[badmonkey]

Okay I just spent 30 mins searching thru threads looking for the answer to what I would've assumed is a fairly simple issue, namely can you play DVD audio on a PC? I couldn't find anything, probably because the keywords involved are so generic, but nevermind let's just start a new thread.

I have: a PC. That much must be obvious. In that PC is an M-Audio Revolution and a Pioneer 106 DVD drive, so hardware is not a problem.

I presume that there is nothing super fancy about DVD audio discs that prevents the PC drives from actually reading them - am I wrong? I would expect them to follow the same formatting standards as DVD video.

Secondly, given that it is possible for the drive to talk to a DVD audio disc, what software options exist? Are there any Windows compatible decoders available which would allow pretty much any software to play them, or are there dedicated programs?

I have PowerDVD, WMP, Sonique, etc etc but am expecting to have to find something new. Comments?

 

[lan]

I think Creative Labs Audigy 2 is the only PC soundcard that has software to play DVD-Audio. M-Audio couldn't get the licensing/copyright thing for the Revo so there's no software for it.

 

[badmonkey]

So what, that can't be built into the card on a hardware level. Do you mean Creative actually make software for DVD decoding?

I hate Creative to a degree sufficient enough that I am quite willing to illegally aquire a copy of such software if I can.

 

[lan]

Creative has their own proprietory software for running DVD-Audio on their Audigy2. I don't think it will work on another soundcard.

I think M-Audio has software for Revo but they just can't release it. They were denied because of some reason that their hardware wasn't ok copyprotection wise or something. *shrug*

 

[badmonkey]

Okay thanks dude but my point is the decoding shud be entirely software based, I mean even the so called Dolby Digital crap on Creative cards is all just in the software drivers... so if Creative have DVD audio playback software it'll either be built into their drivers (in which case we're scrood) or it'll be a stand alone program (which is crackable if you know what I mean)... Do you know of any other software which plays DVD audio?

I doubt Creative is the only developer which has a DVD audio software solution, if so, man, I gotta steal it!

 

[Koui]

Here's the link to Creative's manual driver update site. The DVD-Audio player can be downloaded separately. Good luck in getting it to work with any soundcard other than an Audigy2.

To be honest, the DVD-A capabilities of the Audigy2 are highly over-rated. For headphone users the card is nearly useless since the player will only access the surround layer (not the hi-rez stereo) of most DVD-A's. What you get is a downmixed version of the multichannel layer through the front line outs (and it aint pretty). Creative's tech support told me that 24bit/192Khz playback isn't functional yet, even though it's listed as a feature on the box and in their literature.

The best solution I found is in Pioneer's new $179 DV-563A universal DVD-A/SACD player. Much better DVD-A and overall sound quality than the Audigy2. From what I've read Sony and Philips aren't going to allow SACD playback from a computer CD drive and soundcard anytime soon.

 

[badmonkey]

Yeah I already tried getting the Creative thing to run, it won't install without the Audigy drivers installed already. Now that I've read what you've said about its capabilities even on the Audigy, I won't even bother trying to find a cracked or patched version of it.

Okay so this is bizarre, is there NO software at all which actually has a DVD audio decoder which is useful? I mean I find this quite unbelieveable, I understand there are licensing issues but What, can't some company at least sell it at a high price?

 

[aos]

DVD-A is encrypted. You can either break the encryption illegally - and for that to be widely available (as it's for DVD) it would have to be a popular format - or pay the license to the format creators. However format creators are in no obligation to actually give you a license. Some company may be willing to pay hundreds of dollars in fees but if license holder doesn't like them or believes it will allow copying of DVD-A, they won't grant them that license. So if they don't want any DVD-A playback outside of standalone players, they won't allow it. That's just how it is.

 

[xtreme4099]

http://www.digion.com/

digionaudio - dvd audio player 1.0
this will do it ..but the site is completely japanese ...you have to buy it ...hmm...its the only software i know of ...

 

[badmonkey]

Thanks man, took a look at that site... so it seems this is one company that 1) has bought the licensing and 2) been allowed it? This brings up the question why there aren't others, maybe it's just too early?

Can you tell me how much that program costs, I can't make sense of the Japanese.

 

[xtreme4099]

try using http://babelfish.altavista.com/

and translate from japanese to english ....

 

[badmonkey]

DVD-AUDIO Player 1.0 (2003.7.18)
File size 2.94MB
Only the one which is having can utilize the DigiOnAudio series.
You cannot utilize with trial version.

You can utilize this DVD-AUDIO Player, under the following conditions.
* DigiOnAudio it is the DVD-AUDIO exclusive use which was drawn up in the series.
* It cannot play back the DVD-AUDIO software of marketing.
* The audio format which is corresponding is as follows.
* Format LPCM 2ch
* Sampling frequency 44.1kHz - 192kHz
* Quantization bit several 16/20/24

* The sound card which conforms to the Microsoft WDM is necessary.
* Please try with the driver of the sound card, as up-to-date ones.
* There are times when it cannot play back just depending upon the sound card.

Okay so that doesn't really sound feasible. Man this is nuts

 

[Koui]

What seems lost in the translation is that DigiOnAudio is a consumer level DVD-Audio authoring program and not a player for commercially pressed discs. It will convert digital audio from other formats (mp3, wav) and write to DVD-R at DVD-A specs but uses Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM) instead of an encrypted Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) codec. There's no support mentioned for 5.1 surround. As they say...close but no banana!

 

[badmonkey]

Well I think they mean you need DigiOnAudio, whatever it may be (you're right), to run this player, and even if you set all that up it still doesn't playback MLP which is really what we want, isn't it.

Monkey wants his banana

 

[grrr223]

This unfortunately won't help you today, but I read somewhere that iTunes 5 will support DVD-A, which is one of the coolest things I've heard in a while, Apple unfortunately has been kinda behind on support of DVD-A and SACD. I can't wait until I get a real job so I can get myself a G5