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Originally Posted by smeagol
Hey there
I am asking about the dvd-audio format. The questions I have are the following:
1. The high resolution stereo featured on a dvd audio...does it bring a major improvement? Or it is just marketing to sell more?
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Of the 11 audio-DVDs I found that were passably musically interesting to me, only four are (passably) sonically satisfying and really worth the higher data rate: ELP's «Brain Salad Surgery» as well as three DVD-As from the MDG label: orchestral works from Debussy, symphonies No.5&9 and 10 from Shostakovitch, the latter three with a bit high hiss level, but otherwise pleasing. Björk's «Vespertine» sounds good too, but not clearly better than the CD (and the SACD). The same applies to Donald Fagen's «The Nightfly» (which
is an improvement over the CD, but mainly due to better mastering), and Steely Dan's «Gaucho». Interestingly the latter's multichannel track sounds much better and shows the format's true potential. So the music industrie doesn't seem to direct its DVD-A strategy to the audiophile (mostly two-channel oriented), but rather the videophile and multichannel-oriented clientele and treat the two-channel section quite stepmotherly, in contrast to the SACD. That's a pity, because I consider DVD-A the better format (theoretically)
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2. Can I play DVD-audio on Foobar2000? |
Most likely not -- although I don't know Foobar.
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3.Can DVD-audio be ripped? |
No. Its copy protection hasn't been cracked so far, and AFAIK there are no corresponding ripping programs available.
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4. Generally, is it worth to buy smth like this? |
It depends. There is a decent amount of mainstream titles available, so if your musical interest is covered by these, it may be worth exploring the format, which certainly has greater sonic potential than redbook CD.
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Originally Posted by noir
I'd be interested in ripping dvd-a as well. The only reason why i haven't got a player yet is because stand-alone players just output 48 kHz digitally. Whereas i could send tracks ripped to my computer over my soundcard to my DAC at max resolution. I'm well aware that that won't work for multi-channel audio, but i'm only interested in stereo tracks anyway.
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The best you can do is make your soundcard record through the digital connection between its digital input and the DVD-A player's digital output. In most cases you'll get a signal downsampled to 48 kHz (and 24 bit), but after all that's still better than redbook.