kungpaogringo

I realize I'm 5 years late to the funeral but I bought my 2012 TL last year strictly for the listening pleasure of the incredible ELS 5.1 surround audio system. I've amassed a nice collection of DVD-A and DTS 5.1 surround discs which have become my greatest guilty listening pleasure. Some thugs smashed a window in my car recently but thankfully did not steal my priceless and irreplaceable collection of DVD-A discs. I am now on a quest to duplicate the discs I own to hedge against a future calamity. Anybody familiar with this quest would know about the watermarking feature in the ELS player making it extraordinarily difficult to play copied DVD-A discs. Apparently, in the distant/not-so-distant past, there were ways around this using now-out-of-print ripping and authoring software like discWelder Chrome II, Cirlinca DVD Audio solo, WaveLab versions 6, 7, 8, perhaps others, etc.

Is there anybody out there still able to perform these feats of magic? Copying and playing DVD-A discs in the Acura ELS TL? I need the recipe and would love to hear from you. You're my last hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

JordanF

I too am curious to know the answer of this question. At the moment I do not own any DVD-A discs and have not actually experienced the quality in my own car yet. Having already heard hundreds of hours of my own music in there over Bluetooth and USB and loving it (along with impressing passengers at the quality and the volume) I can only imagine how good the DVD-A sounds. Reviews make it seem like it is a considerable difference so I would like to find out however due to the rarity and cost of DVD-A I would much prefer to go my own route with downloaded music.

dregsfan

When the 3G came out, it came with a DVD-A of a variety of well known tunes of different music genres remixed by ELS specifically for the ELS system. I bought my 3G as a CPO but that disk wasn't supplied. I had no idea it existed until I bought my 4G. It's a CPO also but the DVD-A came with this car, as it should have with the 3G. So I guess the dealers have or can get them. Track 16 is Money For Nothing. Play it at volume 12-14 and enjoy

There were a couple of threads in the 3G Audio forum on this topic a few years ago when I was looking for info on ripping the 5.1 audio from concert DVDs for playing as DVD-As. The info may be out of date by now though.

kungpaogringo

JordanF, you are 99% of the way there! You have the car! I guarantee you the best listening experience you'll ever have anywhere. Find a DVD-A disc and go for a ride. Warning: highly addictive. You may end up like me and become obsessed with it.

I did have a bit of a breakthrough regarding copying my collection. Here's my current recipe:

• Samsung Bluray Writer SE-506 ($50 on ebay)
• Macbook Pro
• DVDfab 10 software (free 30-day trial)
• Pop in a DVD-A disc into the Samsung
• 2xUSB to the Mac (had to purchase a $6 USB extension cable)
• Open DVDfab 10 to "Clone" mode.
• Rip the disc to file
• Pop out the DVD-A
• Switch to "Burn" mode
• Load the .ini and .iso files from the DVD-A you just ripped
• Load a blank DVD disc
• "Burn"

And that's it. Unfortunately, it will not successfully burn a disc manufactured by Warner Music Group as the watermarking technology built into the ELS will stop your copied WMG discs at 30 seconds into every song. Which is a huge bummer. Everything else seems to copy fine. Some discs include data in excess of 4.7 GBs so you'll need a dual layer blank DVD disc to burn those. I am testing that later today. The Samsung should be able to handle it.

kungpaogringo

Hi Dregsfan, could you help me locate these forum threads? Appreciate any help you can provide.

dregsfan

Use the search box for this forum and search for DVD author. Finds 8 threads, including this one.
Use the search box for the 3G audio forum and search for DVD author. Finds 97 threads.

If none of that helps you, try different search terms.