Lore

I just talked to Craig at Minnetonka software and they said that DiscWelder Bronze will be released for shipping next Wednesday, 3/31/04.

For people (like me) who want to burn cd-quality audio onto a DVD for the TL to playback, this is the perfect product. According to Craig, Bronze will include gapless playback; the biggest component that is different is the lack of video support during DVD-Audio playback (which is moot for us TL owners anyway).

So... if you've been waiting for a long time, call em up next Wednesday and place the order!

Skeedatl

I wonder how the price will compared to Steel. Still pretty expensive for "burning" ware eventhough it's DVDA burning ware.

Lore

Bronze is $99 + $5 shipping via USPS Priority Mail. It's not just burner-ware, per se (which implies you already have a layout and what not, you just need to burn that layout bit for bit to the disc), it also allows mastering of the the disc -- creating directories, organizing tracks, etc.

Skeedatl

That's certainly more reasonable. I see how people like it and if reviews are favorable I'll get it.

bigdomer

I assume that this will not solve the problem of burning the DTS track from a concert DVD so that you can listen to it in the car? I am frustrated at the cost of Surcode and I assume that it will still be needed to accomplish my goal.

orange_peel

I pre-ordered discwelder bronze from audiomidi.com for $89.

svtmike

To burn a concert DVD to DVD-A, in addition to discWelder you will need:

A DVD ripper (SmartRipper, DVD Decrypter)
A VOB demuxer to strip out the DTS tracks (e.g. vStrip)
A binary editor to take off the 4 junk bytes at the start of each DTS file.
Intervideo WinDVD Platinum (this has a DTS decoder).
A program to use the DTS decoder to decode the DTS stream to six separate mono .WAV files (e.g. azidts)

And then it's finally ready for DiscWelder to burn to DVD-A.

I have no time and no intention of publishing a how-to for this process, so don't ask! If you do a Google search on some of the software titles shown above you should be able to find some guides (most likely on Doom9.org).

Mike

Lore

orange_peel: ooh.. good call. Are they releasing it the same day? According to Minnetonka they haven't even finished printing the stuff yet.

Skeedatl

Awe come'on...you know how long it takes to type in Google and CTRL+ENTER?

boltjames

svtmike- can I go directly from MP3's to the DVD-A using Bronze? Or do I need to re-rip my CD's again in another format (WAV?) for this purpose?

TIA

Lore

boltjames: You can definitely go from MP3 -> DVD-A (but you'll have to decompress them to WAV using something like Winamp) but the audio fidelity will only be that of the original MP3 (which may be more than enough, depending on how you ripped and compressed the original source).

If you want original CD quality you'll have to re-rip.

boltjames

Thanks Lore- that said, if I'm willing to live with my current MP3 (128kbps) rips......how many songs could I get on one DVD-A?

frozenpenguin

Cool. I've been waiting for this to come out. I will definitely be picking up a copy.

frozenpenguin

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think it will be limited to one group of 99 tracks per disc.

boltjames

frozpen- Yikes! That best not be true. It's one thing to have 64 square inches of TFT LCD that's incapable of showing the ID3 tags, but to only get 99 tracks on a single disc? I can get 200+ on a $0.25 CD-R for Chrissakes

Lore

200+ MP3s. Which are compressed 12:1 at 128kbit. You'd be putting in 4.7 gb of songs. If we generalize the file sizes:

60 megs = 6 minutes.
4700 / 10 = 470 minutes of music. Roughly 7.83 hours of CD-quality music, uncompressed, on a DVD.

Now, assuming an average track length of 4 minutes, you could fit 117 songs. Unfortunately, with the 99 track limitation you're going to reduce that number by 18 songs. But at 7 hours, that's peanuts! Imagine 12 DVD-Rs (about the number of CDs I have in my car) at 7 hours each!

boltjames

Are there double-sided DVD-R's that would give me the 12 discs you're referring to in the 6 disc changer? Otherwise, it's iPod for me.

browndognj

I'm with "boltjames"...I'd rather put the money into a direct connection of my IPOD into TL sound system via the Soundgate product...given it will work. My car audio guy priced part and labor at $250, given this "bronze" product is $100...IPOD route is probably more appealing to me. For you real techno savy guys that can install this sort of stuff on your own, it's just the part, hence a wash between "bronze" software and soundgate part.

Boltjames: Do you think this Soundgate solution will work for us?

boltjames

Yes.....the Soundgate solution is what I'm waiting for as it will allow a second (iPod) input to work alongside the first (XM) input.

There are two other solutions that I'd recommend:

1. Powered/Hard-Wired FM Modulator (Flip a switch and you over-ride all FM channels with a powerful and clear iPod source. You hide the headphone jack/wire in the armrest and whip it out when you plug in the iPod.)

2. Alpine Harness (This one is the one we'd all want- if Alpine makes one, that is. Alpine is the OEM for the TL's nav system and is committed to full iPod integration in its head units. Who knows when they'll get around to making a TL-friendly one though?)

In my 2000 RL, I put an Alpine MP3 CD Changer in the trunk and did the hard-wired FM Modulator and was very happy. Controlled the 6 discs (1200 songs, fully navigatible) via the Alpine gumstick sized head unit which I hid in the ashtray.

That said....XM Radio is so expansive that right now I am not missing my MP3's at all. So for me, I'll wait out Alpine for what we all really want.....touchscreen folder navigation and full ID3 tagging (LP thumbnail art would be nice too

svtmike

I personally wouldn't be able to take 128kbps MP3 quality, but everyone has a different sensitivity to the compression artifacts. When I was using MP3's in my previous car I didn't go lower than 192, and most of my stuff was 320 or 256.

Since you have to convert the songs to .WAVs, typically 44.1kHz stereo .WAVs, the capacity of the DVD-A is pretty deterministic:

~420 minutes or 99 tracks, whichever comes first.

I like the DVD-A's because I can take concert and music video DVDs and convert them to surround sound DVD-A's. Some sound bad, but others (U2 - Go Home, Dave Matthews Central Park, Peter Gabriel Secret World Live, Neil Young Rust Never Sleeps, Stevie Ray at the Mocambo) all sound pretty darn good.

I've also found that many of my (store-bought) DVD-a's don't have watermarked AC3 or DTS tracks, and it's not too tough to convert those to DVD-A so I don't have to carry the expensive originals in the car unless I want to hear the Advanced Resolution surround. The sound quality is still pretty darn good, too.

Mike

boltjames

Thanks Mike....for now, I'm going to wait out Alpine and pray that they remember us when they integrate other OEM head units to the iPod. If only we could hack and run iTunes on the LCD

Lore

Believe me, I would love to put my iPod in my car. I had an Alpine unit in my old car with an aux in and the ipod was GREAT. I see DiscWelder Bronze as a stop-gap measure until someone (SoundGate, Blitzsafe, etc) comes out with a real TL solution that keeps XM, satellite, and CD all intact.

According to the Soundgate tech guy that I emailed, the snhond3 part require you choose either XM or aux in -- you can't have both. Further, you need to do some additional work on the snhond3 part to get your nav to continue working.

Below is his email response to me:
The NAV and XM don't prevent the use of this interface just makes it more difficult. The main problem is that our interface will not work in conjunction with the factory XM so you can have only one or the other. As for the NAV there is a wiring harness to get around that. Check out logjamelectronics.com for further information concerning the install.
thanks CHET.

TLGator

I'm envious of all you people who get to spend enough time in your TL's to warrant this discussion in the first place!

I love having a short commute, but I have to admit right now I wouldn't mind if it were longer so I could be in the TL listening to iPOD through the XM satellite hard-wired to the laptop in the auto-up window jack. Damn. I need a road trip.