ac3 audio distortion and levels.

[hardhatmac]

I've been using the Final Cut Studio for a handful of years now. I usually use aif audio when encoding to DVD just because I think it sounds less compressed.

I'm building a DVD of a 90 minute feature with Directors commentary plus a helping of extra video tracks for the special features. Using a DVD-5 there's just not room to use a aif audio (especially when there are two 90 minute audio tracks for the feature) so I'm forced to use ac3.

I'm sure we're all aware that there's a volume level difference between ac3 and aif versions of the same file.

When I encode to ac3 I make sure I set the Dialog Normalization to -31 and the Compression is set to none.

To make up for the loss in volume level going to an ac3, I increase the volume level in FCP before I export, even if it makes some of my audio clip in FCP.

When playing back on a set top DVD player, 5 out of 6 players it sounds great. No distortion, no clipping, perfect. But on one player it sounds terrible. The kinda of terrible you feel when you've spent weeks building something and are 2 days past the deadline already and it's now having problems.

I'm wondering if there are any solutions. Is all I can do is lower the levels in FCP and live with the softer sound output of ac3?

Any ideas or suggestions would be awesome.

Thanks!