DTS-CD My DVD-A To DTS-CD Instructions

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justinionn

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Feb 16, 2013
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Just thought I'd share my walkthrough for creating a DTS-CD from a DVD-A.

This is more time-consuming than difficult. All but one of the programs required to do this, are freeware.

Firstly, you need to copy the whole DVD-A disc to your hard drive, as an ISO file. I’d recommend CD Burner XP.

http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home

Simply insert the DVD-A into your PC’s disc drive, start-up CD Burner XP, and choose “Copy or grab disc.” In the next menu, click the “Hard disc” button, and change the “File type” to ISO, by dropping down the arrow button.

001.jpg


Once the ISO has been created, you need to open it, using WinRar.

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

Simply open WinRar and drop the ISO file onto the WinRar window to view the contents. Create a new folder on your hard drive, and drag all the contents to it.

002.jpg


Next, you need to download a small program called DVD-A Audio Explorer 2008.

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/DVD-Audio-Explorer

Open the zip file containing the program, and extract all the contents of the zip file to another new folder.

Double-click the file named “DVDAExplorer.exe” within the folder named “bin” to start-up the program.

003.jpg


Click the “Open Folder” icon, browse to the AUDIO_TS folder you dragged from WinRar earlier, click the first IFO file in the list, and then click the “Open” button.

004.jpg


Clicking on each track number will highlight the individual track and display the type of audio stored. Most DVD-A discs have a 5.1 Surround Sound mix of an album, along with a stereo version. So, ensure that the track has the 5.1 audio (Lf-Rf-Ls-Rs-C-LFE).

005.jpg


With the track data highlighted, click the “Save” icon. You need to click the options “Convert to wave” and “Split groups” in the menu which will pop up. Create another new folder on your hard drive, to save the split tracks and press the “Extract” button.

006.jpg


I’d recommend doing this one song at a time, because you’re going to get muddled-up otherwise, and/or run-out of hard drive space!

Next, open the folder where your extracted separate channels are, and start-up Audacity.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Process each file in Audacity, one at a time!!! Drop the file into the Audacity window to open it, Choose “File” & “Export”, then save the exported WAV into another new folder - yes, this is quite a bit of work.

Exporting the WAV from Audacity, converts it from being a 24 bit WAV into the necessary 16 bit WAV, which the DTS-CD requires. Once you’ve exported the 16 bit WAV, delete the original 24 bit WAV, so that you can keep track and save space!

007.jpg


Once you’ve done this for all six separate channels of the song, open the FLAC front-end program.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/flac/files/

This is actually a workaround… Some tracks will have junk embedded inside the actual WAV files’ headers which disable conversion. We’re going to convert the WAVs to FLAC files, and then convert the FLAC files back to WAV, because doing so removes the WAV’s header info.

Think of the headers as being like an ID-3 tag inside an MP3. This conversion doesn’t affect the actual audio quality of the WAVs at all, as FLAC is a lossless audio format.

008.jpg


Nearly there!

Download and install another free program called R8brain. We need to downsample the audio from 96,000 Hz to 44,100 Hz, and this program does this perfectly, with no time-stretching.

http://www.voxengo.com/product/r8brain/

Yes, this decreases audio quality - but it’s only decreasing the quality from super-high, to CD quality! Open-up R8brain, browse to the first separate file in your folder, choose the same folder as the destination folder, and set the options as per this picture:

009.jpg


Once you’ve changed all the options, click the button marked “Batch.”

In the next menu, ensure that you choose to delete the original files. Again, if you don’t, you’ll get confused and waste space!

010.jpg


Now, for the final step, you need Surcode’s CD-DTS encoder - which costs $99.00…

http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=88

But, if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you have a copy of the program already. :-D

This is truly the most straightforward part: Click each button to load each of the six separate channels of your song; choose the destination & filename of your DTS-encoded WAV, and press “Encode.”

011.jpg


I’d close the program after every encode, if I were you, so as not to forget to reset the “Start” and “End” timers on the console. They frustratingly remember the duration of the previous song loaded, unless you remember to reset the counters before loading new tracks.

Burn your WAVs to an audio CD, pop into your DVD player and enjoy the CD-quality Surround Sound. :)

A word of warning… All CD players and some DVD/Blu-ray players will simply play ear-splitting static, as they won’t recognise the DTS encoding. Before playing in your DVD player, turn your A/V speakers down low (if you’re unsure your player can play DTS files).

If you have a 5.1 sound system connected to your PC, VLC Player will decode these WAVs with no problem. :)
 
I have a couple of differences/comments.

Are you sure CDBurnerXP really works with copy protected DVD-Audio discs? I suspect not...

Step 1 - Extract Audio from DVD-A
Use DVDA Explorer to extract mono WAV files (as above), but use the DVD-A disc as the source directly - you don't need to copy it to an ISO.. & then extract it..

Step 2 - Convert Mono WAVs to 44.1k/24 bit
I use Audiomuxer to convert the mono wavs to 44.1K but keep them at 24bit...
Conv.JPG

BTW - This uses r8brain as above...

Step 3 - Create DTSWAV files
As above...but using 44.1K/24 bit files as input...
 
You've made this really unnecessarily complicated!!
All you need to do is use DVD-Audio Extractor to get the WAV files off the disc - no copying anything to anywhere, just set it up to pull the 5.1 tracks off.
Remember where you put them.
Resample to 24/44.1 - NOT, I repeat NOT 16/44.1 as the SurCode DTS encoder can handle 24-bit files easily and put them on the CD.
I woul;d not use the old SurCode either - anything is better these days. One of the "secrets" of DTS is that it should take 24-bit source for a genuine 24-bit packed file set (although the headers will still say 16-bit) and the other big "secret" is that the encoders got better down the years.
In order of greatness, with the worst first:
1 - SurCode DTS-CD
2 - SurCode DTS-DVD
3 - Steinberg Nuendo DTS Encoder
4 - DTS-Pro Encoder (separate pack & encode modules)
5 - SurCode DTS-HD encoder (also capable of DTS-CD as well as DTS-DVD, I believe)
6 - DTS-HD SAS/MAS Encoder suites. SAS will only do DTS-CD and DTS-DVD, but the MAS will do the lot.
Proof them with the DTS-HD StreamPlayer (free with the MAS encoder suite)

There is absolutely no need or point in copying the DVDA to your local HDD - none whatsoever - and by reducing the bit depth to 16-bits (if you do this you MUST remember to dither as well, or you just truncate the word and that ain't good. Just pull the Audio files off with DVD-Audio Extractor (not DVD Audio Extractor by CAS Labs), name them something sensible and resample to 44.1KHz (if you are in stereo land, you can do 24/88.2 AND put it on a CD) and encode to DTS. Job Done
 
You've made this really unnecessarily complicated!!
All you need to do is use DVD-Audio Extractor to get the WAV files off the disc - no copying anything to anywhere, just set it up to pull the 5.1 tracks off.
Remember where you put them.
Resample to 24/44.1 - NOT, I repeat NOT 16/44.1 as the SurCode DTS encoder can handle 24-bit files easily and put them on the CD.
I woul;d not use the old SurCode either - anything is better these days. One of the "secrets" of DTS is that it should take 24-bit source for a genuine 24-bit packed file set (although the headers will still say 16-bit) and the other big "secret" is that the encoders got better down the years.
In order of greatness, with the worst first:
1 - SurCode DTS-CD
2 - SurCode DTS-DVD
3 - Steinberg Nuendo DTS Encoder
4 - DTS-Pro Encoder (separate pack & encode modules)
5 - SurCode DTS-HD encoder (also capable of DTS-CD as well as DTS-DVD, I believe)
6 - DTS-HD SAS/MAS Encoder suites. SAS will only do DTS-CD and DTS-DVD, but the MAS will do the lot.
Proof them with the DTS-HD StreamPlayer (free with the MAS encoder suite)

There is absolutely no need or point in copying the DVDA to your local HDD - none whatsoever - and by reducing the bit depth to 16-bits (if you do this you MUST remember to dither as well, or you just truncate the word and that ain't good. Just pull the Audio files off with DVD-Audio Extractor (not DVD Audio Extractor by CAS Labs), name them something sensible and resample to 44.1KHz (if you are in stereo land, you can do 24/88.2 AND put it on a CD) and encode to DTS. Job Done

What software is used to do the Resmaple to 24/44.1 ?
Thanks!
 
If you want to make dts-wav files that will play on the AppleTV (gen 2 or 3) just follow the same instructions but use 48kHz instead of 44.1kHz for the dts encoding. You'll need the Surcode DVD version since the CD version only supports 44.1. That way it can all be converted to Apple Lossless and placed in an iTunes library for streaming to an AppleTV.

The gen 1 AppleTV passes through 16/44.1 bit perfect, the gen 2 and 3 pass through 16/48 bit perfect.
 
One of the "secrets" of DTS is that it should take 24-bit source for a genuine 24-bit packed file set (although the headers will still say 16-bit)

Everything I've researched online, states that the resulting DTS-CD will be read as 16 bit, with only 14 bits actually used at all. :(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.1_Music_Disc

Although the DTS audio track is read at the same fixed bitrate as 16-bit linear PCM (1,411 kbit/s) only 14 bits (1,234 kbit/s) are used for the encoded data stream; the remaining two bits are always zeros. This has the effect of attenuating the noise that would result (by roughly 12 dB) should one attempt to play a DTS Music Disc with a non-DTS system, and thereby reducing the chance of speaker damage.

My instructions were for specifically making files to create a DTS-CD, rather than just DTS files to add to a CD-Rom disc etc.
 
Everything I've researched online, states that the resulting DTS-CD will be read as 16 bit, with only 14 bits actually used at all. :(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.1_Music_Disc



My instructions were for specifically making files to create a DTS-CD, rather than just DTS files to add to a CD-Rom disc etc.

DTS encoders - all of them - work better when fed with a 24-bit source file, not a truncated or dithered 16-bit file with it's associated quantization distortions or dither noise.
That information came direct from DTS themselves, and they ought to know.

Resampling?
I use Voxengo's R8Brain Pro set to prevent clipping but not Ultra Steep Slope.
I usually use Minimum Phase method as well, because Linear Phase SRC can - and often does - introduce problems with pre-ringing. Min Phase seems to work better in 99% of cases.
Watch your levels. With heavily limited material, an SRC can reduce the output levels quite noticeably.
 
Just stumbled onto this thread...
Couple weeks ago, I was converting a SACD to DTS flac files for my server. I did a comparison of reducing the sample rate to 44.1 vs. 48. You would think that 44.1, being a multiplier of a SACD sample rate, would sound better, but man was I wrong. Using Audiomuxer/surcode cd/dvd, something very bad happens when the process converts to the 44.1 dts CD files rather than the 48 dts DVD files. I am guessing something is going wrong with the 24 bit conversion within Surcode. The difference very obvious...
 
CD is 16 bit. DVD is 24 bit. You will hear more degradation going from a 24 bit to 16 bit word size than going from 48 Kbps to 44.1 Kbps.
 
CD is 16 bit. DVD is 24 bit. You will hear more degradation going from a 24 bit to 16 bit word size than going from 48 Kbps to 44.1 Kbps.

I know. Neil, however, suggested that you could keep the 24 bits / 44.1 sample which made me think of my post. Not so sure about that? Changing from 352 to 48 using Audiomuxer, although not a multiple, sounds great in both pcm and dts so it's no big deal. Now it's a matter of curiosity if you can do 24/44.1 dts using other/any software?
 
I know. Neil, however, suggested that you could keep the 24 bits / 44.1 sample which made me think of my post. Not so sure about that? Changing from 352 to 48 using Audiomuxer, although not a multiple, sounds great in both pcm and dts so it's no big deal. Now it's a matter of curiosity if you can do 24/44.1 dts using other/any software?

I have the Surcode "DTS-CD only" program and can confirm it does 24 bit/44.1 kHz files.

Here is their website: http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=87&lang=en
Best to check different products for ones needs.
 
CD is 16 bit. DVD is 24 bit. You will hear more degradation going from a 24 bit to 16 bit word size than going from 48 Kbps to 44.1 Kbps.

After thinking about this some more, I'm going to correct myself...

I'm thinking the sound quality probably has more to do with which bitrate works best with the DTS encoder compression algorithm than the original bitrate. Since the DTS-CD must end up at a 1.234 Mbps bitrate, it is constantly adjusting the inputs to get the best perceptual output. So the original bitrate probably doesn't matter as much for lossy DTS as it would for a lossless codec like flac or 44.1/16 CDs.
 
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