[BlazingArrow74]

... I've been using PowerDVD to play a couple DVD-Audio discs I have: The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ... When playing the Elton John disc, I am able to listen to both the stereo and the surround track using just headphones (my soundcard is an Echo Indigo IO btw) but when I attempt to listen to the surrond track of TFL album, PowerDVD dialogs, saying the track isn't allowed and it skips to the next (stereo) track ... (when I say track I mean an available audio format, not an in-sequence song); I'm just wondering why Power-DVD would be able to downmix one surround track and not another ... Unfortuantely I could not find the specs for TFL album to see how it is encoded: if it is any different from the Elton John, and I've been looking ... I do know, they are both 24.96 tracks and the Elton John surround track is listed as playing 6 channels ... I also know that the EJ track is Packed-PCM ...

... Are there different ways of encoding DVD-A other than Packed-PCM ? ... Could this be why I can't listen to the surround track of TFL album ? ... Also, I was curious to know if I was hearing correctly: the surround track of the Elton John album sounds so much louder, clearer, and more lively than the stereo track: I also noticed that it reaches clipping levels, but it sounds amazing to me ... I notice a huge jump in the kbps when listening to the surround track rather than the stereo one ... Is this a true downmix ? or am I missing channels ... It's a bit hard for me to tell because the surround track is mixed so differently: instruments are placed-and-leved completely differently: so trying to follow intruments and confirm that they are in both can be difficult ...

... Any advise is appreciated ...

 

[MrKazador]

You can use DVDAExplorer to rip DVD-A discs to your pc. Then use any media player you like.

 

[leeperry]

you can also use a stereo downmix matrix in foobar, and get it through a bit-perfect audio renderer too.

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrKazador /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can use DVDAExplorer to rip DVD-A discs to your pc. Then use any media player you like.

Yes that works but I have 2 DVD-A's that don't work on that program. If the DVD-A has a true stereo track I record that if not then I record the surround track & use the files that have the 4 front & rear channels. To mix in the rest of the channels would take a multichannel mixing program.

For the most part though with only one exception I found the information on the center & LFE channels to be largely useless in creating the best recording. I have only one disc that puts the main voice in the center channel. Most either have nothing but noise or background sounds in the center channel.

The LFE channel I feel is largely useless in most of the recordings as it

1. has too high a frequency response allowing one to easily locate the subwoofer unless one keeps the crossover active which in this case would actually kill a fair amount of the bass sounds as there is actually very little deep bass on the LFE tracks I listened to so far.

2.There was actually deeper bass in the front 2 channels of the main mix.

 

[Stereo_Sanchez]

This has been a helpful thread. I have experienced some of the same issues.

 

[wavoman]

With DVD-A Explorer, look for a section (AUDIO_TS folder) that has 2 sub-streams per track, and then check the box for "Get stereo downmix" when extracting.

Sometimes you will find 2 sub-streams, and sometimes not. When you do, "Get stereo downmix" will often (but not always) give you a better stereo 2-channel file than any 2channel tracks you find on the disk in another section!

As I have posted in another thread, this uses "SMART" (System Managed Audio Resource Technique). I have ripped some amazing tracks this way.

Again, you won't always find this.

 

[MrKazador]

Foobar2000 has a plugin to playback dvd-a.

 

[wavoman]

Oh well, I just checked the Elton John DVD-A that the OP wrote about.

Unfortunately, it does not use SMART and has no 2 subsample sections.

So you have your choice of 96/24 stereo, or a 5.1 wav, also 96/24. Now I extracted the 5.1 wav, and played it thru Windows Media Player and a realtek sound card (these have 5.1 support), config'd for headphones, and the result sounds great -- I agree with the OP, better than the stereo mix on the disc.

It's got to be the Realtek driver doing the downmixing ... I don't believe I am just hearing the Lf and Rf thru the HPs ... it sounds darn good.

 

[BlazingArrow74]

... Thanks Everyone for your help & interest ... I'm preparing to try DVD-A Explorer soon ... However, does anyone have an idea why PowerDVD won't play The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots's surround track ? ...