27 Aug
2003
27 Aug
'03
9:49 a.m.
On Wed, Aug 27, 2003 at 12:04:12 +0100, Daniel James wrote:
According to my maths you only get 65 mins if you max out the bandwidth
allocation (9.6Mb/s, 37.6Gb/disk).
However you get 135 mins with stereo 24/96.
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.
Yeah, some of the surround mixes I've heard recently aren't exactly
wonderful either. Personally I find wiring up surround speakers too much
of a pain, I used to have a 5.1 setup in my lounge, but I didn't bother
putting it back last time I moved as I couldnt face all the wiring.
Some random facts that seem relevant:
That are on the order of 100 DVD-Audio disks for sale in the UK (dunno
which are MLP or PCM), prices are the same as CDs. A DVD-A capable player
costs about EUR100, most cheap ones cant play DVD-A.
I cant find a public spec for DVD-A online, but the combination of a bit
of reverse engineering, a DVD-RW friendly player, and what stuff is
available (manufactures tech FAQs etc.) should make it a fun project :)
- Steve