GUN-M-TL

Doesnt it suck that there is hardly any available DVD-A
content for sale.
Just discovered a source.
For less than 6 bucks a DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are computer literate have a DVD Burner and a fast
Internet connection.
http://www.sacdlab.cn/

Fairly large collection available for download.
Burn your own.
Just downloaded my first. This rocks!!!!!
They have some samples for download if you wanna try it out.

ParaSurfer1979

look at the sticky, there are many online stores that list hundreds of titles.

GUN-M-TL

Ya sites like Amazon. Selection is horrible and some of the prices are now as much as 200 dollars for a DVD.

Somebodys on crack.

SACD Lad has tons of stuff Ive never seen anywhere else.

DMZ

DVD-A is a format that never really took off. And most of the older albums from the 60'a and 70's that were remastered into DVD-A have horrible remixing jobs where the original stereo CD actually sounds better in our cars. I stopped buying DVD-A's long ago.
.
.

TeknoKing

GUN-M-TL since you are obviously part of them, any discounts?

Market it right man and how eff do I browse by genre?

EDIT: And they cap the download speed..what gives?

GUN-M-TL

Actually I have nothing to do with this site. I just thought I,d try and help out other enthusiasts that have been frustrated by the lack of avalable content.
The first downloads I have gotten were slow. 4 hrs for 4 gigs.
Gonna try an ftp program which migt be faster.

I have a few DVD-A titles that I also own in reg CD Format and I have always found the DVD-A to be far superior.

It doesnt surprize me that DVD-A as a format has stalled comercially. Whats the sense if you cant buy discs.

At least there is some selection here and the price is pretty reasonable.

Again I,m just tryin to help.

CdTriX

has anyone tried one of those video concert DVD in the dvd player in our cars?

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

The big selling point for me on DVD-A's is the sound quality. I don't care about how many songs I can fit on a DVD-A.

Having said that, it still holds true that it's unfortunate that this format never gained traction. We can't take advantage of our audio systems like we should be able to.

TeknoKing

It's ok, at least you have that awesome cassette player...oh no wait

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Nice find-I just looked at the site briefly, but it looks like these are originally SACD's that convert to DVD Audio. There are other sites where you can download these songs/albums. I've never downloaded any, but this should be interesting-I encourage you guys to try it.

Just to give you guys some background on DVD Audio:

1) the quality of DVD-A's and SACD's are teriffic-much better than regular CD's. They're worth the money.
2) the original thought process was to reproduce classic albums in DVD Audio to build an initial demand for the discs. But the public never caught on to hooking up 6 wires to their receivers.
3) you can still find DVD Audio discs, but they are very expensive and the supply is terrible. I've got a little over 100 DVD Audio discs and DualDiscs, and yes, some of the remixing leaves a lot to be desired-especially on Dualdiscs.
4) it is incredibly unfortunate that this format (or SACD's) didn't survive. EVERYONE that I play a DVD Audio disc for, is blown away with the sound (either in the car or at home).

Ken1997TL

I tried in vain to find an aftermarket DVD-A headunit (I know they exist) but everyone from Crutchfield to the local stereo shop said good luck. There just isn't the demand or manufacturer support.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

You're right Ken, no one is making or carrying them anymore. The funny thing is, when I play these discs for friends, they want to know where they can get some!

Ken1997TL

When I had my '05 TL, I had a few DVD-A's. My favorites were the Crystal Method's Legion of Boom and Wagner

I like a variety of music.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Believe it or not, one of my best demo discs is from smooth jazz saxophonist, Dave Koz. His CD called "The Dance" has track #1 starting out with music only from the rear speakers. Plus, Toy Matinee's disc is a great CD to demo with. The song "The Last Plane Out" is terrific.

GUN-M-TL

Its true that a lot of the material on this site is SACD converted to DVD-A. Thats the nice part. One of the things that helped kill high deff audio was the two competing formats. SACD and DVD-A. Anybody remember the VHS vs Beta war? Beta was way better but VHS won because there was a lack of Beta material available.
In this case there is a lack of materal for both formats so they have both kind of died. There is some material out there that id deff worth a listen to though, and with this site we get to enjoy both the DVD-A releases and the SACD ones which have been conveniently converted. With the two formats being incompatible SACD was usless to us before. It is my understanding that all the releases on this site are bit for bit identical to original masters and everything I have downloaded so far sounds like it.
Yes it looks like they are restricting download speeds which kind of sucks. 4 hrs to download 4 gigs so I just start my downloads before I go to bed.

Downloaded so far and highly recommended.
Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
Bryan Ferry Boys and Girls
Roxy Music Avalon
Dire Straights Brothers in Arms

Anyway I hope this site will help some of you obtain some tunes you can enjoy without getting ripped pricewise.

Theres probably 70 or so releases on this site that I,m interested in. Considering that previously I had only found about 10 DVD-A's that I thought were worth buying, thats a huge improvement.

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Ken, I bought the Sony MEX-DV2200 about a year ago. It plays any format except DVD-As, including being able to play SACD. I know it's not DVD-A, but it's still in a surround format.

GUN-M-TL

Just a note that on this Site for every DVD-A that is listed you can download (for free) the normal stereo version of these albums. Don't ask me if its legal. I think this site is in Russia or someplace so I doubt they care. In either case you can download and listen to stuff (in normal sterio) if its something your not familiar with so you can decide if its worth purchasing.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

The .cn extension indicates the site is from China.

There was a LOT more releases in SACD. I wish both formats survived!

1995hoo

I generally agree with this except for when it comes to saving space in the car on road trips. Last year I bought both of the remastered Beatles boxes (stereo and mono sets) and then I took the mono set and burned all of the first ten albums onto a single DVD-A, split across four groups primarily due to the 99-track limit per group. The only thing that didn't fit was the Mono Masters compilation (i.e., Past Masters in mono with a couple of additional tracks). Because the tenth album is the White Album, that means I took 11 Beatles CDs and put them on a single DVD-A for use in the car. That sort of thing is not insignificant. A DVD-A can easily hold two full Springsteen concerts, which means the added benefit of not having the concert interrupted while the disc changes.

Sometime I might get around to transferring some of my old mixed tapes to DVD-A. Transferring them to CD is not a viable option because of the CD's shorter running time compared to a 90-, 100-, or 110-minute tape. (When I made a mixed tape, I planned out the running order rather carefully, so omitting stuff to fit it onto a CD is not an option.) But I always say "why bother" because I can just play the tape if I really want to do so.

Unfortunately, DVD-A as a commercial format was doomed by the format war with SACD, and SACD itself was relegated being to a niche format in part for the same reason. They did a lousy job of marketing both formats because they failed to convince the average consumer that these formats had any benefit over standard "Red Book" CDs. The average consumer seems not to care about the sound quality these days and will apparently opt for lossy-compressed MP3 crap simply because that's what the media have trained them to want. Look at all the stupid posts here over the years seeking ways to play MP3-encoded CDs in the TL.

GUN-M-TL

There,s tons of Tl Head Units available on Ebay. Now if ony you could figure out a way to mount one in a 2002.
Good Luck.

DiamondJoeQuimby

iTrader: (2)

anybody actually buy any of these? This legit? there is some good stuff on there.

vecterx

You can burn your own dvd-a disc by using a standard dvd-r disc, just use a software (I use acoustica MP3 audio mixer) and convert mp3's to .wav files and then use a dvd authorizing software (I use dvd audio solo) to burn the dvd-a disc. They'll store up t0 99 songs per disc.

Ken1997TL

Yeah, a 2002 RL with a stock amp and speakers. Already shelled out the money to convert all the wiring in that thing.

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Ken, if you could do it, that would be awesome if you could somehow get the 07 TL headunit in your RL.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Absolutely +1 !!!


We are such a "convenience oriented society"...we want to cram as much music onto a portable unit that sound quality HUGELY suffers!

GUN-M-TL

Don't know if anyone else has taken the plunge yet. I,m the original poster so I,m not sure if you trust me or not. Sounds like you have your reservations. You have to sign up for a Silver Account as a minimum which is 10 downloads for 55 bucks which you pay up front through Pay Pal. That's what I did to start. I've got 7 downloads so far. One of which was a freebie because they loaded the wrong file to my FTP site. They appologised profusely and said I could keep that one as a bonus so they are pretty good to deal with.

GUN-M-TL

Actually you don't have to shell out 55 bucks now. It looks like they have resumed sales of singles for 6 bucks which was suspended for a while.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Hey guys, here's another website where you can get 96/24 audio. It's called HD Tracks.

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php

darcar

I agree that it does suck that there are so few DVD-A titles in physical form available at reasonable prices these days. I have about a dozen albums, but it's been difficult to find anything lately that's not ridiculously priced.

As an alternative, I purchased Cirlinca's HD Audio Solo Ultra. This allows me to make my own DVD-A disks. By starting with lossless FLAC files and using the program to convert to 5.1, the results are excellent. Not as good disks made specifically for the DVD-Audio format, but all the speaker channels are used and starting with lossless helps too.

With the software 5.1 conversion applied, you are limited to about 2 hrs and 15 minutes per DVD. I don't mind because the better quality is worth it, plus I can create compilation albums too. Recently, I added an Infinity Basslink in the trunk. Now, with the Basslink and DVD-A disks, I'm enjoying the stock stereo more than ever.

I appreciate the OP's post, but for now I'd rather buy a CD and convert to DVD-A. The way the music industry is going, it doesn't seem like it will be all that long before it becomes difficult to find CDs for sale.

1995hoo

You can fit more than 99 songs on a DVD-Audio disc, assuming the stuff you're burning doesn't exceed the disc's physical capacity. You're limited to 99 tracks per group because that's the DVD-A spec. But if you create multiple groups (I believe you can have up to nine), you can have up to 99 tracks in each group, subject to the limitation of the total space on the disc.

I mentioned earlier how I burned several Beatles albums from the mono boxed set to a DVD-A. That's a good example of having more than 99 tracks on a disc, split across groups:

Group 1: First four albums (total 55 tracks)
Group 2: Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver (total 42 tracks)
Group 3: Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour (total 24 tracks)
Group 4: The White Album (30 tracks)
Group 5: just the song "Hey Jude" since that's all that would fit by this point

That's a total of 152 tracks. Obviously, I could have put the stuff from Group 2 into Group 1 and still been OK in terms of the disc structure, but I didn't do it because (a) if I want to skip ahead to a particular album, having more groups is more efficient than having fewer; and (b) in my mind the first four albums are a distinct grouping and the next three are another distinct grouping, perhaps because I remember when the original CDs came out in 1987 the first four came out on one day in February, the next three on one day in March or April, Sgt. Pepper on June 1, etc. Doing one album per group would not have worked when there were 10 albums, and the Beatles' albums are kind of short by current standards anyway.

darcar

Here's a tip if you're going to use groups:

Place a very short song or clip ( I use Beatles-Her Majesty, 23 seconds) at the end of each group (except last one).

When you hear the song, you have enough time to press SCAN+RPT to advance to the next group. Otherwise, you will advance to the next disk which is a pain.