Making 5.1 Dolby Digital DVDs from SKY+ or PVR (Tivo) Draft Document 0.2 17/02/05 by Srt2Sup

This document describes how to make DVD from Sky Digital with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound tracks if you have a PVR or Tivo that can record Dolby Digital then substitute this for where I say SKY+!

Be aware that this takes some time and requires a vast amount of stuff, software, time and patience!

I am only going to detail using the equipment I use, but I will point out the specific areas of attention so you can substitute your own method or tools.

Hardware stuff you will need:

	SKY+ - This will not work with normal SKY as you can’t record or get DD 5.1 out!
	A reasonable PC with a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum (or another sound card with Digital in and the ability to have a Bit Accurate Mode) and a DVD burner
	A Digital Optical to CoAxial converter
	A CoAxial to Optical converter
	A long CoAxial lead (to reach from you SKY+ box to your PC)
	A DVD recorder or other method of digitizing the video
	Windows 2000 or XP (98 does not support file sizes > 2Gb)
	A stopwatch

Software you will need:

	GoldWave audio recorder
	Womble MPEG VCR
	BeSplit
	HeadAC3he
	SoftEncode (optional, but helpful)
	AC3Filter
	VobEdit (if you use a DVD recorder)
	TMPG DVD Author that supports AC3

Step 1 – Capture the Video

Record the video using the DVD recorder
Use VobEdit to extract the video only to a single file

Step 2 – Capture the AC3

Make a small donation and I will send you this info!

Now you have a video file and an AC3 audio file we need to synchronise them and add them together! I tried using the AV Sync button in MPEG VCR, but this did not seem to work!

Synchronising the files

Using MPEG VCR create a file about 10 minutes long from the start of your video file
Using HeadAC3he create a file about 20,000 frames long from the start of your audio file
Use MPEG VCR to Multiplex the two small files together
Play the small MPG file and look for a good point to synchronise like a door slamming etc
Use the stopwatch to check the difference between the action and the sound
At this moment in time it will be in the order of seconds
Use HeadAC3he to create a file about 20,000 frames, but set the start to be your stopwatch value
Repeat from step 3 until you get the small files into sync
Make a note of the number of frames you have to remove from the small file to get it into sync

Making the synchronised movie

Use HeadAC3he to trim the noted number of frames from the full AC3 file
Use MPEG VCR to multiplex the full video and the trimmed AC3 file
Play the created MPG file and check the synchronisation all the way through!
Repeat from 3 in the previous section if the sync is out
If the sync drifts i.e. is OK at the start and is out at the end then tough I don’t have a way of fixing that yet!
Use MPEG VCR to trim the crap from the start and the end of the full movie

Making the DVD

Use TMPG DVD Author to create a DVD movie from your MPG file
Burn your SKY+ movie with 5.1 Audio onto a DVD

I hope you found this useful? You could even add subtitles with my Srt2Sup program or a Menu if you want. I will update this file as I improve the process.