DVD-A sound cards

[ArmyOfQuad]

I've obtained 2 versions of creative mediasource, both of which would not recognize dvd discs at all. I got the feeling it was only a cd player. I've yet to find a version that will do dvd-a.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Those players come with the bundle of programs for the soundcard, although Creative MediaSource version 3.30.35 will play MLP files. It will play a multi-channel MLP file, but I have not been able to output it as multi-channel so far.

Creative MediaSource DVD-Audio Player looks like this:

 

[Ge Someone]

PowerDVD version 7.3 will playback [..] surround DVD-A discs without downsampling.

AFAIK you need the Deluxe (or Ultra) version of PowerDVD to play DVD-A (MPL).

 

[georgeshannon]

AFAIK you need the Deluxe (or Ultra) version of PowerDVD to play DVD-A (MPL).

Yes, thanks for including that very important detail. I believe that can be the difference between listening to DVD-A in surround and an otherwise frustrating experience with PowerDVD.

 

[elshagon]

A nice feature of the Creative Mediasource Dvd-Audio player pictured above is the ability to create your own playlists from dvd-a discs. What I do is use Daemon Tools to create 4 virtual drives on my computer. I can then load dvd-a discs I've backed-up as iso images onto the virtual drives. This allows me to create playlists from all 4 discs in Creative's player. You could use even more virtual drives to load more discs. The other night I had Elton John's GBYBR, The Foo Fighters In Your Honor, Porcupine Tree's Lightbulb Sun and The Beatles Love with all songs loaded in the player at once with random play. Make sure it's the newer Creative player, as I have an older computer with a Audigy 2 card that came with a different version of the player.

 

[ArmyOfQuad]

PowerDVD version 7.3 build 3723 also doesn't play dvd-a for me. It does the same thing the last build I tried did, the first time I try to play a dvd-a, it says "powerdvd will automatically play the dvd-v content because there is no cppm key available. Please activate the cppm key via the internet" and anytime after that it just automatically goes to dvd-v.

Other forums speak of this and say there is no way around it.

The few people in this thread that claim they've gotten it to work are the only people in the world that have as far as I know. Because as far as anyone else knows, there is NO way to get powerdvd to work with dvd-a.


Where can I find that creative player? A wikipedia article claims the creative player is free to download at their website, but I can't find it there. And any version I've tried to obtain through other means only does cd.

 

[elshagon]

I'm looking around to find out if you'd need a creative soundcard to take advdantage of the dvd-a player. The Creative Mediasource dvd-a player I'm using came as part of the software with my Creative xi-fi soundcard. It would be easy enough for you to load the software for the player, but does anyone know if it would work for AOQ if he doesn't have the creative soundcard?

Also I think I recall Powerdvd has trouble defaulting to the dvd-audio on some discs the way they're authored. There's a way around this though. Powerdvd will play the "AOB" files from the Audio_TS folder of your disc. On the Powerdvd player click on the drop-down box on the bottom left and select "Open media files". Go to the drive/folder where your dvd is located and open the Audio_TS folder and select all the large AOB files to play.

 

[ArmyOfQuad]

I do have a few creative soundcards, I don't know what software they came with or where those discs are, a lot of things got left behind in the move, such as boxes that came with my computer hardware, discs, and various computer parts.

Thank you everyone that has posted to this thread with info. Hopefully with some research, I can find a simple and easy way that anyone can playback dvd-a discs without dealing with the bullshit copy protection blocking them.

 

[JonUrban]

My PowerDVD (which I just updated with a "mandatory" update) still plays DVD-Audios.

How do you find the "build" number. When I go to ABOUT, all it says is "PoweDVD 7.3(Ultra)"

 

[georgeshannon]

My PowerDVD (which I just updated with a "mandatory" update) still plays DVD-Audios.

How do you find the "build" number. When I go to ABOUT, all it says is "PoweDVD 7.3(Ultra)"

When you're in the ABOUT, go to "This product is licensed to:" and put your mouse pointer to the name in the box. Click on that name. The details of the ABOUT are then displayed.

 

[elshagon]

My PowerDVD (which I just updated with a "mandatory" update) still plays DVD-Audios.

How do you find the "build" number. When I go to ABOUT, all it says is "PoweDVD 7.3(Ultra)"

when you're in the "about" screen look to where it says "this product liscensed to".....click where your name is listed and the info comes up. The build number is where it says "dvd version: xxxxxx"

edit: Hey George....beat me to it my a minute!!!

ps one of the features being discussed regarding powerdvd and build numbers is the ability to playback watermarked copies of dvd-a.

 

[georgeshannon]

Other forums speak of this and say there is no way around it.

The few people in this thread that claim they've gotten it to work are the only people in the world that have as far as I know. Because as far as anyone else knows, there is NO way to get powerdvd to work with dvd-a.

I'm honored to be among the lucky few. I've been fooling around with a web page lately and decided to upload some screenshots of PowerDVD playing a DVDA.

http://home.comcast.net/~georgeshannon/PowerDVDdoingDVDA.doc

Please take this in the spirit intended and don't think I'm saying "I told you so" or anything like that.

I wish I knew what happened to your install. I'd certainly help you out. I'm sure you'll figure it out soon with all the resources available on this forum.

 

[georgeshannon]

edit: Hey George....beat me to it my a minute!!!

ps one of the features being discussed regarding powerdvd and build numbers is the ability to playback watermarked copies of dvd-a.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your information. I saw Jon's post and noticed you were not online so answered per your instructions.

I copied two tracks from ELP BSS onto a DVD-RW and ran a test. Played with flying colors in surround at 96K.

Have you found bit depth displayed anywhere?

 

[Old Quad Guy]

When I go to the PowerDVD application at: C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD and right click “properties” and click on the “version” tab it says: File Version: 7.3.3723.0.

When I click on my name (I’ve paid for and registered this product) in the application’s “about” menu it says it’s DVD Version: 7.3.3730.0. There are other numbers that describe the product as 3723 and 3723a. Not sure what the numbers mean.

I’ve played a cloned copy of “Machine Head” with no problems that Creative Mediasource DVD-Audio Player or a Pioneer 578a would not.

 

[elshagon]

Yes, the 3723a is your powerdvd build. I'm not certain but read somewhere that they changed powerdvd after build 3319a so it won't play watermarked copies. Did you try accessing the AOB files like I described earlier?

 

[JonUrban]

Thanks to all. I just checked my ABOUT and it states it's version 7.3.3730a.0

It also says Audio Output Capability: 8
Audio Decoder Capability: 6
IMPs: acd, bdre, bdrom, dvd_aud, dvd, dxm, hddvd, upnp, vcd20, vr

I will have to check and see if I can no longer play back a cloned DVD-Audio. To me it's not that big of a deal, because it's in my car that I would want to play back clones, not on the PC.

 

[ArmyOfQuad]

yeah, it won't access the files either. I'm not really that interested in powerdvd at this point. I'd really like to find a copy of the creative player, or get windvd working. Also, I'm not concerned about playing burned copies, I just want to get my store bought dvd-as to playback.

 

[elshagon]

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your information. I saw Jon's post and noticed you were not online so answered per your instructions.

I copied two tracks from ELP BSS onto a DVD-RW and ran a test. Played with flying colors in surround at 96K.

Have you found bit depth displayed anywhere?

No problem. Just trying to help getting playback on the pc for everyone. It's much easier than it used to be. We now have means to playback all our dvd-audio discs including copies, extract mlp's from our discs and make our own mixed disc. Too bad it wasn't like this when the format first came to market.
I haven't found anything on bit depth, Powerdvd sounds good but I believe they must downsample or something because to me it doesn't sound as good as the Creative player.

 

[ArmyOfQuad]

yeah, that's why I want to get a copy of the creative player. I'll have to look around some more and see if I can track down a copy of that.

 

[neil wilkes]

And, by some chance, it plays it as a dvd-a. However, it tries to play the 96kHz as 48, without downsampling. Yeah....great programming, forget whatever the sampling rate is, just throw whatever crap out the speaker you can.

This is 100% dependant on your soundcard settings. It's the same on my WinDVD 6 and my RME cards - if the converters (external 19" rackmounted) are set to 44.1, a 48k multichannel plays too fast. Ditto 96 on the disc, 48 on the converters = wrong sound.

I guess that would be too much to ask for. As a consumer, I have no rights, not even to play the discs that I pay my hard earned money for.

Not if you are trying to play SACD you don't. At least some are actually trying to sort DVD-A playback. Maybe not that well, but at least there is effort to do so. Unlike the usual complete lack of it from Sony.