Editing AC3 tracks in Premiere

Hi everyone, this is an awesome site! Anyway, I use Adobe Premiere for video editing, and I would like to know how I can demux an AC3 into all its individual tracks in a format that Premiere can handle, and then when editing is complete, how I can remux the individual tracks back into AC3. I did a search before posting and couldn't find my answer, but if this has been explained before then I apologize in advance. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Oh and also is there a simple way to just add a patch or plugin for Premiere that will allow it to open videos containing AC3 tracks and edit? I can't seem to make it work right and I'd really like to preserve the AC3 format for the audio instead of just making a .wav with it. I'd like to be able to edit the individual surround channels of the AC3 as independant audio tracks in Premiere, just to clarify. Thanks!

 

Somebody help a brother out. Is this even possible? How do you guys work with AC3 files?

 

You Can not Use AC3 within premier ,It just does not Support it and I do not thingk any editing programs I know of Support editing AC3 audio files...If you are working with VOB files or Mpeg2 files with AC3 audio then Don"t use Premier to edit them because Premier is a Destructive editor so when you edit you will allways loose Quality No matter what Bitrate you use to Render your file...If you are Doing simple Cutting and Pasteing and Joining then you should use a Real Mpeg editor that Supports AC3 like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" ..But if you want to add effects and Transitions and such then you will need to Demux the AC3 audio from the Vob files (You can do this with Mpeg2VCR also) and decompress them into Wav format then Load them into Premier and do your Editing and then after rendering you will have to encode the Wav Back to AC3 unless you happen to have the AC3 encoder Plugin for Premier Pro(If that is what you are useing) then you can render to AC3 within Premier Pro..
I use Vegas Video for most of My editing even though I also have Premier 6, 6.5 and 7 Pro..I lik vegas better because it Has a Built in High Quality AC3 encoder but will Not accept AC3 files as the source like all NLE editors of this sort....If you want to try useing a real Mpeg editor and be able to edit your Vob"s with AC3 without an Quality Loss then Try Mpeg2VCR and if you can"t find it then Message me with your E-Mail and I"ll send it to you and if you have any other Questions of the Editing Sort Let me Know as I am a profecinal video editor By Trade....Cheers

 

Thank you Minion your help is much appreciated. Do you know of a way to decode the AC3 into seperate .wav's for each of the six (or three in some cases) channels? I believe there is a way to do this in Soundforge which I have, but I haven't figured out how yet. I have vegas too but I haven't messed with it much yet because I'm used to the premiere interface.

 

To get the AC3 encodeing Functions in Vegas you also have to have DVD Architect installed also and with vegas you do not need seperate wav files because it encodes each chanell seperately to make Dolby 5.1...So all you need to do it take the AC3 Files and use a Program Like "Headac3he" to decode the AC3 to Multi-Chanel Wav file and then load that into Premier and do your editing and export as a Multi-Chanell wav and encode in Vegas to AC3 5.1..You will Loose audio Quality doing this and you will Loose Video Quality editing in Premier and exporting as a Mpeg file(Premiers Encoder is Mediocre) so if you are Just doing Editing without effects or transitions then you can save a Lot of Hassle,Time and Quality use a Mpeg editor Like the One I mentioned because Mpeg2VCR is a proper Mpeg editor which edits Losslessly and is a Non-destructive editor.....

 

I also was searhing way to work with AC3 files in Premiere6 but never found any good solutions for the problem.
Now I have been testing Premiere Pro but haven't tried the AC3 thing yet.

 

Hey there i use mpg2vcr seems to work well but couple of confusing points.All i want to do is rip some vob files & take small parts out of those but i want to keep the ac3 audio.I open the vob in mpg2vcr set my in and out points now i have a choice what to save it as most files it makes are not dvd compatable so when you open them in DVD Architect it says its going to reincode them. In the audio settings it is confusing if you click the Mpg audio you now see ac3 button if im clicking a button that meens im chosing it in most prog but it seems to be revers in this program.Anyhow what are the setting i need to make to keep the mpg file so i do not need to reencode later.

 

You are either Not useing Mpeg2VCR Properly or the Problem is with "DVD architect" because I use Mpeg2VCR all the Time to edit Mpeg2 files with AC3 audio and Have never had any problem with any of the Files when I author them to DVD But I don"t use DVD architect....Cheers

 

Ok i was not clear. What settings are you using in mpeg2vcr when you save the file

 

I don"t use any Particular settings at all, I just Click the "Save" Button then "Mpeg2 Program Stream" is usually selected in the List and then you Just save the File...You Might find that DVD Architect will Load the Files if you Demux the AC3 and Mpv files from the Vob or Mpeg file and Load the Audio and Video files into DVD architect Seperately cuz Most DVD authoring Program (Well the Good ones) Prefer seperate Audio and Video Files....Cheers