Adobeman

I've decided to document the creation method I've been using to make stereo DVD-A disks for use in the TL. I've used this to make many disks. Other Acurazine members TerminaderTL and markjrenna have helped test this process and report success and satisfaction.

The goal is to provide a simple, free, method to make DVD-As from all those old CDs and other 2 channel music sources you've got lying around. For sure this doesn't beat Discwelder (defunct) or Wavelab but for those of us who don't want to want to shell out the dough for Wavelab (or have ethical issues with other ways of obtaining it) it is a reliable, repeatable way to make the disks.

http://home.comcast.net/~adobeman/DVDA/

Check it out and see if it works for you. Feedback appreciated.

markjrenna

Simply awesome!

I recommend this to anyone interested in taking their CD collection and transferring it to DVD-A!

It is so easy you have to try it! Plus, get this... It's FREE!!!

Great job Adobeman!

TerminaderTL

Nicely done. Thanks again for putting this together for all of us.

My approach is to have the 6 slots in the TL contain the following:

1 - 99 of my favorite energetic songs, set to play random tracks
2 - 99 of my favorite listening songs, set to play random tracks
3 - 99 of my favorite classic and comedy pieces, set to play random tracks
4 - DVD-Audio disc #1
5 - DVD-Audio disc #2
6 - DVD-Audio disc #3 (currently the original Acura DVD-Audio demo disc)

This should keep me covered for some long trips and a lot of commuting.

markjrenna

I have that disc in mine as well! I go to group 5 (I think) it is where Elliot talks about the 5.1 and he introduces Grover Washington, JR.'s Winelight one track at a time.

This just blows everyone away that hears DVD-A 5.1 for the first time. Heck, it still blows me away each and every time. It just sounds beautiful in my TL.

Hugh9269

Very nice work and suggestion! I cant wait to make some new dvd CD's!!

engler519

Adobeman,
First off, thank you for the work you have put into this to help the rest of us out.

I am having problems however... I downloaded your .zip file and extracted it to C:\DVDA. Then I ripped some cds using Audiograbber to the subdirectories in the WAVs folder. When I try to run the MakeDVDA program, I get the DVDA one group question, it tells me it will take a long time, hit any key. Then it tells me the system cannot find the path specified (twice), and that the dvda-author, mkisofs, and isoinfo "is not recognizable as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file". Then the IMPORTANT!!!! box is listed with the "Please enter the start sector of the AUDIO_PP.IFO:" dialog. It never did a first pass of encoding however, so there is no number to enter. I checked the Setenv program and it says "set BD=C".

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Mike

engler519

Ok, I'm an idiot, but I can admit it.
I created a new file at C:\ called DVDA first and unzipped it to that. That caused my problem. I deleted it and re-unzipped it to C:\ and everything worked fine...

Thanks again for the effort. This will be a good alternative until I can get a clean hookup for my mp3 player. I'm hoping the Alpine VehicleHub will be an option.

Mike

TerminaderTL

I did that myself the first time during testing. Maybe Adobeman can add an emphasis of how to unzip it properly.

Adobeman

Yes.. please unzip it properly.

Just kidding.

I'll update the docs soon to make this clearer. Thanks for the feedback.

schrady

Adobeman,
U da man!!

It worked!!

One issue was wav files from mp3 music.

What format do file (wav) names have to be in (exactly)

I converted a bunch of mp3 to wav and it wouldnt recognize them. It did from cd though.

Any thoughts?

Adobeman

The WAVs I use are all 16bit, 44.1KHz stereo. The freeware dvda-author program being used says it takes "...16-bit and 24-bit Mono/Stereo audio supported at all six DVD-Audio samplerates" But since I have only used the 16bit, 44.1KHz stereo "flavor" I can't say for sure what else really works.


I just grabbed this free converter tool and it converted mp3s I have to WAV and they were accepted by the program. Try http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm. A can't vouch for the quality of the conversion or the source of the program but it seems to be OK.


When my program runs I see something like the text below. See how it echos back the rate, bits and #of channels...

DVD Layout:

Group Track Rate Bits Ch Length Filename
1 01 44100 16 2 13999104 C:\dvda\WAVS\CD_GRP1\1.wav
1 02 44100 16 2 12222720 C:\dvda\WAVS\CD_GRP1\2.wav
1 03 44100 16 2 13170816 C:\dvda\WAVS\CD_GRP1\3.wav
1 04 44100 16 2 13753728 C:\dvda\WAVS\CD_GRP1\4.wav
1 05 44100 16 2 13178880 C:\dvda\WAVS\CD_GRP1\5.wav

onalake

I just wanted to say I just tried this for the first time and it worked the first time!

I was trying to use Discwelder Bronze and made 1 sucessful DVD-A and 8 coasters. I used the exact same WAV files I was using for Discwelder for this method and it played in my TL. Others said it must be that my WAV files were corrupt or the media type was the issue. It seems like it was Discwelder that was the issue!

I'm throwing away Discwelder and using your method!!!!!

This was a very nice thing you did for the group and I appreciate it a lot. Thanks!!

TerminaderTL

Adobeman has done a great job of providing an easy to you tool and instructions to make it successful.

If you want to encourage the author of the main program that does this for free, go to the link below and post a message of thanks or even a suggestion for improvement:

http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/l...vd-audio-devel

Adobeman

TerminaderTL you are so right. Being the "chief instigator" I authored a big thanks to them.

Thanks for reminding me of my manners.

Donte99TL

Wow this is great. Thanks Adobeman you are the shizzle my nizzle. I am going to try it tomorrow. Peace.

shalinz

ok I am doing something wrong. I followed all the steps, but after I run the Makedvda.bat file, my ISO file ends up being less than 1/2Mb in size.

Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong?

MikesTL03

I just have one question this works excellent just wondering if there was a way so as I browse through the tracks on the car radio the track numbers show up but not the names of the tracks is there a way to do this that I missed? Thanks

zima76

YES!!!! BINGO!!!!!! I made it... man... it's worth it.... after more than 8 hours of wripping, moving files, changing CDs..... etc.... it WORKS!!!!!thanks.....

x-mode007

I am lost... My ISO image only comes out to be 2.4mb... Any help??

schrady

Happened to me too initially. Its not recognizing your wav files. Most likely theyre not 16 bit. Some conversions from mp3 dont work well.

MikesTL03

I just have one question this works excellent just wondering if there was a way so as I browse through the tracks on the car radio the track numbers show up but not the names of the tracks is there a way to do this that I missed? Thanks

shalinz

That is what it was. I went back reconverted my WAVs to 16bit and now it works like a charm. Thanks for the help.

x-mode007

Will have to try that tonight.... Thanks for the help.

swtato

I did it witha a few cd's and it worked great! My question is will this convert the cd into 5.1 or just allow you to fit more media on the dvd?

Adobeman

It won't convert to 5.1. It is just about getting lots of stereo CD quality music on one disk.


All, I've been away for a few days but can see this thread is starting to pick up some speed. To all that have jumped in to try the process and those that have helped out others having difficulty I really appreciate it.

schrady

Adobeman,

DBpowermusic will convert to 6 channel 5.1 waves. Will this burn those waves on dvda or will it only burn 2 channel?

Thanks

Adobeman

I don't think so. Please describe the process you want to use to make make 5.1 channel waves. I'm curious to see what it is.

rickyd7

Well...I followed the dvd-a creation step all the way to the end...now for the part that makes me look like an idiot. Do we burn the iso file to a blank DVD-A? If so, where do you get them? I burned it to a dvd rw and it doesn't work in my car. Guess the TL can't read DVD-R's or RW's. Thanks for your help!

shalinz

I used DVD-R to make may DVDA disk and there were no problems. You may want to try a different brand of the DVD-R Disks.

Adobeman

As shalinz said, it could be the brand of media. DVD-R has been the most compatible with the car, not DVD+R. TDK has worked for me. Try and avoid the really cheap rebate no-name brands. Buying a big brand isn't a guarantee but it is usually somewhat better. There is a long story behind all this since there are only a hand full of factories that make media but hundreds of brand names. Lots of re-branding going on just makes it confusing.

Another thing to check is does the image size (size of ISO file) seem to make sense ? If you had 2G total of wav files then the ISO should be about 2G as well. Some folks have had trouble with the format of the wav files. 16bit, 44.1Khz works best.

schrady

I used memorex dvd-r with no problems at all

w1n78

i tried this out last night but stupid me forgot to bring the disc to work with me . can these discs be played on the computer? coz my dvd player (software) didn't recognize it. i have yet to try it in the TL coz it's i forgot it.

can't wait to get home. i'll probably drive around tonight just to see if it worked lol. my first DVD-A is jay-z and i hoped to get all his albums. got all but 3 oh well. if this works, i'll do a wutang clan DVD-A

w1n78

it works if you set it to random, can will it random through all groups or just the current group?

this would be awesome if you can do this on the mac

TerminaderTL

I have only created one group, since I have heard that you have to manually choose the next group or the player will move to the next disc at the end of group one.

So, it seems to me, that any settings, such as Track Random, will apply only to the group you are on.

bf17738

hey guys... this sounds awesome.... but i have 2 quick questions...

1- if i have mp3s and i convert them to wavs... do they HAVE to say "track 01.wav" or can they actually be the file name like "Kelly Osbourne - One Word.wav" ?

2- how did u burn the ISO file? I have Nero... does it get burned as a Data DVD or an Audio DVD?

I'm confused....

bf17738

i've tried so many different ways to burn the discs and nothing is working... do i have to rename the wav files to "track 01.wav" instead of the actual names?

Adobeman

1) They do not have to be any specific name. The tool I use to rip CDs just happens to use the "track xx.wav" naming convention. I tend to find this makes it very easy to keep the sort order of sings that I want. But, most have found best results with 16 bit, 44.1Khz wavs so stick to that.

2)If you have Nero 5.5.x open it, cancel the first wizard screen and just do File-->open and then chose file type of ISO image and find and open your image.iso file. If your burner is hooked up it should just sow it as a DVD image. Then just burn.

What OS are yo using ? You can PM me a screen dump of what happens when you run the process if you want to.

Adobeman

Haaaa. A "stinkin" Mac user. My brother and father are both Mac users of the "elitist" type so for once I will relish the idea and savor the moment that there is a Mac use that is actually wishing they could do something a PC user could.

They always tell me, with a smug look "<whatever it is> is no problem on the Mac"

Actually, I think Macs are really good machines and from an engineering and style point can't be beat. It's the premium price (generally >2x a comparable wintel solution) that I find hard to take.

I'm betting that there is some solution available for the Mac but I have no clue where it would be found. Perhaps a PC emulator program. Funny that my brother and father both have PC emulators and use them on there Mac.

An why is it all the Mac users I know hate PCs but all the PC owners I know have nothing against Macs?

OK, I'm just having some fun here. Nobody get to worked up over it.

Actuary

hi adobeman, I'm in process of running Makedvda.bat

It took me 5 minutes to convert 99 MP3s to WAV using DBpoweramp - free tool

I noticed possible performance gain could be made by using two drives.
For example, read wav from c: and create image on d:

It looks like I can do modification. I have one question though, what exactly is going on from first time it creates image and second time it creates image?


Other questions:
1. 99 songs means 99 in entire DVD disc, right? so I can only put 70 in group 1 and 29 in group 2 nothing more, right?

2. What's the button in our car to switch between groups?

3. I'm not clear on where to find that number to enter in second phase of creating image. I got 99 songs already and screens seems to be scrolling a lot

Actuary

99 MP3s/P4 2.4/WXP Pro/Norton Antivirus running - average computer

Pre-work: choose songs you want and rename them as needed : up to an hour
1. Converting - 5 minutes (DBPoweramp - free)
2. Creating/First pass - 12.5 minutes (Boring. go watch tv)
3. Creating/Second pass - 12.5 minutes (Boring. go watch tv)
4. Burning at 8x DVD-R - 10 minutes or less (Yay, so excited to test this thing)

So total process takes about 40 minutes to complete EXCLUDING choosing songs and stuff.

Potential performance gain could be made with
1. better computer - especially faster hard drive
2. read from one drive and create image to other drive
3. turn off antivirus