[linux-audio-dev] Re: Any interest in DVD-Audio?

[Dave Chapman]

oliver oli wrote:
> Is there a way to play lossless multi-channel audio with DVD-Video
> players? AFAIK most video players only play the first two PCM channels.

I think the DVD-Video spec allows for multi-channel PCM, but I'm not
sure if any disks (or even players) have ever tried.

> But DVD-Audio players should play multi-channel PCM audio from a video
> DVD. Is there any reason not to produce a DVD-Video intead of DVD-Audio?
> (What are the aditional features of DVD-Audio besides MLP?)

One difference is that the maximum bitrate allowed for audio on a DVD-V
is 6.1Mbit/s, compared with 9.6Mbit/s for a DVD-A disk.  So this allows
more channels of uncompressed PCM at higher sample sizes and
samplerates.  You can also create a DVD-A disk without any video content
at all - so giving the whole capacity of the disk to audio.

DVD-A also supports multiples of 44.1KHz (44.1KHz, 88.2KHz and
176.4KHz), as well as 192Khz - DVD-V only supports 48KHz and 96KHz.

DVD-A disks also allow slideshow like images to be displayed (and
navigated) independently of the audio - in a DVD-V disk, the video and
audio are linked together and can't be navigated independently.

Finally, DVD-A incorporates what is known as a Simple Audio Manager
(SAMG).  This is compared with an Audio CD's Table of Contents and gives
the user full access to the audio content of the DVD-A without needing a
monitor.  It also allows for the possibility of "simple" DVD-A players
like portables or in-car units to be built.

Some more details (and links to other resources) are on my project
website here:

http://dvd-audio.sourceforge.net

Dave.