Hello All,

I have a 2012 TL Advance and I recently found out that it has DVD-A. I did not have any so I bought one off Amazon and was blown away by the sound quality. There is a huuuge difference between the other sources and DVD-A. I think the quality ranking is in this order from best to worst: DVD-A,HDD, Ipod, Bluetooth, XM, FM. Let me know guys if you agree with this ranking.

I also have the following questions:

1- To feed this new addiction to high quality playback, I have looked for DVD-A for some of my favorite artists(DJ Tiesto, David Guetta, Deadmau5) but could not find any. So does anyone know where to get the 24-bit lossless for the above mentioned artists?

2-I am disappointed with the software for both the Navigation and Audio. Does Acura take customers' feedback seriously? Its either that no one complained about the software since 2009 or there have been complaints and no response from Acura. Some of the things that bother me are the no track/album info when playing from DVD-A, no pause/resume option, crappy voice command input, limited results from Nav search for known places.

Looking forward to your responses.

 

imo, the ipod should be before HDD.

 

Agree... The ELS system is amazing.

I found that the audio quality from my ipod touch is better via bluetooth audio than USB interface.

 

DVD-A + ELS is amazing...

Same here, I was not able to find my favorite artists too including DJ Tiesto I think it's due to low demand on DVD-A. I mostly use USB for playing music and streaming live radio from Moscow via Bluetooth from my cell phone.

I have no complains about Navi, barely use it. If need to find places my wife using her cell phone

 

I too was impressed by the quality of DVD Audio, so much so I started looking for DVD-A Discs right away, and was disappointed in the limited selection and price.

Reading a few threads online (probably here, before I became a member) I found you can use software to rip out the audio tracks of DVD then use a program like Discwelder to build a DVD-A disc.

I use DVD Audio Extractor and discWelder Bronze. So far ripping multi-channel audio out of Dave Matthews Band - Listener Supported and The Videos 1994-2001 and burning to DVD-A worked extremely well. Both of these programs have free trials so give it a shot on any DVD's you already own.

 

How's sound quality after rip using softwares you mentioned? Sound quality close to the original DVD-A?

 

@dwest1023: I guess it depends on the quality you have on each. For me, most of my music on the ipod is mp3(I use copytrans instead of itunes) whereas the HDD is copied from a Redbox CD. I will try putting some Apple Loss-less on my ipod and see how that compares to HDD.

@Samba: I would say they are very close, Bluetooth does seem to be louder though.

@shurik74: Like I said, I was amazed by the ELS system! I was surprised thought with the disconnect between the technology embedded in the 2012 Acura and what is actually available in the market to make use of this technology. I searched Amazon/ebay for DVD-A and I could barely recognize the artists(I only knew Pink Floyd, REM). Acura does not know that DVD-A is not prominent anymore? Or is it that there is no alternative source of high fidelity playback?

What kind of music files do you playback through usb, just regular mp3?

@Big_Debo: Thanks for the idea of extracting audio from DVD-V and ripping them onto DVD-A, maybe I can find some 24-bit 5.1 surround playback on DVDs for modern artists.

I also researched how to make my own DVD-A since I cannot actually buy them. I came across DVD-Audio Solo which is a nice piece of software, you can get a 30 day free trial from the link below and make upto 5 DVD-A for free. I used it to make two DVD-A but still the quality did not match the DVD-A I bought off amazon. I guess the bottleneck is the quality of music files I am putting there (mp3 that I converted back to WAV files). I even tried using HDtracks.com but was again disappointed with the selection, they do not have any of the artists I am looking for. This is driving me crazy! People don't like high quality music anymore??

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-...dio-Solo.shtml

 

See post #5 below
https://acurazine.com/forums/4g-tl-audio-bluetooth-electronics-navigation-294/dvd-5-1-a-791972/

 

Thanks Samba for sharing the link to that thread, it has some useful info about where to get DVD-A and how to make DVD-A from DVD-V.

 

I bought the Metallica black album DVD-A... WOW!!! If you go to Metallica's site they sell it for around $18.95. I too have tried DVD-Solo, and while it sounds ok the DVD-As burned using it dont compare to the purchased ones I have. I am interested in easy to use alternatives to enjoy the music I love - everything from House and Electronic to hip hop to latin to metal to alternative to classical.Yet I have limited time "bandwidth" to spend making DVD's. I use spotify.Is there a way to Rip there music or even Itunes music to a similar standard as DVD audio? This topic should have its own thread.

 

AtotheZ, I'm glad you like the DVD Audio ELS System.

Unfortunately, you're a few years late on the whole DVD Audio thing. The format is basically dead. If you can find discs, grab them.

As far as the what the car displays from the disc, that's a product of the disc itself. If that information is on the disc, the car will display it.

I find my discs at Amazon. They're difficult to find and some are expensive because they're mostly out of print.

 

The sound quality is surprisingly good, but not as good as the demo DVD-A

 

Acura is missing the opportunity to create an "itunes" type store around ELS.

(hope some executive & go-get-em entrepreneurial spirit from Acura with half a brain out there is reading this!)

You don't just throw the technology on the road and expect things to happen. You build a business model around it. So...

 

@mlopez: I am very sure that the quality of streamed music from Spotify or Pandora is equivalent to or less than that of redbox Audio CDs. After googling it, it seems that Pandora streams at 192kbps which is much less than CD quality. CD has two channel(stereo) with 44.1KHz samples with 16 bits each. So 44.1x1000x16bits=172.264 KBytes/second=1378.112 kbps.

1378>>>192 so CD wins

@Steven Bell: I know, its very sad I wish I knew about DVD-As earlier.

@Tonyware: That's my point, why would a 2012 Acura have a system that was out of the market in 2004? Makes it seems they are out of touch, unless like you said they want to build their own market around it which I doubt. Acura loves teasing its customers.

 

After reading the OP I thought I remembered seeing a voice command to pause the playback of a cd/DVD-a when I was reading the nav owners manual (I know, not typical of an AZ member) so I went back and checked. Of the 6 sources of recorded music playback (cd, bt, USB, iPod, hdd, Aux) only BT Audio has a Pause voice command ("Bluetooth audio pause"). Maybe this command works for others but isn't listed? I haven't tried it yet but will the next time I'm in the car. Why would Acura add this function to BT audio but not the HDD and disk?

 

Thanks oc48bound, I'll give it try as well. If it only works for bluetooth it might be that the pause command is at the bluetooth receiver level not the radio unit.

 

If Acura likes to tease its customers then perhaps they have identified their niece market as the sadomasochistic members of the population

That explains some of the stuff I read here every day (just kidding)

 

There are many 24 bit lossless .flac sources available, sometimes you just need an "invitation" to access them. No need to break the bank on crazy retailer prices!

As for software, DVD Solo is fantastic. If a source you are trying to burn is not true 5.1 .flac it will reject it right off the bat.

..currently enjoying Crystal Method's "Legion of Boom" and loving it.

 

I know Pandora doesnt measure up to CDs but Spotify has audio settings you can adjust to very high quality. Even at the lowest setting the sound quality is decent.

Hello there. Do you use the default settings for DVD solo? What are your sources? Mp3s.
I have used DVD solo (not spent a lot of time tinkering) using the default settings and using mp3s as the sources and get ok sound.

 

Mp3's will give you zero advantage over playing them via ipod/bluetooth audio/hdd

What you need is 24bit Lossless .flac content ripped directly from dvd-audio sources

 

Just as I thought. The FLAC content that is downloadable is not very much either.

 

You should have received a FREE DVD/A, from your dealer, contained, in the leather binder, that was furnished, upon delivery of the vehicle.
Anyway, enjoy!

 

I've been really happy with the results of converting my concert DVDs to DTS-CDs, although I'm looking forward to Adobeman updating his gui to do multi-channel, so I can get back to making DVD-As.

 

http://www.aixrecords.com/

Decent source for some DVD-A

 

I also recently (within the past two weeks) found out about the wonderful sound of the DVD-A. I bought one just to test it out and it was incredible! I immediately started searching for DVD-A's on the internet and was shocked/disappointed at the lack of selection and the ridiculous price. Seriously? Who the hell is going to pay $60 for R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People when it was release two decades ago? I did buy Everclear - So Much For the Afterglow for $17 off ebay though. Waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

 

The high costs are due to them being out of print and rare. It is a shame a real HD audio format never took off. Blame walk-mans and iPods and the advent of MP3s. No one that listens to their main source of music via ear buds is going to have an appreciation for true high fidelity.

 

Really....you can blame the death of DVD-Audio to a couple of things.

First, poor education to the buy public. Explanation of the format was poor.

Second, the fight between Sony and SACD's vs. DVD-Audio. Sony wanted their piece of that market and it did nothing but dilute and confuse everyone.

Third, try making the consumer who is not good with audio hook up 6 different speakers into the back of their stereo receiver! Good luck with THAT......

 

Try www.hdtracks.com. Great selection of high resolution music.

 

^^^ They do have a great selection. But I have a question about that site. Once you burn the music to disc, will it play back in 5.1 or just high resolution audio?

 

Steven; I also wondered about the 5.1/DVD/A, or DTS playback.
They have the whole "Stones catalog, in hi rez
I emailed them to confirm
Keep you posted

 

UPDATE:
Here is the response I received from the company:

We don't sell surround sound titles at this time. You can burn FLAC to DVD. But please note, the record labels sometime place coding restrictions on high res files for digital download only. We can not verify that every title is coded in this manner unfortunately. The labels do not tell us which files they are. But the best method is to burn to DVD or DVD-A and play through DVD or DVD-A player.

For 96kHz files use DVD-A, DVD-V, Blu-ray, SACD or HD-DVD
For 88kHz, 176kHz and 192kHz files use DVD-A, Blu-ray or HD-DVD
For 96kHz being burned to CD, CDR or CD-DA, the music will be resampled to the CD-DA maximum (48kHz)

It is important to use a burning program which can burn HD audio.

These are three commonly used programs:

Cirlinca HD Audio Solo
MediaMonkey Gold
Discwelder

This is a free DIY solution
http://audioplex.sourceforge.net/

 

I think back to my test drive on the TL. The first thing the salesman did was talk about the ELS system. He then popped in the free DVD/a that came with the car and it was amazing..... Too bad it all ended there as I can't find any of the music I like (alternative). Still kind of bugs me that Acura still pushes this so hard even though it's dying out.

 

ELS has a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ELS.Surround (maybe things are picking up on this format again?).

 

Steven Wilson, the front man for Porcupine Tree (and several other projects) is an huge advocate of DVD-A. You can get many PT titles in a double disc set (CD/DVD-A).
Sadly, he's about the only one I know of that is still supporting the format.

I create my own using Circlinca. I enjoy adding the ambience and/or width to my favorite music. I have created a Pink Floyd disc set as well as others. It's not true 5.1 but still sounds great in TL.

Too bad that Acura is the only company that I know of, supporting DVD-A format.

The ipod/ear bud world is sorely missing out on some great fidelity.

 

Thanks for the tip about Cirlinca. Got their 2 month subscription and burned a few DVD-A's using their instructions. I was blown away. OK, as you said, its not really true 5.1, but compare to expensive ($100 or more) production DVD-A's this is not bad at all. My Scorpions collection never sounded like that in a car before

 

My M37 has 5.1 and DVD-A, as long as you get the Sport Touring or Deluxe Touring package you get Bose 5.1. Not as good as the ELS in Acura, but not bad.

 

Wow, didn't know any other brand offered DVD Audio....