Issue with Beatles Love 5.1 audio on car stereo

[geoffroy]

Hello, i am new to the forum. i have really enjoyed the threads so far and i am soaking up the info like a sponge. i have a technical question so i hope i am in the right place.
i just bought the Beatles Love dvd audio and tried playing the 5.1 in my car (dvd audio 5.1 system). the dvd auto starts and plays in a high quality stereo. i could not select the 5.1 anywhere. so, i pop it in my dvd player in my home without a 5.1 and there is a menu option for AUDIO on the main menu that allows the selection of 5.1. this is a missing button in my car.

Has anyone had this problem and is there a cure? i own a lexus 460ls with a mark levison audio setup

thanks!

 

[MacDaddy]

Hi geoffroy, I have a Lexus IS350 with Mark Levinson. From my experience the only way to select the start up menu on a DVD is have the car in park and the parking brake engaged. Parking break "ON" is the important part.

 

[geoffroy]

thank you, you are right about the parking brake being on for the menu, but the top menu does not display AUDIO for 5.1 selection. It displays the other menu selections but not AUDIO. it is like the dvd tries to autostart in stereo mode. i have tried another love dvd and the same thing happened and i have gone to lexus and tried a newer 460ls with one of the techs, but no luck.

if i need to extract the files somehow and burn a new disc i would like to do that if possible

any help would be great

 

[georgeshannon]

if i need to extract the files somehow and burn a new disc i would like to do that if possible

If you want to do this, I recommend using DVDAexplorer to extract the MLP files. Then use Discwelder Chrome to assemble the MLP files into a DVDA. Change the resultant .dim file to .iso and burn to disc using imgburn.

Hope this helps.

 

[MacDaddy]

Hi again, it looks like you are right about the top menu for audio selection, but mine defaults to DVD Audio. I had a quick look and the only thing I could see was under the DSP menu I have surround turned on. At this time I have no idea how to switch to DTS or Dolby.

 

[JonUrban]

No way to change the 'group' or 'folder'? It works that way in some Acura's.

 

[Time Lord]

No way to change the 'group' or 'folder'? It works that way in some Acura's.

I think Jon is on the money. I have the Mercedes Harman Kardon system, Mark Levinson is produced by Harman Kardon, and the way for me to navigate different types of recordings on the disc is the group menu. Love on my system defaults to 5.1 DVDA output but I can migrate to the other coding via group menu. I think you should also have your surround turned off as in my system that enables a crappy processing system that turns a stereo source into a multichannel field but completely buggers up a native multichannel recording. .

 

[geoffroy]

I think Jon is on the money. I have the Mercedes Harman Kardon system, Mark Levinson is produced by Harman Kardon, and the way for me to navigate different types of recordings on the disc is the group menu. Love on my system defaults to 5.1 DVDA output but I can migrate to the other coding via group menu. I think you should also have your surround turned off as in my system that enables a crappy processing system that turns a stereo source into a multichannel field but completely buggers up a native multichannel recording. .

You are right, do not enable surround through dsp.

I appreciate everyone responding to this thread!

 

[geoffroy]

I finally got it to default to 5.1 by turning off the AUTO parking brake and manually setting the parking brake with the button. Its weird. There might be a bigger issue with everything, because this mark levinson system is not recognizing channels of audio. I have made a new posting about this regarding my new Steely Dan Gaucho disc.

Thank you.

 

[geoffroy]

I think Jon is on the money. I have the Mercedes Harman Kardon system, Mark Levinson is produced by Harman Kardon, and the way for me to navigate different types of recordings on the disc is the group menu. Love on my system defaults to 5.1 DVDA output but I can migrate to the other coding via group menu. I think you should also have your surround turned off as in my system that enables a crappy processing system that turns a stereo source into a multichannel field but completely buggers up a native multichannel recording. .

I tried this on my LOVE dvd hoping it would be the same, but to no avail. The problem is the Lexus Mark Levinson DVD audio player cannot play High Res PCM surround audio. So, while I was listening to a so called "3/2.1 PCM" 96k 24 bit surround, the channels are not there and the mix is not surround. The surround only exists as Dolby Digital somewhere else on the disc, but I cannot access the "group or folder". As far as I know maybe the newer model lexus with the "Auto Start" option in the software would allow me to chose another group, but right now my 2007 lexus is stuck.

I have tried everything

 

[Time Lord]

I tried this on my LOVE dvd hoping it would be the same, but to no avail. The problem is the Lexus Mark Levinson DVD audio player cannot play High Res PCM surround audio. So, while I was listening to a so called "3/2.1 PCM" 96k 24 bit surround, the channels are not there and the mix is not surround. The surround only exists as Dolby Digital somewhere else on the disc, but I cannot access the "group or folder". As far as I know maybe the newer model lexus with the "Auto Start" option in the software would allow me to chose another group, but right now my 2007 lexus is stuck.

I have tried everything

I had a look at some of the info out there (as I'm sure you did) and it appears as though Mark Levinson car audio from that era is not fully compatible with all formats sadly. On the bright side when you are ready for your next vehicle you know how to prioritise..... power, acceleration, handling, fuel economy, reliability, servicing intervals, safety, design....they are important......but not as important as 'will it play my DVDA collection in glorious 5.1' I kid you not, my last 2 vehicle purchases have been with my DVDA's played on the vehicle first. It has cost BMW at least one sale because they did not support DVDA.

 

[geoffroy]

I thought about going to the Acura dealership yesterday and seeing what they have At least take a test drive and pop my DVDA in the stereo.

 

[leevitalone1]

I had a look at some of the info out there (as I'm sure you did) and it appears as though Mark Levinson car audio from that era is not fully compatible with all formats sadly. On the bright side when you are ready for your next vehicle you know how to prioritise..... power, acceleration, handling, fuel economy, reliability, servicing intervals, safety, design....they are important......but not as important as 'will it play my DVDA collection in glorious 5.1' I kid you not, my last 2 vehicle purchases have been with my DVDA's played on the vehicle first. It has cost BMW at least one sale because they did not support DVDA.

It has cost BMW at least one sale because they did not support DVDA.

that is how I think!

 

[JonUrban]

that is how I think!

Me too!

 

[leevitalone1]

not related to issue, but I did have that Love dvd a that went bad. Couldn't get it to open the dvd a portion. On 4 different players no less. It would go try to open it, but end up defaulting to the other sections. I ended up replacing it.

 

[geoffroy]

thank you, I might be able to go back to where I bought the disc and try another one. I did this already, but did not know about the group selection search.

 

[Cygnus_X1]

I'm late to this thread but I know what the problem is. I almost bought a used 2009 LS460 with the ML sound system but luckily I brought along my Acura DVD sample disc to test it. I noticed that some of the songs sounded weird and it didn't sound like anything was coming out in 5.1. There's a track where all the discrete channels are tested separately and the center and rear channels were silent. I also tried it on a 1997 LS460 with the same result. There was an Acura TL there with ELS and the disc sounded perfect.
After some research, I learned that Lexus didn't include discrete audio channels in the 2009 LS460 and older, and even though the car will play a DVD-A it just converts it to stereo which is a bunch of BS. I'm told that was fixed with the 2010 LS460 but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. Otherwise the LS460 ML system sounded incredible to my ears.
What sucks is I also tried the disc on a brand new 2013 ES350 with the ML package and it would start to play the disc but then it skipped around and finally quit.
The moral of the tale is to try your DVD-A discs before you buy a car because they may not work....unless it's an Acura since they seem to play them all easily.

 

[CPR]

The Acura ELS plays it in DVD/A; sounds AMAZING!
If John & George were alive............................................................
2012 TL/SH-AWD/Tech

 

[Cygnus_X1]

Yeah, I just bought a new TL and this is my favorite DVD-A so far. Like my previous post, I was going to buy a used LS460 but luckily I tested them and learned that before 2010 they couldn't play discrete audio channels, all DVD-A was converted to stereo. Screw that lol.