About surround sound audio – Apple Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual
Page 1570
Chapter 16
Exporting Sequences for DVD
219
III
Video DVDs support several audio formats:
 AIFF (uncompressed): Provides the highest quality mono or stereo audio, but requires
the most disc space. May cause problems with DVD tracks that contain multiple
audio streams. QuickTime, Compressor, iDVD, and DVD Studio Pro all are able to
create suitable uncompressed AIFF audio streams.
 Dolby Digital AC-3: Provides high-quality compressed audio. Supports from one to six
channels (5.1 surround sound), including standard stereo. Compressor includes an
AC-3 encoder.
 DTS: Provides high-quality compressed audio. Generally only used for surround
sound audio streams. Requires a third-party encoder and decoder.
 MPEG-1 Layer 2: Provides good quality compressed audio. Generally only used for
mono or stereo audio streams. Compressor includes an MPEG-1 layer 2 encoder.
When recording and editing audio, use a 48 kilohertz (kHz) sample rate and no
compression. This ensures the best quality whether you use the uncompressed audio
on the DVD or decide to use a supported compressed audio format.
Important:
When creating DVDs, your audio must have either a 48 kHz or 96 kHz
sample rate. If you use the 44.1 kHz sample rate found on standard audio CDs,
DVD Studio Pro and iDVD will convert your audio to the correct sample rate.
Additionally, DVDs do not support MP3 encoded audio. DVD Studio Pro and iDVD will
convert any MP3 audio to DVD-compliant uncompressed audio.
About Surround Sound Audio
Surround sound audio is usually comprised of six independent audio channels: front
left, front right, front center, rear left, rear right, and low frequency effects (LFE, also
known as the subwoofer).
Mixing audio for use as surround sound is best left to specialized audio facilities that
have the required equipment and experience. Nothing can ruin a movie quite like
badly done surround sound audio. If you are using an audio postproduction facility
for your final audio mix, you can use the Export Audio to OMF command to export all
of the audio from your edited sequence. For more information, see “
If you decide to mix your own surround sound audio, you can export suitable audio
files from Final Cut Pro that an AC-3 encoder can use to create a surround sound
audio stream. One method is to export four audio files: one for the front right and
left, one for the center (usually dialog), one for the rear right and left, and one for the
LFE (usually a mix of all of the audio channels, with the AC-3 encoder filtering out and
including only the low frequencies).