Posted by Vincent at bg-tc-ppp272.monmouth.com on March 17, 2002 at 17:17:48:
In Reply to: Re: There wouldn't be "four mixes"... posted by Fry on March 17, 2002 at 16:06:14:
:With that in mind, I assume (again, correct me if I'm wrong)
: that remixing for a DVD would involve going back the the
: uncompressed 5.1 mix and modifying it, then encoding/compressing
: for DVD Dolby Digital.
Yes, that would be the case- they'd remix from the uncompressed stems.
: That brings up other questions that you or Phil
: could weigh in on. Are there any differences between the encoding
: scheme for Dolby Digital cinema and Dolby Digital DVD? I imagine
: that the DVD encoding is at a lower bitrate / more compressed.
Actually, it's the opposite- Dolby Digital in a cinema runs at a measly 320 kb/s (thanks to the small area on the film print that's used to hold the data- on a 35mm print, the DD data is put on that little piece of empty film BETWEEN the sprocket holes). For DVD, it's either 384 kb/s or (more frequently nowadays- 384 kb/s was mostly used in the early days of DVD) 448 kb/s, so the audio you get from a DVD at home is less compressed that what you get with Dolby Digital in a cinema.
: Also,
: how many manhours are involved in remixing the audio for DVD,
: rather than porting the theatrical mix to DVD along with all the
: accompanying disadvantages you mentioned? However much time
: it took, I'm sure it was worth the effort.
That's a Phil question, but I know it's not as long as it takes to do the original mix, since basically what you're doing is ADAPTING the theatrical mix to the requirements of home theater. That is, all the creative decisions are made during the theatrical mix, so working-out the characteristics of the mix during the DVD mix isn't an issue, it's just making the mix sound the best it can in a home theater. I *THINK* it generally would take one or two working days in a mix suite to prepare a "home theater" mix for an entire film, as opposed to an initial theatrical mix where if you mix a reel a day you're making good time (one reel being approx. 20 mins of screen time).
Vincent