DVD-Audio. Do you know of a free burner program?

[BlackKnight]

I have the M with the DVD package. I found a program that I can burn in the DVD-Audio format. In which I can store a lot of songs and play them (like an MP3) while driving. A dvd however will store more songs than a regular cd. The DVD-Audio format was created for regular dvd players to be able to recognize this and play the music.

The program I found has a trial version that lets you try it and burn a little bit of the dvd. It works and it would be great if anybody knows of a free program. thanks

[jankenpo30]

None free.

If you're unscrupulous, you can find DVD-Audio Creator on the torrents for free.

[ken in az]

Just get the latest NERO software available. Spend a few bucks and stimulate the economy

[ArbitrageMan]

The hard part isnt the burning, its finding the music. I might be looking in the wrong place (amazon.com), but there just isnt enough TRUE dvd-audio around.

[mcp6530]

The hard part isnt the burning, its finding the music. I might be looking in the wrong place (amazon.com), but there just isnt enough TRUE dvd-audio around.

so, does anyone know where to get true DVD-A music from? Dumb question, but if you buy the nero, can you convert your normal cd to a dvd-a?

[ArbitrageMan]

so, does anyone know where to get true DVD-A music from? Dumb question, but if you buy the nero, can you convert your normal cd to a dvd-a?

You can find them on amazon. Search for dvd audio. There just isnt a ton of stuff.

And yes you could burn a normal cd onto a dvd, but I dont see the point... Your source isnt high enough fidelity. Youre not taking advantage of the capabilities of the system. Why not just play the CD?

I suppose you can fit more songs onto a dvd, so if thats your goal, it would work.

[jankenpo30]

Well I convert my mp3s to DVD-Audio using DVD-Audio creator all the time.

There is noticeable difference in playing the music using the DVD surround vs regular CD or mp3s in this vehicle. Yes, its not a true 5.1 but rather an encoded version via the software....but there is night & day difference. True..not enough true DVD audio out there. But take it from a brother who listens to mostly hip-hop/R&B...The Eagles Hotel California on DVD-A is absolutely mind blowing...its worth getting just for title track alone. Santana's Supernatural aint bad either.

[EniGmA1987]

The true purpose of DVD-A is not higher capacity of songs per disc, but high fidelity audio. Taking songs from a CD will still give you lower fidelity music, and burning a bunch of MP3s will just give you lots of extremely low fidelity songs. To take advantage of the superiority of DVD-A you need to buy actual DVD audio discs that were recorded like that at the studio.

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=12...pular

[vika123]

Pink floyd Dark side of the moon on DVD Audio sounds incredible.Thanks to bittorrent:-)

[EniGmA1987]

oh ya, I can vouch for that ^^^^

[BlackKnight]

I didn't think a lot of people would like the topic... thanks for your replies. I will buy the program online. Thanks!

[BlackKnight]

Clarification though,, because of the way it will burn the DVD. Does this mean I can not fit a bunch of music in it? I don't need the best quality but I don't want crap either. thanks

[jankenpo30]

Depends on your definition of "bunch".

I just check one I created a few days ago. I use rewritable DVDs as well cuz I'm always changing what I listen too. I have 7 albums (about 13 songs each) and the DVD measures at 40% filled. I'm never in the car long to listen to them all. I've rarely burned more than 1/2 DVD worth.of audio. I also burn 5.1 at 256kbps...cuz my MP3s aren't any higher bitrate than that. Its just a waste to burn higher than w/ no noticeable quality gain.

[EniGmA1987]

Are you sure that you are burning as an actual DVD-A though? I think that just like CD audio discs, DVD-A discs go by total time on that disc. Like for example, I can burn 3GB of data onto a 700MB CD as long as those 3GB are under 80 minutes of audio. I am not sure what the total time would be for DVD-A though, but with some simple math I would guess around 540 minutes. Does anyone who knows a little bit more about DVD-A confirm whether they go by time or total size?

And as you said, burning with higher bitrate than the original source is completely pointless and wont add anything but more space per file.

[ArbitrageMan]

Are you sure that you are burning as an actual DVD-A though? I think that just like CD audio discs, DVD-A discs go by total time on that disc. Like for example, I can burn 3GB of data onto a 700MB CD as long as those 3GB are under 80 minutes of audio. I am not sure what the total time would be for DVD-A though, but with some simple math I would guess around 540 minutes. Does anyone who knows a little bit more about DVD-A confirm whether they go by time or total size?

It doesnt go by time.

The reason 700MB and 80 minutes are listed on a CD are because when you COMPRESS raw audio to "CD-audio" format, it just so happens to be that 700 MB of data at the CD-audio bitstream works out to 80 minutes of music.

And when you talk about burning 3GB of data, you arent actually doing so. You can not burn 3GB of data to a CD. You can however convert an 80 minute raw audio file of size 3GB to a CD audio file of 80 minutes in length, and then burn that resulting file, but during the conversion the file size will be reduced to 700MB.

And there in lies the problem. During the conversion, channels of music are dropped. What you end up with is not as good as what you started with. And thats why DVD-audio came along. It allows you to take that high quality original file, and store it on a disc.

And as you said, burning with higher bitrate than the original source is completely pointless and wont add anything but more space per file.

That is correct.

Sorry to the OP that we got way off track. I think you'd be just as happy hooking up an MP3 player to the audio inputs and listening to music that way. You don't need to burn anything to a DVD. The quality of listening to the mp3s burned to a DVD will be exactly the same as the quality of listening through you mp3 player. And you can get 100GB mp3 players now.

[jankenpo30]

Are you sure that you are burning as an actual DVD-A though? I think that just like CD audio discs, DVD-A discs go by total time on that disc. Like for example, I can burn 3GB of data onto a 700MB CD as long as those 3GB are under 80 minutes of audio. I am not sure what the total time would be for DVD-A though, but with some simple math I would guess around 540 minutes. Does anyone who knows a little bit more about DVD-A confirm whether they go by time or total size?

No, its based on bitrate. I can take those same files I mentioned and increase my bitrate to 512kbps and and it increases the disk space another 20%.

Sorry to the OP that we got way off track. I think you'd be just as happy hooking up an MP3 player to the audio inputs and listening to music that way. You don't need to burn anything to a DVD. The quality of listening to the mp3s burned to a DVD will be exactly the same as the quality of listening through you mp3 player. And you can get 100GB mp3 players now.

I have to respectively disagree here. It may have to do with the type of player...however I believe it has far more to do with the audio processor of the head unit. The same bitrate quality mp3s played through the RCA jacks sounds noticeably worse than when there are encoded 5.1 and played on DVD-A. DVD Audio Creator does an excellent job of re-muxing the audio via virtual dub. However, the audio processing the head unit idoes on the RCA input and stereo mode...is not the same processing when you play a DVD via Bose 5.1 Surround processor. Trust me..just try it, you'll easily notice the difference.

[EniGmA1987]

The reason they would sound worse is partly cause the wiring from the RCA jacks is mostly pretty cheap and not high gauge quality wire that is fully shielded. It also would have to do with the ADC chip in the head unit, and the DAC chip in the MP3 player. I would say the 2 biggest things would be the DAC chip of the player, and then the ADC chip of the Bose head unit. Then the wiring. If mostly the low end of the music is lost when playing through an MP3 player, then the wiring might be playing a bigger role than I thought.

When music is played through the DVD player, it might not even convert the signal to analog before it gets sent to the head unit, it is possible that the digital signal is maintained all the way in the signal chain until it is outputted from the head until to the speakers. Which would give a significant increase in quality.

One of these days ill have to hook my computer up near the car and do a test between my HT Omega Claro Plus+ sound card through the RCA jacks, and a cheap MP3 player like an IPod. If the quality remains the same, then it is the fault of the ADC chip in the head unit. If quality increases significantly, then it is the sucky DAC units sound in MP3 players that is the culprit.

[BlackKnight]

I do agree that playing through the RCA jack with my ipod doesnt come close on how it sounds the surround with the DVD-Audio.

[ArbitrageMan]

You guys totally missed my point. If you take an mp3 and try to burn it as DVD audio, its going to sound exactly the same. Thats because you cant take the sound from an mp3 and magically recreate the channels of sound dropped while creating the mp3.

There are a million reasons why your mp3 player might suck, and the wiring might suck and the sound will suck, but its certainly not because you magically improved the quality of the sound by burning it as dvd audio.

The sound of the dvd audio disc you played does sound better, because it is better. But just turning an mp3 into a dvd audio track will not make it somehow sound better.

[ArbitrageMan]

However, the audio processing the head unit idoes on the RCA input and stereo mode...is not the same processing when you play a DVD via Bose 5.1 Surround processor. Trust me..just try it, you'll easily notice the difference.

It sounds better because it is better. Youre comparing an mp3 to a high fidelity track encoded in 5.1.

But you cant take a crappy mp3 and turn it into a high fidelity track just by converting it to dvd audio. It doesnt work that way.

[jankenpo30]

Arb, honest you don't get it. You don't get that I never said the MP3 converted to DVD was equal to true DVD-A. Reread the thread and you'll see that in fact I said quite the opposite when I said a true DVD-A sounds "absolute mind blowing"

I never get or convert an MP3 at less than 320kbps if i plan to convert to that same track to DVD-A. (We can argue the auditory perceived difference of sound at bitrates above 320kbps in another thread). What I'm saying is that if I take my high bitrate mp3...and convert to DVD-A at same bitrate, it sounds far better than putting that same high bitrate MP3 on CD and playing through the car's CD player or hooking my MP3 player to the rear RCA jacks. Again, I'm not and have never said it is = to true DVD-A but its better than MP3 CD and MP3 player by far. I've had tens of people in my car and have let them hear the difference, and the ears never lie. Using the 5.1 (especially the seat speakers) just fills the car better as oppose to nor mal CD/RCA input which does not take advantage of it. And don't get me started on that "Center point" crap...never should included that mode on this car.

Is the MP3 a 2-channel audio file? Yes, no one is arguing that.Again, the remux that the software uses to convert the 2-channel MP3 into a 5.1 channel audio file for DVD-A is damn good. The separation of the bass track alone is worth it. Again, yes its simulated surround, but its the best way (IMO) to listen to audio in this car. Plus you have the added advantage of customizing the display to show the cover of the album you are listening to on the screen..as well as the track name, Artist name, and album name (if you have hacked the DVD/NAV). Honestly for you to say that it doesn't sound different, truly sounds like you have never truly done the conversion yourself with DVD-Audio Creator. Either that or you an audiophile to the "enth" degree which I'm not.

[Backdoc7]

Jankenpo30..

I have several 5.1 dvd-a and they sound pretty darn good with the 14 speaker bose system. In fact, everything else sounds pretty bad in my opinion. I'm sure you have several true dvd-a's also.. so how does the converted (simulated) 5.1 audio sound in comparison to the true dvd-a 5.1 (or DTS)? I'm going to try it, but didnt want to spend the 40 bucks on dvd audio creator before I get more feedback. I don't think nero will convert 2 channel audio into 5.1 (simulated).

the cd/mp3, sat and am/fm leave a lot to be desired in the M.

thanks.

[jankenpo30]

a true DVD-A disc is a good bit better. I have the Eagles disc I mentioned earlier and the Santana was a borrowed disc I have back. I like to compared the same songs to each other in different versions...however, I've never done the comparison off this disk to MP3 or CD version. In comparing it to a different song....obviously the rear channels are more distinct and the overall sound is cleaner because obviously its in a lossless format.

The program is worth the 40 bucks in my opinion.

[bigjman]

What is the file extension of the DVD-Audio files? And how do we know that the DVDs that we find on Amazon are actually DVD-audio and not just DVDs?

[BlackKnight]

Its DVD-A. You have to make sure they are like that. Or a DTS dvd.
you can find those at www.dtsonline.com
www.cirlinca.com DVD-A Solo program has a great converter. Its $44.95.