Topic: New free DVD audio tool for building hybrids

[libfab]

Hi,

a new tool has been added to the DVD audio Tools site launched by Dave Chapman in 2005:

http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=131997&sel_platform=4617

The Hplex package embeds both dvda-author and Lplex to make so-called "hybrid" or "universal" DVDs.
It still is an experimental application that was written in Windows batch, just to test the concept.

Hplex-made hybrids have two zones: a DVD-Audio zone and a DVD-Video zone. DVD-Video players can read video zone, and audio zone will only be read by a DVD-Audio player or a universal player (now available for cheap, see Playback Forum on TS).

A variety of file-management options have been added, which don't exist in commercial software that makes comparable hybrids (Minnetonka's DiscWelder Chrome version or Sonic's DVD-Audio Creator). Files can be automatically sorted according to their audio characteristics (bit and sample rates) and the "burning strategy" of choice. Like: you can make a full "mirror" (audio and video zone have the same audio content), or just burn 44.1 kHz files to audio zone and 48 khz files to video zone.

I consider migrating Hplex to all other platforms if the experiment turns out to meet tapers' demand in some way or other. Please report bugs or issues by PM or on this thread.

Also, new content has been added to the project site (http://dvd-audio.sourceforge.net), with a discussion on so-called "gapless playback", the subject of quite a few threads on TS.

Fab

[jmz93]

That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask a question about audio only dvd-v versus DVD-Audio discs.
Is there any difference in how the audio is encoded between these formats? i.e. does the audio on a dstandard dvd-v get compressed at all? If so, is this something to worry about?
Same thing about DVD-A... any compression involved?
thanks
JMZ

[libfab]

That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask a question about audio only dvd-v versus DVD-Audio discs.
Is there any difference in how the audio is encoded between these formats?

> Yes, the MPEG streams aren't quite the same. DVD-Audio discs (audio zone in Hybrids)  just have audio content (plus a few bits for system management), while DVD-Video discs always have a video stream. What was achieved with Lplex was to minimize the size of the video stream wrt the audio stream. For the same audio characteristics, DVD-As will take less space on disc. The difference is not huge, however. The interest of the DVD-Audio format essentially lies in its ability to encode higher sampling rates (up to 192 kHz) and also the 44.1 x n kHz sampling rate series. 

i.e. does the audio on a dstandard dvd-v get compressed at all?

> DVD-V usually comes with DTS/AC3/MP2 compression. Yet quality DVD-vs can be bought with 16/48 and even 24/96 audio streams. Lplex can make DVD-Vs with 24/96 audio tracks.

If so, is this something to worry about?

> It depends on whether  you're looking for hi-fi audio or no.

Same thing about DVD-A... any compression involved?

> The rationale of DVD-As is hi-fi audio, not compression. The reverse of mp3 players, in a nutshell.

thanks
JMZ