[linux-audio-user] DVD audio authoring

[Daniel James]

> you can store
> uncomressed PCM on DVD-A discs, you still only get 9.6 Mb/s, but
> that just gives you enough bandwidth for 4 24/96 or 6 24/48
> channels.

How many minutes of audio can you get on a DVD-A then, assuming you 
use the maximum bandwidth available to get the highest sample rate 
for your number of channels?

I can imagine this could work quite well without MLP encoding for 
stereo music, as opposed to surround mixes. As Mike Oldfield once put 
it, you only have two ears and your natural inclination is to face 
the thing you are listening to. I don't think he was very happy with 
some of the surround version done of his music, dating back to the 
quadraphonic vinyl days.

A serious drawback I can see at the moment for 5.1 mixes of music is 
that if people are playing them back on systems designed for home 
cinema, the rear speakers are likely to be the those tiny plastic 
ones, really only intended for effects noises. I'm sure that two good 
speakers will sound better than six bad speakers.
 
One factor that isn't really addressed by MLP is that DVDs are really 
cheap to make now. Plenty of films come with a second disc for the 
special features now - so is there any point in using an expensive 
compression system on DVD-Audio that requires hardware support? A two 
disc set is likely to retail for more than a single disc anyway - 
that's marketing for you... 

Cheers

Daniel