Homemade DVD-A compilations

[Slosh]

I discovered you can rip SACD. Well, sorta. You need a universal player with HDMI that can convert DSD to PCM, and a pre/receiver that'll send that stream to a SPDIF out. This limits you to 96/24 stereo because that's as much bandwidth as SPDIF can handle.

Normally I have my universal player (Pioneer Elite) send raw DSD to my receiver because my receiver decodes DSD natively. I set it to 88.2kHz/24-bit PCM and connected an optical out from my receiver to a USB soundcard and then into my laptop and recorded the wave stream. Afterwards I split up the tracks and converted them to FLAC.

There's a free little program for PCs called DVDAudiofile that converts the files from there into MLP and then into a DVD-Audio disc image.

The resulting DVD-A sounded every bit as good as the SACD. I made a 4.26GB Police compilation, BTW (much better than the commercially available Police Greatest Hits SACD, albeit in stereo only).

In theory this process should also work with DVD-A discs too if they're not watermarked. Problem is you don't know if they are until you actually try to play back the burned DVD.

[Feanor]

I discovered you can rip SACD. Well, sorta. You need a universal player with HDMI that can convert DSD to PCM, and a pre/receiver that'll send that stream to a SPDIF out. This limits you to 96/24 stereo because that's as much bandwidth as SPDIF can handle.

Normally I have my universal player (Pioneer Elite) send raw DSD to my receiver because my receiver decodes DSD natively. I set it to 88.2kHz/24-bit PCM and connected an optical out from my receiver to a USB soundcard and then into my laptop and recorded the wave stream. Afterwards I split up the tracks and converted them to FLAC.

There's a free little program for PCs called DVDAudiofile that converts the files from there into MLP and then into a DVD-Audio disc image.

The resulting DVD-A sounded every bit as good as the SACD. I made a 4.26GB Police compilation, BTW (much better than the commercially available Police Greatest Hits SACD, albeit in stereo only).

In theory this process should also work with DVD-A discs too if they're not watermarked. Problem is you don't know if they are until you actually try to play back the burned DVD.
Good stuff, Slosh, thanks.

Nice to know that this can be done, (though I have some doubts that its legal strictly speaking).

I'm curious what sound card you're using and what program you use to record the input?

[Swish]

That's a bit of a complicated process, but nice job.

[Slosh]

I'm curious what sound card you're using and what program you use to record the input?Soundcard is just a cheap 96/24 SoundBlaster that I got years ago for its coaxial ouput. I never used its optical input before. Recording and track splitting was done with Nero. Conversion to FLAC was with dBpoweramp. The FLAC conversion isn't actually necessary, but I wanted to be able to listen on my computer as well with full tags and album art, and DVDAudiofile works with FLAC too so I didn't need to keep the wave files on my PC.

As far as legality goes, I don't see how this is any different than recording homemade CD-R compilations. Just better quality :)

[3LB]

wouldn't do me no good - I never jumped on the SACD or DVD-A bandwagon

isn't Blueray better than either of those formats, sonically speaking?

[Swish]

wouldn't do me no good - I never jumped on the SACD or DVD-A bandwagon

isn't Blueray better than either of those formats, sonically speaking?

The fact that there's so much more disc space on the HD DVDs and Blu-Rays means the audio doesn't have to be compressed like it is on most standard DVDs. Both Dolby and DTS created new sound formats. I've read a little about Dolby Digital + and DTS HD High Resolution, but there are more options than that. I can't wait to get my new HT room set up so I can hear those new formats, assuming I don't need to upgrade my Rotel processor. It's getting more confusing than ever, and I'm so busy it's hard finding the time to keep up with it.

[Slosh]

Dolby Tru HD and DTS MA are both lossless hi-rez formats (up to 7.1 channel 192kHz/24-bit) whereas DVD-A is limited to 192kHz/24-bit stereo or 96/24 5.1 channel, so technically speaking, yes they are better. Whether anyone can hear any difference (other than the two extra channels) over DVD-A is the $64,000 question. And let's not even get into the SACD/DSD vs. PCM debate.

It's been nearly three years since I got my Tru HD/DTS MA decoding receiver and I still don't own a BluRay player. I'm just not that into movies I guess. One viewing is plenty for me, usually. I suppose that is also the reason why I'm still using a 34" tube HDTV and not some 70" LED or Plasma beast (in fairness to my old TV, it is a Sony XBR so it's not exactly a POS, although it is pretty antiquated now).

[Swish]

It's been nearly three years since I got my Tru HD/DTS MA decoding receiver and I still don't own a BluRay player. I'm just not that into movies I guess. One viewing is plenty for me, usually.

There are some I'll watch more than once, but I still don't buy dvds. However, since we joined NetFlix, we can get Blu-Ray dvds just as readily as plain dvds and there's not extra fees, so I'm going to get a Blu-Ray player when I build the HT room. I guess I'll have to figure out all the audio stuff then, but I'll have a 7.1 system, just like before, except my Studio 100s will be the fronts instead of those little LCRs.

[rakeford]

Good job, Slosh. Thanks for the info.

[3LB]

I'm not a movie buff either. It'd take me some concerted effort to think of more than 10 movies I'd want to own. I'm not even that big of a concert film buff. Sports would be my biggest excuse for upgrading.

[rob_a]

That’s something to keep in mind but honestly I just buy the disk and am done with it. As soon as down loads are easer at high resolution, I might start looking more in to it. I think I have a few years to go before then.