oblio98

One of the members over at QuadraphonicQuad has posted about this product. If it's the real deal, almost every TL owner who wants to make real DVD-As now can, legit, for $35!!!

http://www.cirlinca.com/products.htm

Adobeman

Since it claims to do true multichannel it will be interesting to see how it works. At 35 bucks I doubt it is doing MLP lossless compression but that may not be a big deal. For anone who is only concerned with ripping CDs to DVDA then my scripts are still cheaper since they are free. I'm going to check it out and see what it can really do. Probably take a few days.

Adobeman

I was able to take some music from DVD-V via:

1) DVD2AVI to create a .ac3 file
2) BeSweet (w/ BeLight GUI) to do .ac3 to 5.1Wav (6 channel wav)
3) DVD-Audio Solo to make the disk.

Oddly the disk will not play on anything I own except the car. But the result is truly amazing for a $35 dollar product.

The stuff I did was four songs from the closing credits of movies. You know the ones that are re-mixed in 5.1 and sound really "big". All channels were properly placed in the car including the LFE/.1 sub. I'll probably use this disk to show off to my friends.

I didn't try ripping any CDs since I was only interested in multichannel audio. My scripts do the "CD thing" and are free and play on multiple players so I still will use those for that.

Verdict - It would be better if the disks produced actually played on more players but for the price I'll forgive it. I also plan to provide feedback about the other players not working. Perhaps it is a setting I used or a hack they will fix.

oblio98

Mike,

Very cool. Glad to know it worked.

Magomboman

Mike, Did you have any problems transferring wma/mp3 to the project side of the program? Any assistance will be highly appreicated, thanks

Adobeman

Didn't even try that. wma and mp3 aren't of interest to me since they generally sound so poor.

My main point was to see if it could truly handle high quality multichannel sources. Which it did brilliantly. Putting 2 channel on DVD is easy, in fact you can use my scripts to do that. This program will allow us that know how to extract high quality multichannel material from DVD-V to make stunning DVD-As that will play in the car.

Further, I must RETRACT the statement "Oddly the disk will not play on anything I own except the car" It does play on my other players that are truly supportive of DVD-A. I just had some "brain fart" going on in my delirium of how good this thing works for the price.

I contacted Cirlinca with some questions and there responses are favorable. They seem to really be interested in making the product as good as can be. They also say they will add MLP to a future release. Let's hope they do.

Dumont

Thanks guys,

I used DGDecode to rip ac3 files from DVD vob files, then besweet to rip 6 wav files (i.e. that make up the 5.1 surround sound) and then burned a DVDA with DVD Solo trial version. It worked great. I tested it on a Harry Potter movie, now all I need is to find out what concert DVD's are around to rip. I wonder whether we can also rip select tracks from DVDA's to make a compliation DVDA. Has anybody done this?

Dumont

Toronto-TL

How did you create a ac3 file from the vob using dvd2avi?

triggle

I thought I posted this already but I could not find it.

It will be interesting to see if we are able to use BeSweet to decode DTS disks that have pops and clicks, and create a clean DVD-A with the DVD-Audio Solo. This might be possible since the pops and clicks are likely due to the ELS's DTS decoder and not the source material.

Adobeman

You got Solo to see the 6 mono wav files ? I couldn't. It would only see the single 6 channel waves that I created with BeSweet. The problem with the 6 channel wave (my way) is you need to be really careful to not re-mix the LFE into the FR and FL channels. Your way has better control since you have a file for each channel. I tried 44.1K/16 bit and 48k/16bit and solo didn't see either. Could you tell me what settings you are using for BeSweet to generate the 6 mono wav files because my way of making 6 files isn't working. (command line example is best) Thanks !

Here is the setup I am zeroing in on (for concert style DVD-V):
1) AC3Tool (uses vstrip.exe) to extract .ac3 stream from vobs.
2) Chapter extractor to get the chapters from the DVD. Basically you need the value where each chapter starts in whole "seconds".
3) BeSplit to split the .ac3 into separate files for each chapter (long ugly command line using absolute positioning with seconds)
4) BeSweet to convert each chapter's ac3 to wav. (using a command line batch method)
5) solo to burn.

Results, a full multichannel disk for the car with track breaks exactly where they belong. Only a slight gap is noticed between tracks. (hiccup on crowd noise). With all that processing I'm not surprised. Probably due to the fact that BeSplit splits on whole seconds which don't line up exactly with the boundaries for each chapter of the source. Some small padding must be occurring when the wav files get created.

Adobeman

Actually it can be quite complicated for the uninitiated. You may prefer to use AC3Tool.

Use the "AC3 Extraction" tab.
Pick your channel to extract. Typically there are more than one audio tracks. You need to figure out which is the correct one. Usually the first that has 6 channels. Often says AC3 or 3/2 ...
Name your output file and click "Extraire"

This creates one big .ac3 file.

It also has an ac3 to wav tab but I prefer command line BeSweet since it is easier to make sure you don't accidentally compress, re-mix or rearrange the channels. AC3tool will do it but way to many options to keep setting.

Dumont

Hi Adobeman,

Ooops, today when I went for a short drive with my New DVDA I noticed that what I did was record 6 different wav’s into 6 separate files on the DVDA – in other words each one has a separate channel coming out of all speakers.

Here’s what I did, maybe you can help me with what I did wrong (meanwhile if I have time I’ll mess around with it again myself) I used the GUI interface, I really don’t like dealing with line commands, sorry. By the way am no computer expert, all I usually do is try figure things out on my own using common sense and searches on the internet and of course with some help with people such as yourself.

1) I opened an about 1 gig vob file with DGDecode which demuxes all tracks which created 2 ac3 files and one d2v file (which I named hpex.*)
2) Then I used Besweet GUI version to create 6 mono waves. I just went back to the program and see it creates the command line automatically so here is a copy
"C:\Documents and Settings\Comchartering\Desktop\besweet\BeSweet.exe " -core( -input "k:\Movies\New DVD\hpex T01 3_2ch 448Kbps DELAY -16ms.ac3" -output "k:\Movies\New DVD\hpex-" -6ch ) -azid( --maximize )
3) I then used DVD Audio Solo to make the DVDA but obviously it created 6 separate tracks instead of one Surround Sound 5.1 track

I guess in order to put together a single 5.1 track I need a different program than Solo? I’m going to fool around with Solo again to see.

Or I need to go back to Besweet and change the settings so that it does produce the proper file(s) that Solo can use to produce a 5.1 track. Please let me know the setting you used in Besweet to produce files that Solo can make into a 5.1 DVDA.

Thanks in advance
Dumont

Adobeman

Dumont,
I think the naming suffix you use for the files is very important for Solo to realize you have a "set" of files to group together. Check out the section I bolded from the help file.

Dumont

Thanks, I think, for me at least, no need to complicate matters using 6 separate mono files (which I created by mistake) although it is cool to be able to listen to them 1 by 1 to see (hear that is) what each channel is playing. But after my last post I went back to besweet gui and created a single 5.1 wav file then with Solo burned another DVDA from the resulting single 5.1 wav and it sounds beautiful in the TL, Of course a movie file is not the ideal thing to listen to since basically getting the dialogue from the center channel most of the time. I guess its the cheap way of "watching" dvds in the car, you just have to imagine the scenes

Here is the script that besweet gui created "C:\Documents and Settings\Comchartering\Desktop\besweet\BeSweet.exe " -core( -input "k:\Movies\New DVD\hpex T01 3_2ch 448Kbps DELAY -16ms.ac3" -output "k:\Movies\New DVD\hpex.wav" -6chwav ) -azid( --maximize ) -profile

By the way the vob file I have been using to test this is on my hard drive ripped with 123 copy dvd so do you think will work the same way straight from vob files on the DVD? Maybe I have to always rip them to HD first?

Now what I have to do is find some good concert DVD's to make into DVDA's

BTW do you know how to rip select tracks from a DVDA to make a compilation DVDA? You know like a few tracks from the Acura demo plus tracks from other DVDA's?

Thanks
Dumont

Dumont

A bit off topic

Adobeman, what is the easy (and free) way to rip vob files into avi's?
I don't want them in mpgs because I want to use my full version of Quicktime to export them from avi to 3gp which I can play on my cell phone (LG VX8100).
If I can only rip vob's into mpg's then I will also need a (free...) program to do mpg to avi (or straight mpg to 3gp although quicktime makes them very small and quality is great).

Again thanks

Dumont

Toronto-TL

Success!!!

I was able to create a 5.1 DVD-A of only the songs from Yellow Submarine for playing in my TL, sound quality is awsome!

Dumont

Off Topic vob to avi - found a freeware program which testing now: http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=avi.NET

Dumont

Pankul

just in case anybody did not know ...
http://www.castudio.org/dvdaudioextractor/index.htm

I have been using dvd audio extractor, for a while, to extract any DVD Video disc to separate wavs (total of 6) per chapter. The program costs less than $30. Totally worth it.

Dumont

Hi Adobeman,

Back on topic, I also realize one major item I missed was that the DVD vob files encompass several chapters (in the case of music/concert DVD's songs) and when I ripped a DVDA from a DVD I got one big file. While it plays fine in the TL after burning with Audio Solo if I want to skip straight from song to song I can't. Is there an easy way around this? Did I miss a step or setting during the ripping?

Appreciate you help.

Dumont

Adobeman

BeSplit will do this but you need to know the start times of each chapter. I use ChapterXtractor to get the chapter times in hh:mm:ss format and then convert it to total seconds. It is ugly and I am going to see if there is a simpler way, but it does work. You will get one .ac3 per each chapter. Then convert each to 6 channel wav and burn them in the correct order. I do notice a slight hiccup in cheering between tracks.

Dumont

Once again many thanks, I actually found there is a Besplit GUI version (at doom.org I believe it was). You still have to pick the splits but it is easy, just have to listen and can advance and rewind the wav's with the mouse. If I start doing it more often I will try a pay progam like Caststudio as mentioned by Pankul.

Dumont

Adobeman

Dumont,
Check out the latest version of ChapterXTractor. http://www.divx-digest.com/software/...rxtractor.html Version 0.962.

In the "raw data" tab load the .ifo file for the title set that is the one you want to extract chapters for
Then go to the "format tab" and select "BeSplit Parameter" in the "Presets" Dropdown. It will give you a command line that you can copy. I just tried it on a disc I had lying around and it generated the code chunk below. All you hav to do is fill in the "" areas. It will even do that if you type data in the "filename" and "directory" boxes. It even does it to the millisecond.

AC3Tool, BeSplit and BeSweet set of tools provides a huge amount of functionality. I'm not sure that I'll persue the Caststudio tool as mentioned by Pankul. My way is quick, free and yields a single 6 channel wav per chapter rather than 6 mono files.

If you really want to get further into this investigate "normalizing" your tracks. This is the "-ota ( -g max )" addition to the beSweet command line. It will make the track as loud as possible without clipping. Just consider the source.

• If it is an entire concert then you need to run a .ac3-->6chwav conversion on the entire ac3 first using the "-ota ( -g max )" option. Only run this just the after the point where it says something like "Overall Track Gain: x.xxxdB " and then starts to encode. (just want the normalization factor). Then kill it and run Besplit to split the ac3 file. Then when you convert each little ac3-->6chwav use the "-ota ( -g x.xxxdB )" option where x.xxxdB is the value in the first step. You must type in x.xxxdB, not just x.xxx. It sounds like a lot of work but you will get a disk that is as "loud" as possible and all tracks will be appropriate levels with respect to each other.
• If the source is a bunch of songs from different discs then you can just normalize each split file using the "-ota ( -g max )" option to make each track as "loud" as possible.

Also, make sure you have a spaces just as I show them in the -ota option. It is very touchy.

Bplayer

I could not find a support site for AC3Tool, so maybe some here can help me. I installed AC3Tool and VBRUN60sp5. When trying the AC3 extraction function on two different video disks it stops with a Run-time error '380', invalid property value before I have a chance to specify the output filename. The files on the disk in the \Video_TS directory were:
Video_TS.vob
VTS_01_0.vob
VTS_01_0.vob
VTS_01_1.vob
VTS_01_2.vob
VTS_01_3.vob
VTS_01_4.vob
VTS_02_0.vob
VTS_02_1.vob
VTS_03_0.vob
VTS_03_1.vob

and the first file was selected as instructed. If I select any of the other files I get a blur of shell windows which open and close, some ending with access denied.

Is the problem the DVD, my PC, DVD reader/writer, or AC3Tool?

acuratl05tx

Hi All,

Well, I used "DVD Audio Extractor" to easily rip the audio from a DVD.

The DVD is the Police Synchronicity tour. It has both DD and DTS.

I ripped two ways:
1 wav file for each channel (6 wav files per song)
1 6-channel wav file (1 wav file per song)
Total output via each method was the same, about 3 gigs.

I tried burning using both Burn Now and DVD Solo.

Burn Now:
Couldn't figure out how to combine the 6 wav files into 1 track.
Couldn't figure out how to get it to recognize all 6 channels in the 6-channel wav files. It only showed a total of ~600megs when I added all 14 6-channel wav files to a disc (remember they totaled almost 3 gigs.)

Conclusion : Burn Now doesn't work for me.

DVD Solo:
Couldn't figure out how to combine the 6 wav files into 1 track.
COULD get it to properly add all 14 6-channel wav files to a disc. Burned a single sided Memorex DVD-R.

The DVD-A was recognized as a DVDA by the TL and played fine!!!

FYI, I ripped the DTS audio from the source DVD.

So the combo of DVD Audio Extractor and DVD Solo makes for a painless way to make DVD-A discs from DVD-V(ideo) discs for me.

Now I need to start looking into DVD-Video discs that have soundtracks worth converting!

rickneuropa

OK, I downloaded the trial versions of DVD Audio Extractor, and DVD-Audio Solo. Both programs are very easy to use, and do a great job. However, I just burned a DVD-A with about 14 tracks ranging from ELO's Zoom in concert, Elton John, New Order, to Depeche Mode live in Paris DVD-V's When I put the disc in the Acura, it reads disc, and kicks it right back out. Yet, when I play it on my computer here at work, it playes fine on Creative's DVD-Audio player with an Audigy 2 sound card that supports DVD-A. Sounds fantastic here at work, but trying to figure out what I did wrong that the TL doesn't recognise it. A question for everyone that has successfully created one that plays in the TL, I noticed after the fact, that when you choose DVD to write the project in DVD-Audio Solo, in the Disc tab, there is a box to check for DVD-Audio encryption for copy protection. Do you need to check that box so that the TL's system sees the disc as a DVD-A disk?

Bplayer

What type of DVD disk did you burn? Many people have reported problems when using DVD+R media, some work in the TL and some dont. Seem to be manufacturer related.

rickneuropa

Ah, good point bplayer. I am using the Sony DVD+R discs. I will have to buy some DVD-R's today amd try that.

Adobeman

Yes. Please try DVD-R. All my disks are on DVD-R and not one coaster in the TL.

I exclusively use -R and have never had any problems with either DVD-A or DVD-V in any player except for the one time I bought crappy rebate DVD-Rs. Lately I have been using TDK (4x and 8x media) all burned at 4x, my burner's max, and having no problems. Frankly, I have no desire to even start using +R given the amount of compatibility issues I see here and in other discussions I go to.

rickneuropa

I just picked up a pack of 40 Teon DVD-R discs for $7.90 at Staples. That equates to 20 cents per disc. WOW, now hopefully these don't fall under the "crap" category. I guess for that price, it's worth a try! I'll let you know how I come out.

Adobeman

Well, I gotta say....the crap-ola meter is looking to be in the "yellow" on those. Could go either way. If you burn DVD-V as well as DVD-A just make sure the media plays in any and all players you may want to use before burning much on them.

Download a media code reader to see who really makes them. I am betting it is CMC Magnetics which may actually be OK. You can get DVDIdentifier and it will identify the disks and even link to videohelp.com's library of user reports for the media.

Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I still got 35 of 50 "Star Logic" branded Princo discs lying around since they don't work in many players. But they were 10 cents a disc so hopefully yours are twice as good at 20 cents

rickneuropa

They are made by CMC Magnetics, and they work great in the TL!!!! It was the DVD-R that made the difference.

These two packages make it so very easy to create DVD-A discs, I am really impressed with the DVD-Audio Solo software.

It was really interesting to hear the THX startup you hear on movies in the TL. I chose the one they put on some Disney DVD's (yes, I have a daughter, and my wife does daycare, so we have a huge library of Disney) that has the little guy with the Cow box, and he pluggs it into the THX sign, and you get moos coming from all the speakers independently...very nice to show off the system. Elton Johns's Box set from Best Buy is fantastic!!! The use of the surrounds to bring you at the concert is done so nicely! On the Greatest Hits live DVD, Elton's voice is in the center Channel, so it really brings out that center channel for show. Unfortunatly, the Center is the weak spot in the TL, but it still does a nice job. The live at Euphesus DVD wraps right around you, and you feel like your on the piano while EJ is playing and singing.

csmoore

The DVD Audio Extractor seems to work well, but it didn't do well on batch processing of multiple titles. I have Peter Gabriel DVD, and had to select each song (title) separately and decode it. It would be nice if I could check off all
of the titles and let it run for an hour on them. Any suggestions? Some of the other DVD-A tools seem like they have better batch processing, but you can't preview the audio tracks etc.

Carl

Adobeman

I tried it as well and found a few problems with it.

• In the mode where it creates one wav file for each chapter it just wouldn't do the last three chapters. They were 0 bytes no mater what I did.
• You can only normalize song by song. You typically want to normalize for the entire set of songs on a disk so the relative levels are maintained between tracks

So I am zeroing i on using a combination of Ciler's AC3Tool, BeSplit (using ChapterXtractor for split points, and BeSweet for AC3->6chWav encoding.
With some batch scripts it isn't as daunting as it sounds. Nonetheless it is a lot more work than DVDAudio extractor. With home made batch scripts it is about 4 steps.

There is a "select all" option with DVD Audio Extractor so you can also still try using it to create one BIG wav file and then using CDWav to split your tracks. CDWav is really good at chopping up big wav files.

csmoore

I didn't see any select all feature in DVD Audio Extractor. There are a couple different vendors with that name. The one I'm talking about is http://www.castudio.org/dvdaudioextractor/ I also tried the ACE DVD Audio extractor, but didn't seem to have audio preview.

Carl

rickneuropa

In the DVD-audio extractor I used, it allows a select all in the listing, right above the check boxes for the audio files. Also, it allows you to check a box to separate the files by chapters automatically, so I can let a whole DVD extract out into separate 5.1 wave files. And never had a problem missing any chapters like Adobemen is having. Maybe you need to update your version for these extras.

csmoore

Which version do you have?

rickneuropa

DVD audio Extractor 3.3.3

n1976jmk

well, last night i d/l the dvd-audio solo program, and found a mp3 to wav file program, trial version also(want 19.95 for it soon though)trying to find free one), and turned some of my mp3 into wav's, then put them into the dvd-audio program and then burned them to my dvd-r and tryed in my dvd player(which plays dvd-a and super audio cd's) which worked. then this morning after my wash, it worked right away in the car, real easy program to use. i will be purchasing it after the trial period for sure. sounds nice and so easy to use. nice to be able to put alot of songs on a disc, reminds me when i had my accord and the avic-n1 and was able to make mp3 disc with lots of songs on it, especially when i have these 60 minute long club mixes and now will be able to put more than one a disc and not have to have so many discs.


ps- if anyone knows a free mp3-wav program that they use that is easy to use please let me know.

thank,
jon

pss- what does the program actually do?? how does it turn a 2 channel song into a 5.1 channel song? ie... lets say i take the metalica black album(regular cd) and then use the dvd-audio solo program and make into a dvd-a disc.. will it sound just as good as if i was to buy the metalica black album in the dvd-a format? if so this will pay for itself pretty quickly...

Adobeman

Use CDEx (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/) as a free mp3->wav converter. Great free tool for all kinds of things related to audio files and ripping.

Solo doesn't turn stereo (2ch) content to 5.1. It just makes a stereo DVD-A. BUT, if you have 6 channel content it WILL make a true 6 channel DVD-A of it.

n1976jmk

so by what you said, if I buy the Metalic Black album in DVD-A format it will sound better than if i took my 2channel metalica Black album cd and burned it through the dvd-audio solo program. there will be a big difference in sound between the one i made and the one you buy because of the seperate channels?

thanks,
jon