Best would probably be to post a small clip from your DVD recorder so a few contributors might try and suggest. A few more specifics on what you really want would also help, just stating AC3 is a pretty big bucket.

Audio is not necessarily reencoded if desired output is the same as input stream. It's a little unclear to me what you mean by DVD as the final output. Are you planning on using PD15 to author your DVD or are you interested in just processing your input file to produce a file you could use elsewhere?

Also a little unclear why audio reencoding is bad for your situation. Quality loss concern or speed to author DVD?

For AC3, my experience is if original AC3 audio is 2 channel 48Khz, 256kb/s or 5.1 channel, 48KHz, 256kb/s it will not be reencoded for PD DVD authoring. This of course if your source video stream is also SVRT compliant per PD15. Anything else, DVD authoring in PD15 will renecode audio. However, you may be able to produce a file that does not reencode the audio.

Jeff

Thanks very much for getting back to me. I'll post a short sample if necessary as soon as I get the chance, but in the meantime, here's a little more background:

My setup is cheap and basic, and my workflow is simply VHS -> DVD recorder. From there, I'm ripping the DVD to my computer, and would like to use PowerDirector 15 (or indeed any other software) to achieve the following:

• Basic cutting and joining


• Fades in and out (video and audio)


• The occasional transition


• Maybe some titles and captions here and there

The final output is going to be a file with exactly the same specs as the input files - MPEG-2 video, Dolby AC3 stereo 256kbps audio - and I'll be authoring it to DVD in a separate program. In other words, each clip will be 99% untouched, and for the sake of not losing quality unnecessarily, I'd like to take advantage of "smart rendering".

You state that "Audio is not necessarily reencoded if desired output is the same as input stream", but in all my tests so far, the audio has been fully re-encoded. (Why am I so sure? I've made multiple outputs of the same project using a different audio bitrates for each one, and they all took precisely the same time to render. The one which matched the input format would surely have been quicker if it wasn't re-encoding. Wouldn't it? Or am I missing something?)

So... Can DVD-compliant files be trimmed/faded/captioned etc. in PowerDirector 15 with only those affected parts being re-encoded? Or does that only apply to picture (which is working perfectly for me) and not sound? Any pointers will be greatly apprectiated.

Quote: (Why am I so sure? I've made multiple outputs of the same project using a different audio bitrates for each one, and they all took precisely the same time to render. The one which matched the input format would surely have been quicker if it wasn't re-encoding. Wouldn't it? Or am I missing something?)

Hard to say with this type of info. Basically I'm not so sure with what you have done as you are. More details on your exact test, details such as, CBR, VBR, bitrate for video, all the audio specifics.....so on, MediaInfo type info. The aditional overhead of encoding audio is small, it would take a very structured test to identify, not something with any basic cuts (as the start and end of each clip will be fully encoded). SVRT can actually cause audio hickups at times as it transitions from SVRT to full encode to SVRT, particularly with some transitions.

But yes, from what I have seen, SVRT can apply to the muxed audio of a DVD compliant stream, as well as the video.

I did much testing with this in the early days of PD9 but have not visited it much since then. Earlier versions of PD also gave more SVRT insight, pic attached which clearly shows some sections require audio only encoding while others don't. I'd doubt the underlying SVRT engine has changed substantially other than trying to continually work out bugs that have been highlighted.

Jeff

Thanks very much for your help. Just for the record, I e-mailed Technical Support about this just to make sure that what I was trying to achieve is indeed possible, and have just received a reply:

"I understand you want to know how to use "Smart rendering" audio in PowerDirector 15. In regards to your concern, I would like to inform that SVRT only supports video profile only but not audio profile. We appreciate for the suggestion and have forwareded the needs to the related department."

So it actually seems it's not possible in PD15, which is both surprising and disappointing. Oh, well - back to the drawing board of trying to find a piece of software that will "smart render" both video and audio...

Quote "I understand you want to know how to use "Smart rendering" audio in PowerDirector 15. In regards to your concern, I would like to inform that SVRT only supports video profile only but not audio profile. We appreciate for the suggestion and have forwareded the needs to the related department."

I've played around lots since the start of this post and totally concur, it appears the current SVRT totally ignores any audio content specifics for SVRT and simply renders all audio. Maybe in part it was to addresses the many issues related to Audio and SVRT discussed here: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/20483.page#post_box_112591 in the pdf. Since then I had since given up on SVRT as it always appears some anomaly catches you. For those that are just happy they got something produced and like the speed, that's great, not only audio, but many transitions have had difficulties over the years too as well as random hits on compatible clips from the same camera.

Great technology and approach when/if it ever works correctly.

Jeff

I am perfectly happy with svrt. I found that avchd 1080/60i 16 Mbps with DD 5.1 384 kbps audio can be smart rendered and played back perfectly with PDVD in my htpc. If burned to BD then the audio is re rendered to DD 5.1 448 kbps while the video is smart rendered in the older versions of PD.

The newer versions of PD allow avchd 1080/60p and of course the audio may be re rendered also for both file and a BD. I can’t hear the difference in the audio which is also in lip sync.

I do see some errors in my BD video which can be corrected by adding an empty title to force a cpu rendering over areas that break up which may also be in the source video. I don’t use transitions between clips because of some problems seen earlier. I have allow svrt on single… checked in preference which gives you a warning about incorrect bitstreams. That may be contributing to any errors.

Finding software to smart render both video and audio could be under a person’s nose. Old versions of PD can do it in produce. It depends on the video clip formats used.

Quote Can PowerDirector 15 "smart render" audio?

I'm trying out the demo at the moment, and can't seem to find the option (if indeed it's possible). My needs are very specific, as I deal mostly with files created by a DVD recorder with DVD as the final output, so the ability to use SVRT is a huge draw. That said, if sound (Dolby ac3 in my case) is always fully re-encoded no matter what, that's not so good.

So, can anyone please confirm for certain whether it's possible to "smart render" audio, or does this only apply to video? Many thanks.

Hello, why rip from VHS to DVD then to digital file? I use a terrific, inexpensive tool that plugs into my VCR analog jacks and then connects via USB to my computer. It works extremely well, is fast, allows you to pause and fast forward the tape until you hit a point that you want to convert to an MP4 file and hit record again. Here is the site: https://www.elgato.com/en/video-capture