Acura TL 2004
This is great Audio system, but taking advantage of it has been a problem, as we all have experienced. So here is a few lessons learned. I hope they help.
1. It makes MP3s sound great, if you don't mind the Hacks.
2. True Commercial DVDAs that suit your personal taste may be limited and I can only buy them online and it seems there hasn't been any new ones in 4 years. There is nothing that sounds better in the Acura TL.
3. The only alternative is to make your own DVDAs and I have used all the tools over the years and none are brain dead easy.
4. Cirlinca DVD Solo Beta 2 is the best balance of ease of use and functionality especially for the price. it converts almost all audio types for you to 6 channels except DTS encoded. (For DTS encoded use Foobar2000 with the DTS plugin.) It's V.I. surround sound is not as good as true 6 channel sound, but it is much better than the flat sound of DTS 6 channel.
5. DVD Audio Extractor is the only other tool that I have found easy to use for ripping music videos or movies. It will provide you with the 6 channel sound of your favorite music from the movie sound track. This is not as good as a Commercial DVDA but much better than the other sources.
6. Just as you like to play MP3's or Ipod tunes of your choice you can do the same thing with 6 channel sound. All you do is convert your favorite files to WAV or any format DVD Solo takes. (I convert to WAV because it is the most common and supported by most audio applications, in fact DVD Solo in V2 will convert all of their supported formats to WAV.)
7. Once everything is in 6 channel WAV format you can use DVD Solo or any of the other products like DiscWelder Bronze or DVDA to make your DVDA. Then you can mix and match your music of choice.
@@@Warning@@@ Warner Bros watermarks their Commerical DVDAs so when you rip a song it will not play for more than 15 seconds on your Acura TL. But it will play on your PC with DVD Solo Beta 2.@@@

Quick recap for those who want to make DVDAs quickly.
DVD Solo Beta 2 will turn almost any format into 6 channel WAV and will rip most Commercial DVDAs.
For DTS encodings use Foobar2000 to convert to WAV
For 6 Channel Movie Sound use DVD Audio Extractor and convert to WAV
Then burn DVDAs with your favorite mix of music.

I know there are many tools out there, but my goal is to save time and money and this is the best combination I have found with these 2 goals in mind.

 

Cool! Thanks man, I didnt even know we could make our own DVD-As..

 

Look up threads by Adobeman. He built a number of tools for DVD-A including a program to convert 2-Channel to 6-channel (The Adobinizer). He too touts Cirlinca Solo as an easy to use, low cost DVD-A authoring tool.

I've been using the Adobinizer for some time, converting orignal source 2-Channel material to 6-Channel DVD-A. It's not the same as a commerial DVD-A mix, but some of the "home made" stuff sounds exceptionally good in 6-Channel in the TL.

 

Thanks Bearcat94... I was about to go look in the mirror and see if I still existed. Thought I might have vanished.

To the OP,

Cirlinca Solo is a well known and well respected product on this board. It came along after I wrote my stuff and is in fact a better value than my scripts since it is a single step product, handles 6 channel content and as you very correctly say is "...the best balance of ease of use and functionality especially for the price". You will see I recommend it over my stuff for anyone that doesn't mind pay-ware.

You say "it converts almost all audio types for you to 6 channels" I haven't used Solo for a while but I was not aware of this feature. Are you saying it will actually (in the current beta) synthesize a surround sound mix? Or are you saying it will will dupe channels in a way to use each channel discretely. If the latter then that's just a waste of bandwidth since the TL HU will do process 2 channel material into all 6 channels anyway.

As for "it makes MP3s sound great" well let's just say it doesn't make them sound any worse.

Here's a cross link to the Audio FAQ PART II for anyone seeking additional info
https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...33&postcount=3

 

I am a new user to this forum. I have tried certain software programs to create audio dvds & play in my Acura TL 06 dvd audio system. But I faced failure all times showing the error 'Format'. Can you explain me what type of dvd to use, audio format & software program to create audio dvd which will work in acura dvd audio system?

 

"certain software programs" ?? You need to be more specific if you need help with whatever software, hardware, media, etc. you are using.

If you haven't tried the trial version of Cirlinca DVD Audio Solo with DVD-R media then start there. DVD-R, as opposed to +R, has been generally more successful.

And... Since it's your first post we'll be nice. Welcome to the forum. This is all out there in the forum ad nauseum so SEARCH please. Did you miss my "Here's a cross link to the Audio FAQ PART II for anyone seeking additional info https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...33&postcount=3 comment in the post above ?

 

FWIW - I've been using DVD+R (Single Layer) and DVD+R DL without issue. Burning images with Roxio Creator 9.

These are playing on an '07 Head Unit.

 

I am one of your favorite fan and using your software. However, sometimes i m having trouble with coverting process. The Mp3 file has to be 41000K(is it right?) in order to put the songs into the list. Now the problem is that after all the songs are in the field and press the " make DVDA", I get error message say that unable to covert, use other programs. Can you help me? It mostly happens with non-english mp3 titles and songs.. Does it matter?

 

You can use CDEx to convert them but it also could be the titles if the character set if you are using a non-English set. There was another guy that was using an Asian set and the program really had trouble with that.

 

Help! New to the forum - I bought a 2004TL last year it's great - best car I've ever had. Only problem is that I want to experience the great things everyone's been saying about the ELS System - however, every attempt I've made to create a DVD Audio have failed: I keep getting a format error.
I am using Roxio Music Creator. I've read that I need to convert my MP3s to .WAV - Done that. Then I burn into DVD-R but it does not play in the car...Can anyone please help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

 

As far as I know, Roxio Music Creator does not make DVD-A disks. It makes music on DVD-V discs. Look at the disk's contents and I bet you will only find .vob files in the video_ts directory and no .aob files in the audio_ts directory. That's never going to work in the TL.

Try the trial of Cirlinca DVD Audio Solo or my stuff.

 

Correct. Roxio does not have a DVD-Audio option. Just Movie or Data, IIRC.

You need a DVD-A authoring program (like Solo as suggested). There are a few but they are hard to find and I don't think I've ever seen one as Freeware.