I'm asking if anyone knows of any reasonably priced DVD-Audio burning software that I can just simply burn regular audio tracks to DVD. So it plays on the ELS system in the car. Not looking to do 5.1.

 

DiscWelder Steel (www.discwelder.com) is the cheapest thing going right now. Someone reported that they are working on a stripped down version that does just CD-quality stereo tracks (DiscWelder Plastic???) for a list of $99.

Mike

 

Thats a plus if it's true, but there has to be something else out there that will do this. Just got a DVD burner and loving it for the movie end. Just wish I could put it into use for the car.

 

Nope, there is nothing else out there. All of the cheap, mainstream DVD apps do DVD-Videos, not DVD-Audio.

Mike

 

When is this "Discwelder Plastic" expected to be released? Any other info on it? Such as the maximum number of songs/time per disc.

 

I don't know anything else about it, not even the official name (I made up DiscWelder Plastic).

I've got Discwelder Steel and it does the job for me.

Mike

 

Check out this program:

http://www.softlandmark.com/GEARPROMasteringEdition.htm

It's just a demo but there may be a crack or something to unlock (still looking). It has the option of creating DVD-audio. Just not sure how to do it yet. Confusing stuff.

 

Use Ahead NERO. That thing does everything for you. It's awesome

 

Nero will burn DVD-Audio? I have version 6 Ultra and did not see any option to do so? If so, let me know how to do it.

 

I'm not aware of any. When you say you have a DVD burner, do you mean on the computer, or a burner like a VCR? I just received a Panasonic DVD burner that has a hard drive and burns DVD's, but it supposedly wont allow you to copy other DVD's due to copyright protection. Is that what you are talking about?

 

Nope.

svtmike is correct ... The least expensive (it ain't cheap) DVD-A burning software right now is DiscWelder Steel.

Unless I'm missing something here, I sure didn't see anything about supporting DVD-A yet on their site. CD-Audio: Yes, DVD-Audio: No.

One thing mentioned in this thread (by the man himself, svtmike) was that the DVD-A standard includes "watermarking", which makes copying DVD-As a lot more difficult. That may be why the DVD-A authoring software is so expensive and rare right now.

 

The Gear burning engine is used by DiscWelder Steel. I don't believe their standalone product is in the same price range as Steel, though.

Mike

 

The software on the website I provided does allow you to burn DVD-A. I'm now trying to figure out how to convert either a wav file or MP3 file to the format necessary to play in the DVD-A player. I'm stuck on this. Help please if possible on what decoder/encoder I need to convert the files.:banghead:

 

According to page 47 of the User's Manual, Gear's software will only import audio from an existing AUDIO_TS directory, like from an existing DVD-Audio disk. It won't allow you to create/master your own AUDIO_TS directory.

At this point, Gear's software doesn't do what you need.

 

But do you think it may be possible to create your own Audio_TS directory by converting wav or mp3 to the necessary format?

 

Hi everyone.

The rumoured discWelder "Plastic" is in fact discWelder Bronze. Here is the link to the announcement:
http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAM...er-Bronze.html

It should allow you to record up to 6 channels of audio per track, mixing stereo and surround tracks at will, all for a retail price of $99. Sounds pretty good to me. Release date is apparently March, 2004.

discWelder Steel is being upgraded to version 2.0, incorporating some of the features of the ultra-expensive Chrome package, the most attractive being the ability to create 'gapless' multiple tracks (analagous to 'disc-at-once' in CD-R creation). With the Bronze version, if multiple tracks are designed to play continuously, you will have to put up with a random pause between tracks. Oh well, I guess albums like "The Wall" could always be one continuous track.

I for one, can't wait.

 

Discwelder Bronze seems to be exactly the feature set of Discwelder Steel

Looks like when Steel 2.0 comes out they're just renaming 1.0 "Bronze" and dropping the price.

Mike

 

Is it possible to take the audio off a standard DVD-video disc and burn it to a DVD-A disc (or to a CD-Rom?)
I'd like to do that for a few concert and standup comedy DVDs I have.
thanks

 

I don't know much about DVD_A but from the primer, it seems to split audio into 6 channels and have much higher fidelity concommitant with being able to store much more info.

my question is: even if you can burn the format, isn't the fidelity still lacking b/c your source is many times inferior (i.e. a CD/mp3). Moreover, like transferring video to a dvd, isn't the real quality dependent on studio-quality mixing/formatting to really make use of DVD_A ?

 

dafunda: If your question is directed at me, there would be no quality loss because the source is a DVD. Whether it were recorded to CD (if possible) or DVD-A, it should maintain the same digital fidelity.
If your question was directed at something else, disregard my response

 

hi airline. my question was just a general one to anyone who cares to respond. My question was less about quality loss per se and more about the inferior quality of the source to start out with.

MY question is: doesn't it take tons of time money and effort to RE_MASTER tracks that is already available on a CD to recreate the effect that professionally produced DVD_A offer - something whatever software you purchase cannot reproduce? (E.G. From the DVD-Video side, you can't possibly recreate DVD clarity from a VHS tape b/c you start out with a crappy source - you need the master to extract the real advantages).

 

All I want to do is fit more "cd quality" music onto a dvd to play in my car. You can fit something like 500 minutes of cd quality audio onto a DVD from what I hear. I think it's called PCM audio. So if you have 6 DVD's crammed with all that music, it will be like having 42 cd's in your changer. I could care less about the 5.1 for now. Maybe in the future that will be a plus. I think the cd quality is good enough for now.

 

The answer to your question is "Yes".

The problem is, that's part of what DiskWelder's software does - and Gear's Software doesn't. In the AUDIO_TS directory, you'll want to end up with ".IFO" and ".BUF" files, I believe.

We'll just have to wait until DiskWelder or their competitors are cheaper, I guess.

 

And the main event, the ".AOB" files, which are the Audio Objects, or the multiplexed streams for DVD-Audio playback, just as .VOBs are the Video Objects, or multiplexed streams for DVD-Video playback.

Mike

 

Thanks

 

But as their website says -- "... discWelder-burned media will play on any DVD-A player that supports DVD R/W."

What are the chances the ELS systems supports DVD R/W??

 

Those chances are 100%. It will play them, despite the Acura documentation to the contrary.

Mike

 

svtmike said...
Sorry to be a moron, Mike, but I have to ask (since I'm waiting form my 2004 TL and can't test this, and the Acura documentation seems intentionally muddled/confused on the topic):

Please confirm/deny- you have used DiskWelder (Steel, Chrome, what have you) to create a DVD-Audio disk on a DVD-R and then used that DVD-R successfully in your 2004 Acura TL's ELS stereo?

I've read the DiskWelder Bronze page, and one thing isn't completely clear to me...I have a bunch of MP3s, and I just want to create a DVD-Audio DVD from them. Does the DiskWelder software do the necessary re-encoding to support this? And as a further aside- does the Acura TL ELS stereo read track information (song name, artist, what have you) from these burned DVD-Rs and show you that info?

Again- sorry to ask dense/repetitive questions, but getting this clear will allow me to forgo trying to get an MP3 player added to my on-order TL, and to invest that money instead in a DVD burner and DiskWelder Bronze (when it ships).

Thanks a ton!

 

Confirmed!

I have used DiscWelder Steel 1.0 and now 2.0 to create quite a few DVD-Audio discs on DVD-R that I use successfully in my 2004 Acura TL's ELS audio system!

DVD-RWs work too; that's what I use to test for watermarking so I don't make a coaster.

Mike

 

Awesome! I'll buy myself a DVD writer then, and get DiskWelder Bronze when it ships.

I still have those two sidebar questions, though- maybe you missed them while laughing at my need to double check things

Any insight on these two questions would also be greatly appreciated!

Kelly

 

Re-encoding MP3's: no. It supports .WAV and .AIFF only. Get dBPowerAmp; it has nice shell integration for format conversions (in Windows).

Track info: no. There's no standard for embedding this information as metadata in the track like there is for MP3s.

Mike

 

I just got my 04 TL on Saturday....I love this car. And I too want to put 5+ hrs of CD quality audio on a DVD.

svtmike, have you ever tried just burning an "audio cd" using a program like NERO, but burning it to a DVD instead to get more songs on the disc? If all we are interested in is CD quality audio on the DVD, do we need discwelder, or will a standard CD/DVD burning program work to put .WAV files on a DVD that is readable by the TL?

Thanks in advance!

Jason

 

The redbook standard for audio CDs doesn't support DVD media, so you couldn't do it if you tried (Nero won't do it, EZCD won't do it, etc....). You have to have a DVD-A authoring package like discwelder.

Mike

Mike

 

Well I am a complete retard, so here goes a couple more questions that I still am confused about.

1) With Discwelder, can you put wav files on a blank dvd-r....for the 5+hours of CD quality music?.....and will the Acura play it?

2) With Discwelder, can you take a regular CD and convert it to a DVD-A, and then have it sound better than it did as a CD?

3) Can you convert a CD to wav files, then go into windows explorer and simply drag & drop the wav files on to the dvd-r? I thought a DVD was just a form of storage, and you could store anything on it....including wav files.

4. Can some one just make a simple program that lets you just click about two buttons and have it put 5 CD's on to a DVD, and then have it play in a DVD-A player......and make it fast, simple, and easy enough for a retarded monkey to use. (me)

5. Will we reach a day when our cars will just come with a built in hard drive that will store a million songs of DVD-A quality songs, and XM that plays DVD-A quality music.

 

1) Yes. With DiscWelder you can get 7+ hrs of CD quality music, as long as it's in 99 tracks or less. And the TL will play it.

2) Short answer: no.

I was curious about this, given the criticisms I've read of the ELS system's CD playback sound vs. DVD-A. Since it's possible that the player would use a different upmix algorithm during CD playback than during DVD playback, it's possible to have better results with one than the other.

I did a very informal A/B listening test of an original CD and that CD ripped to .WAV and put onto DVD-A (Blue Man Group's The Complex was the test subject). I could tell no difference between the CD and the DVD-A of the stereo CD.

3) No. You have to select the .WAV files inside of the DiscWelder application.

4) Of course it's possible.

5) Your guess is as good as mine.

Mike

 

The thought of just copying 720 minutes of CD music to one dvd-a is where I start to drool. Figure if a CD is max of 74 (or 80) minutes, and you keep it under the stated 99 tracks, you could fit all 4 or 5 or 6 of one group's cds on one dvd-a at 44Khz/16bit CD quality. That is swoon-worthy.

Last summer I built a home audio system with an Onkyo SR800 7.1 amp, and Boston Acoustic VR60 Fronts and VR50 rears and the VR center channel. Up to this point I thought they sounded just so-so for the money. Till I finally got a new sound card that can do 96/24 and play dvd-a. So I got the dvd-a's from the car, and the demo dvd-a it came with.. and boy.. I about plotzed. The clarity of 96/24 is freaking phenomenal.

I already thought the TL was very muted and muddy in the trebel range, now it's just downright awful compared to my family room. Oh well.. Still a righteous fine car.

 

They need to drop the price.

$475 is a hell of a lot of money to have to spend on a disc burner program for home or personal use.

 

I agree with Sherlock...and DMZ....

Thanks for the info Mike

 

yes
the market just came out a DVD rw not long ago, but they are hell expensive