereo Test

[SquareEyz]

Thank you so much Richard.
Wow, totally different than what I'm working with. I was given a 5.1 mix, as a 6 channel interleaved .wav file, and have been able to bring them in as  5.1, as one track in a 5.1 sequence. I'm not needing/wanting to mix in any way within premier [ which your setup seems to enable well], just wanting to pass this delivered mix thru to our output, and not mangle it in the process.

Cheers!

[neil wilkes]

The settings above in the screenshots are not correct.

Using a bitrate of 384kbps will give you unidirectional frequency response above 10kHz (not very good at all) and AC3 is the worst possible quality if audio you can put onto a DVD or a Blu-ray. It should be at a minimum of 448kbps for DVD and a minimum of 640kbps for Blu-ray (better still, avoided altogether)

Using the Audio Production Information metadata is another very bad idea too - this will bring the hammer down on the export and will dramatically change the way the mix sounds & unless you know exactly what you are doing I would not recommend this. Leave this off if even slightly unsure what you are doing - the mmetadata tells a player how to decode the audio, and these settings change the way things sound.

Why are you setting DRC to Music Light? (I want to see if you understand what you are setting here)

Why are you setting the downmix to "not indicated"? (as above)

Why have you used different DRC settings for the RF & Line modes? (also as above)

How is your panner set up in Premiere? (I wager this is why you get no LFE, as if it is the other possibility then oh, dear me.)

PLEASE go get & study the attached document from the link because You need this information it seems.