Topic: DiscWelder News

[Trevor]

The boys at Minnetonka told me that they are expecting to release an updated version of DW Steel that will support DOA recording.  Gapless 24/96 DVD-A.  It should be released in the fall.  This, with a V3 and an SD722 and we will be stylin'.  Let's hear it for the boys at Minnetonka!

[dmonterisi]

ha! i had the same conversation with them yesterday...they also told me the update will be available to current owners "for free or for a minimal upgrade charge."  i ordered my copy today for friday delivery so i can mess around some this weekend.  

by the way, if anyone plans on getting it, order from digitalproaudio.com...their price is $120 less than ordering direct from minnetonka and it's simply shipped right from minnetonka to you.  kinda silly really.

-damon

[Nick S.]

What software are people using for dvd-a with a Mac?  OS 9 or X?

thanks,
Nick

[jpschust]

DOA= dead on arrival, DAO= disc at once :-)

[RRobar]

Damon, how much was it? Now that the 24 bug has bitten me real good. I'll be looking this way soon.

[dmonterisi]

$379...do you have a dvd-a player?  if you do and want to send me the music files (compressed or otherwise) i can author a couple of dvd-a's to give you a taste if you want...

[RRobar]

I don't yet. Scott does so I may still take you up on that.

[dmonterisi]

let me know...got the software today via overnight...might stay up installing this stuff...call in a snow day for work tomorrow

[scb]

in answer to the mac question:

i burn dvd-v discs with 24/48 or 24/96 audio in dvd studio pro.  

i don't have a dvd-a player, so it's nice to be able to play these discs in a dvd-v player.  just hook up the digi out to the dac and i'm golden

[RRobar]

I thought one could do that. I'll have a DVD burner at some point this year. DO you just burn as the audio track with blank screen?

Although at $379 I think Imay have to invest in discwelder.

[dmonterisi]

so i installed d/w last night (early this morning actually), upgraded the firmware on my sony drive and authored and burned my first dvd-a.  discwelder is unbelievably simple to use.  it's drag and drop like easy cd creator.  click record and it goes.  start to finish, it authored and burned the dvd-a in 35 minutes.  once i get higher burn rate media, it will be under 15-20 mins or les i think.  

compare that to how i used to do them before i got my dvd-a player.  i would do something similar to scott (even though i was using 16/48 files since i didn't have high-res files at the time--i only did a handful as part of archiving some of my DATs, there wasn't any real benefit to this).  but i had to encode the audio into the right mpeg+wav format and that process would take several hours for a full set which is what i would normally lay down.  the process sucked, the software was all pretty ratty shit...the whole process was pretty ghetto...this is much nicer, imo...i usually created a jpg with show info on it as a video "placeholder."

-damon

[Craig T]

So does the version you just got do gapless tracks/DAO?

[dmonterisi]

no...there are very, very small gaps (that the company insists are inserted by the way the players read dvd-a).  they are releasing an update probably this fall that will cure this issue.  so for now, i'll be burning full sets as one track, or maybe breaking it up where there is silence/breaks in music, gotta experiment some.

[scb]

>> I thought one could do that. I'll have a DVD burner at some point this year. DO you just burn as the audio track with blank screen?<<

in a video program, i take a still image and stretch it into a movie.

then i drop it into dvd studio pro, import the audio track and burn.  

of course, with dvd-v you could make all sorts of menus and all that too, but that takes effort

[Trevor]

Damon,
How hard is it to insert tracks in DW if you wanted to.  Is it fairly easy?

[dmonterisi]

what do you mean "insert tracks"?  to set up a disc to burn, all you do is highlight the files and drag them into the bottom or "album" window...make sure they are in the right order and click record...no encoding of the audio is necessary...makes it a snap.

[Trevor]

I meant like setting up the "tracks" on the disc.  Do you just drop a marker or something where you want song 1 to end and go to song 2 and another to go to song 3.  Like a cd.  you know what I mean?  do you do this in DW or do you have to make each song a sepparate file in a mastering program and DW burns them in the sequence that you put them in in the "album" window.  

[dmonterisi]

trevor...it's more like a cd burner, where you just drop the tracks in and it burns...on video-grade dvd, you can author one long track for a set and then drop chapter marks (with some programs) to allow you to put in what are v. similar to track markers (some programs make them accessible from both menu and the remote, others, just the menu)...so i think to answer your question for d/w, you have to have separate tracks (and that's how the pauses come into play).  D/w then puts them on the disc in the order you list em.  let me know if this makes sense.

-damon

[Trevor]

Thanks Damon for clearing that one up for me.