Burn a DVD-AC3 Compatible CD-R

grant+harris writes "This interesting article shows how it is possible to burn AC-3 audio onto a normal CD-R. Will this technology usher a new type of online piracy when DVD-Audio and surround sound systems become more commonplace?" While this is only audio, it is a good step in the right direction.

Comments

Wow, isn't horribly old news?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I've been downloading DivX files with AC-3 audio well over a year now. In fact, I remember all the confusion on the 'net when AC3 audio DVDRips started floating around and people had no clue what audio codec to use.

Hey, news flash...you can also burn MPEG-2 video files to a CD, just like a DVD!

You can do more than that...

[ferrocene]

This has been out for over a year, maybe two. Oddly enough, I was just doing this last night. There's several programs that will do this, in fact there's a program that will do this in one easy step as opposed to SoftEncode...

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/besu re .html

"This program allows a direct conversion from VOB/AC3 to CD, using BeSweet (freeware) and SurCode DTS (for DTS-CDs : commercial-ware)!! Makes AC3-CDs, DTS-CDs and standard CDDA discs. "

This is way cool. I took my roomate's Dave Matthews DVD, popped it through this program, and out came a burned CD in either DTS-CD, DD5.1, or regular CD. Way cool, and perfectly legal as far as I'm concerned. I'm making a backup and/or transfering the media to a different format.

And the original article was published here:

http://www.modernrecording.com/articles/soundav/ li nk46.html

quite some time ago.

Better than that, you can burn mini-dvd's on to a CD. There are several programs that will burn the ISO DVD directory structure on to a regular CD. This comes in handy for say, when I took my roomate's NIN DVD in DTS, and extracted the DTS track, and burned that onto a dvd-cd. The DTS track is a perfect 550mb. How cool is that. Also good for burning DD5.1/THX trailers onto a CD to take to the home theater shops to test out their systems. You can get full blown .vob's here:

http://dvdgsm.free.fr/vob.html
http://www.digit al-digest.com/dvd/downloads/traile rs.html

I have my copy with 12 different trailers, including the simpsons THX one. It doesn't work in all players, you need to test them out. :)

Fun programs to have:
Surcode DTS encoder
Sonic Foundry Soft Encode
Gear Pro CD/DVD burner
Scenarist NT dvd authoring program (it's a $39,000 program which can be used to make menus like the Matrix DVD)
vobrator
DVDDecrypter

websites to visit:

doom9.org
apachez.has.it
http://tatooine.fortu necity.com/jabba/220/miniDVD. html
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/d vd_con vert_minidvd.html

and of course #pcdvd on efnet.

More from http://www.doom9.org

[Codeala]

http://www.doom9.org contains lots of information and tools to work with AC3 plus DVD, MP3 etc. The tools are mainly for expert users as they are mostly commandline only. Althought some of them come with GUI wrappers, I am not sure if they are much help as they are perfect examples of GUI from hell (no offends!). They will get the job done if you are willing to commit quite a bit of time.

Of course if you don't have a good decoder/speakers don't waste your time on AC3.

Re:How about just plain..

[lostchicken]

Vorbis (ogg) makes a binary data stream. AC3 makes an encoded sound. That sound comes out of any system that can record and playback sound (standard compact disc, LaserDisc, etc.), and if that sound ends up in an AC3 surround processor, you get 5.1 music out.

You can put an AC3 disc into a CD player, and play it straight out (not recommended, hard on speakers). All you'll hear are sounds like a modem chatting.

WAV-padded AC-3 not reliable

[yroJJory]

I've done a considerable amount of testing 5.1 formats on CD-R and DVD-R (and variations). Yes, AC3 can be WAV-padded to look like a PCM audio file and subsequently put onto a red book CD-DA disc, but I've found that most older AC3 decoders don't understand the reverse bit-order format.

On the flip side, WAV-padded DTS does work on all DTS decoders, as it was included in the format from the beginning.

Additionally, DTS is a better format because it is fixed-rate 4:1 compression, as opposed to AC3's variable 12:1.

Re:Works on many ordinary CD players too

[Fred Ferrigno]

Never mind - I'll encode my whole MP3 collection into AC-3 files ...

Uhh.. many DVD players can play MP3s on a data disk just fine. Why recompress them?

DVD-Audio != AC3

[ubergeek]

All DVD-Audio discs must contain an uncompressed or MLP-compressed LPCM version of the DVD-Audio portion of the program. For further flexibility and added compatibility with existing DVD-Video players, DVD-Audio discs may also include video programs with Dolby Digital, DTS, and/or LPCM tracks.
-- Pohlmann, Principles of Digital Audio, Fourth Edition

LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation)and MLP compressed LPCM allow for a variety of word sizes and sample rates. But AC3 != DVD-Audio. As the root said, there may be AC3 (or DTS, et cetera) tracks included on a DVD-A disc, but those are not 'DVD-Audio tracks'. They are included for "added compatibility with existing DVD-Video players".

Re:Actually, you are the "new-speak"er here...

[Gumshoe]

The word "piracy" has been applied to plagiarism and copyright violation for over two hundred years. Edward Gibbon uses it in this sense in his Memoirs of My Life, first published in 1796:

I am at a loss how to describe the success of the work, without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a few days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand; and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin. My book was on every table, and almost on every toilette.

Please allow me humbly to suggest that, when a meaning has been in common usage for hundreds years, it is the people who try to remove this meaning that are guilty of revising the English language for their own purposes.

Etymologically, you are absolutely correct. However, the modern meaning of the word "piracy" (when used in this context) refers to actions that aren't strictly copyright violations. For example circumnavigating region encoding on DVDs is covered by fair use rights and is thus not a "copyright violation" but is "piracy" none-the-less.

It seems that it is the RIAA's intention to criminilise (in the minds of the public as well as the government) actions that would otherwise not be considered "crimes" if "copyright violation" was used in favour of "piracy". As mentioned by Sanity in the original post, this is literally new-speak.

Walter Carlos

[Anonymous Coward]

*ahem*

Walter was great, but a bit repressed.
Wendy was great, but every time someone rang her at Bell, she salivated.

One day, Walter became Wendy. Then Walter was no more.

Now Wendy delivers the score.

(No, it's not a troll, but a bit of inside info)