Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audio and dvd

Help me hook up a new HDTV to an old(ish) stereo receiver?

Dr. Wu — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:03:39 -0800

Can you help me connect my optical-out DVD players to my new HDMI-in HDTV? This is the kind of thing that drives me bananas.

Just got a nice, brand-new Sony HDTV, with several HDMI-in ports. I would like to get the highest resolution I possibly can out of my video components -- generally DVD. In the past, when I had an older, analog TV, I just used the stereo receiver as an A/V switcher, for which purpose it works very well. But now this functionality has been compromised by the new array of input/output jacks.

Here's the setup:
- The two DVD players I have (one "regular" and one multistandard) both have optical-out ports. I have an old laserdisc and an even older VHS player hooked up to the system, too, but I'm not terribly concerned about them right now.

- I have all audio and video components running through a good, but eight-year-old, Sony A/V receiver. LP/tape/VHS/LD are connected via regular old component RCA plugs, which are just fine. The CD player and the two DVD players can connect to the receiver with optical cables -- which I prefer to use whenever I can. They work well and provide good sound.

- The problem is that the new HDTV does not have any optical-in ports. (If it did, I'd just run the sound from the DVD players through the receiver, and the picture, via optical cable, right to the TV. But I can't do this.) It does have composite-in and component-in, but no optical-in. And the receiver has only composite-out.

The receiver I have is a Sony STR-DA 333 ES. The manual, in PDF form, is available on this page; click "primary user manual" and go to Page 5.

The HDTV I have is a Sony Bravia KDL-46VE5. The manual doesn't seem to be online, but you can find the details here by clicking on "Specifications." (The site will not allow me to access that page directly.)

- The upshot of all this (if you're still with me) is that my only current option is to run all video components into the receiver, and thence to the TV via a crappy composite video cable. Which would sort of defeat the purpose of the 1080p set that I just bought. (We don't have any sort of cable, satellite, or other TV, so this new HDTV is really just going to be used as a monitor for movies on the DVD players.)

What I would like to do is get the highest possible resolution (the HDTV can handle 1080p/24f) when I watch DVDs. Is there a simple, inexpensive way to convert the optical signal to HDMI?

I can imagine several options:
1. I find a magical converter device that can handle multiple optical inputs and output HDMI. This device would be a switcher, so I could run optical cables from both DVD players into it, and then a single HDMI cable from the switcher to the HDTV.

2. If it's cheaper, I certainly don't mind eschewing with the idea of the switcher box and just getting two separate optical-to-HDMI cables, one for each DVD player.

HOWEVER: the problem I foresee: What about the audio??
I want to run the audio from the DVD players through my stereo system, which has a nice 5.1 setup. HDMI handles both video and audio, right? So if I choose either option above, will I be locked into using the speakers built into the HDTV? Or would I then just add another cable, so that the setup would look something like this:

DVD optical out --> HDMI cable --> HDMI in to HDTV --> TV audio out --> receiver. (In which case the audio running from the HDTV to the receiver would be component, yes? Which would be a step downwards, yes?)

I am reasonably good with stuff like this, but the age disparity between the new HDTV and the older stereo system is giving me a headache.

What's the best, cheapest, most reliable way for me to get the highest-quality picture from the DVD players onto the TV, and still get the room-shaking audio through the stereo?

Should I just buy a new multistandard, HDMI-out DVD player? If I did, I could connect it right to the HDTV, but I'd still have the audio problem that I detail above.

*****
Related questions, for masochists and/or AV geeks:

- Let's say I solve this problem above. I'm still left with an LD and a VHS, both of which I still use occasionally, that will be unconnected. Is my best bet with these just to run A/V to the receiver, and thence to the HDTV via component cables?

- I'd like to minimize the number of A/V component switchers. Ideally, I'd still like my receiver to be the one and only device that switches between ALL a/v components. And what's nice is that I can split the audio and the video signals -- that is, I can listen to the CD player while watching the signal from the VHS, if I so desire. Is there some way I can use this functionality to refrain from buying any further switchers?

Why won't certain DVDs play in my DVD player?

KevinSkomsvold — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:20:13 -0800

Our Kia Sedona has one of those built in DVD players, An Audiovox PROV710. For the life of me I can't get DVDs to play in it. In the manual it says:

Types of Discs your DVD will play
• DVD discs – DVDs discs which contain video.
• Audio discs – Audio CDs contain musical or sound content only.
• MP3 discs – A disc that contains audio files (for example, a CD-R with downloaded MP3 files).
Loading and Playing Discs

Before you load a disc, make sure that it is compatible with the player.
Note: the following Discs CANNOT be used with this player :
• MiniDisc
• Laserdisc
• CD-I, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM

So it won't play DVD-ROM disks but it will play DVDs. I'm confused.
Ironically, I found a DVD of "Dawn of The Dead" that was all scratched and popped it in. It started right up.

I took a stack of my daughters CDs and of all of them, only Lion King and Nemo worked like a champ. I can't tell what the difference is between the ones that work and the ones that don't.

How can extract audio from my DVD's on my mac?

fishthefly — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:25:24 -0800

How can I extract audio from DVD's on my mac? I have an iBook G4 and am trying to sample audio parts of movies for a music project I am working on. Also, what program can I manipulate said files (i.e. Audacity maybe?) with?

Thank you for your help!

An easy way to rip DVDs in per-chapter MP3s?

indyz — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:52:35 -0800

Is there an easy way to rip a video DVD to MP3, so that each chapter on the disc is a separate MP3 file? I have a bunch of DVDs of live music performances that I would like to turn into MP3s. I can get the audio out of the VOBs no problem, but splitting it into one-song chunks is a pain and I still have 20-30 DVDs to go through. Since the DVDs are (mostly) divided into one chapter per song, I was hoping MeFi might know of a Windows program or process that could automate at least the splitting and preferably also do the ripping and encoding.

Out of Sync

Funky Claude — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:00:29 -0800

After burning a movie file to a DVD I've noticed that the audio is horrendously out of sync. How can this be fixed? I burnt an AVI file to a DVD using DVD flick and upon my watching it, I've noticed that the audio is so out of sync that the film becomes unwatchable. The audio was a little out of sync when I watched the actual AVI file on my computer but nowhere near the level it is after burning.

So how can I burn a DVD with normal sound?

Help me find a simple speaker solution!

kmtiszen — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:01:29 -0800

Looking to get some decent sound out of my DVD player on the cheap. I'm a complete idiot when it comes to things with wires. So, I'm not an audiophile by any means. I just want to get some decent sound out of my DVD player. I don't want to fiddle with rear speakers or anything. I'll end up pulling my hair out/putting unnecessary holes in walls messing with those things.

Basically, I'm wondering whether or not I can just get a couple of floor/shelf speakers and maybe a center speaker, and hook them directly to my DVD player? Like with an audio-in (out?) connection. Nothing complicated and preferably nothing too pricey. I'm completely clueless! Any suggestions?

DVD archiving to a media server - best practices?

lifeless — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:03:16 -0800

I'm planning on ripping my DVD collection to a media server, with varying amounts of losslessness depending on the film. There are a lot of ways to do this, and I'm looking for the "best" way. After the jump I'll describe my current plan, please comment on and clarify the various technical considerations. I own about 250 DVD movie titles, and a lot more non-movie DVDs. In trying to reduce clutter from my life and home, I intend to sell all of the movie DVDs except for a handful that have some special significance to me. However, I don't intend to lose the movies, but instead rip them to a fault-tolerant HD array (maybe Drobo, maybe ReadyNAS, maybe something else). Not completely legal, I know, but I'm going to do it anyway.

For proper archival, losslessness is very important. The obvious tricky thing that results from that is the amount of hard drive space required, especially since fault tolerance is a must. There's no way around the fact that a lot of money needs to be spent on hard drives.

To lower the HD costs somewhat, I'll divide the DVD's into two categories: 1) lossless ripping for important films with several discs, particularly good extras or otherwise high bitrate requirements, and 2) lossy ripping for less important films and films with unimportant extras. The lossless option is simple: I'll just decrypt the DVD and copy the VIDEO_TS folder onto the HD array. I have all the tools I need for this part, so the lossy part is the meat of this post.

I'm probably going to divide the lossy category into two subcategories: DVD9->DVD5 for movies where the retention of some extras and "navigable" DVD bits is necessary, and XviD/H.264 for movies where the main feature is enough.

This is where my knowledge ends. There are so many movies that I don't want to spend too much time tweaking individual rips for best possible quality, so I need some general guidelines. Actual questions:

1. Codec: Should I go with XviD or some H.264 variant for the "main feature only" movies? Relevant issues: quality/disk space, openness, quality of encoders, cross-platform compatibility, expected longevity of the format.

2. Continuing from the last question, what if the main feature fits on a DVD5 without recompression? Then it's really only a matter of HD space: 4+ gigs for the original MPEG2, or X gigs for a lossily encoded format. How big would an H.264 encoded movie file have to be before the loss of quality is near-imperceptible from the original? How about XviD? (Obviously I'm not going to scale the picture down from its original dimensions, i.e. 720x576 for PAL movies which most of my DVDs are.)

3. Container format: Matroska is very flexible with multiple audio and subtitle tracks, but sparsely supported by stand-alone players. Currently I'm using Xbox Media Center which works fine, but there's no telling what I'll use in the future. AVI seems too limited, and I don't really know much about MP4. The factors of question 1 apply. Which one should I pick?

4. Audio encoding: I'll want to preserve multi-channel audio: usually DD5.1, but preferably DTS when available. Can VBR MP3 handle these, or do I have to include the audio track as-is even if the video is XviD or H.264? AVI doesn't support multi-channel (IIRC), any caveats with other containers?

Any other relevant considerations are welcome, too. I have access to Mac, Windows and Linux computers, so I'll be able to use pretty much whatever tools you suggest.

Light, cheap portable video/DVD with excellent audio?

allterrainbrain — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:40:41 -0800

Portable DVD player, or video player, or custom-built Frankendevice, with VERY high-quality audio output?? Video quality doesn't matter (could even be b/w), but screen should be 8"+ and unit should be as lightweight as possible. For live concerts where I need to see video, just for my own reference, that's exactly in sync with my pre-recorded audio (so I would make DVDs or video files with my audio + the visuals I need). Laptop = expensive/heavy/overkill.

Normalize My Audio

escher — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:53:42 -0800

I want to normalize the audio output of my DVD player within a certain range. Is this possible? I'm tired of having to turn up the volume when someone is whispering in a movie, only to turn the volume down when the next action scene comes along. I'd like to have it so that the movie isn't too loud or too quiet.

I know you can normalize audio on the computer - i've done it when making a mix cd from a variety of sources and i want the songs to all be relativley equal in volume.

Do any dvd players offer this functionality? I realize that to do it proper, it needs to analyze the audio of the entire dvd before playing so that it can determine the "gain" for that particular dvd. And that analyzing might take some time.

The "midnight" mode on my particular dvd player/receiver doesn't seem to do the trick, but sometimes having the DSP set to "vocal" helps bring out the talking but not the crash scenes.

DIY DVD Commentary

crypticgeek — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:43:04 -0800

Help me create my own commentary track for a DVD movie. So I've got a DVD movie (ie: VOBs and whatnot) on my hard drive. I have an mp3 audio track with commentary. I need to do this:

1) Extract the audio track from the movie.
2) Composite that track with the commentary track to produce an audio track that is the commentary over the movie audio.
3) Add this new track to the dvd.

I have Nero SoundTrax, and as far as I know that should help me accomplish #2. If anyone has an easier or better solution, please do let me know.

I'm sure this is pretty simple, but I have never authored a DVD before.

Help me strip my DVD

ryanhealy — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 09:59:31 -0800

Is there a relatively easy way (on a Mac or PC) to strip the audio from a DVD for the purposes of creating an MP3 file (or files) that can be listened to on my iPod? One large file would be okay but being able to break it up would be better.

How to rip audio only from a dvd.

heartquake — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:52:44 -0800

How to rip audio only from a dvd. I'm not asking for myself because I don't think I'm smart enough to really understand any of this.

One of my bosses is a bit of an audio snob and he wants to know if there is a way to rip audio (to a pc) only from a dvd while preserving it in the highest quality possible. And further to that quality issue, is .wav the way to go or no?

Also, I'm aware of the legal implications of movie-ripping and that's not a problem.

I'm not sure if it matters but these are concert dvd's.

How do I easily record a Windows session (with audio) to DVD?

fsmontenegro — Tue, 23 May 2006 19:28:45 -0800

How do I easily record a Windows session (with audio) to DVD? a friend of mine is a golf instructor. He uses one particular app (V1) to show students their golf swings. Right now he records the video output of the PC and the audio from a microphone straight to a VHS tape. A lesson is about 45-50 minutes.

What would be the best way of setting this up so that he could record directly to DVD instead?

Any way to send 1 coax TV signal to a TV in another room wirelessly?

ilikebike — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:05:34 -0800

Any way to send 1 coax TV signal to a TV in another room wirelessly? We've moved into an apartment with 1 coaxial cable output in the living. We have basic cable (no box) and we have other goodies like tivo, dvd player, xbox media center, and a full wireless streaming server floating around. Needless to say, we're wired up for alot of things.

I need to be able to so a (seemingly) simple feat: Take the coax signal from my cable in the living room and shoot it wirelessly to the TV in the bedroom. The only catches are that the TV only has a coax input, no a/v or rca jacks, and since there is no cable box it uses the tuner in the TV to change the channel.

I picked up a video sender the other day, but it will only send 1 signal from an a/v or rca source, and it will not allow me to change channels on the TV. Some further investigating tells me I can get around this with a VCR tuner, but that would not let me change channels from the other room without either walking back to the living room or getting an remote sender of sorts. Our 2.4ghz frequency is crowded as it is!

So, is ther another way to get this done? Can I send the raw coax signal first to the TV or a VCR in the bedroom, or am I SOL when is comes to what I'd like to do?

LP to CD

KRS — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 14:48:36 -0800

LP to CD; good blanks; big dots I'll be putting LOTS of LPs on CDs, and I'm concerned about how long they will last, since I've read that at least the cheap blank disks will be unreadable within a few years. So, several questions:

(1) I've been told that Fuji makes great blank disks. What do the mavens recommend. I know about the gold ones, but I'd rather not lay out the substantial extra cost if they're no better.

(2) There was an article in, I think, the NY Times about a CD (or maybe a DVD) burner that made the "dots" 20% larger than standard, giving more room for error or deterioration. I can't find the article, though. Does anyone have a link to it, or have any experience with the drive?

(3) Is there an affordable CD burner that uses the same process as commercial CDs, pits instead of phase changes?

(4) Has DVD audio reached the point where it's as reliable as CD?

Thanks.

Long-distance Digital Audio

SweetJesus — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 13:31:17 -0800

Audiofilter: What is the cheapest way to get pure digital sound from a computer 10~15 feet away from a surround sound system? I'm running a 25 foot HDMI cable out of the back of my PC for video, which is snaked up around the wall to travel 15 feet into the back of my HDTV. I've just bought a new surround sound system, which works absolutely fantastic, but I'd like to get digital sound out of my computer and into the back of the receiver. The only two digital options for inputs on the back of the receiver is TOSLink and digital coxal cable. I'm looking to buy a new sound card for the PC anyway, so it will have at the very least TOSlink and digital coax. I know TOSLink doesn't like to be fooled with too much (too many strange angles will break the fibers), and they both seem to be really expensive at lengths >12 feet.

I'd rather not pay hundreds of bucks for cable. The 25 ft HDMI cable I bought cost about 40 bucks, which is around the amound I'm looking to spend on audio cable.

I was thinking ethernet cable may be an option, because it's digital, cheap and snakeable. Is this idea foolish, or are there people hacking audio adaptors for ethernet cable?

What is the best way to go about this?

Wow - that really hums

russmail — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 09:32:23 -0800

HumFilter: how do I stop the audio connection from my DVD player humming? I have a power amp with L & R RCA inputs. Connected to the inputs is the master output of a two channel mixer (effectively acting as a pre-amp). Connected to the inputs of the mixer are two CD turntables and a DVD player.

Once I connect the video output from the DVD player to the TV, I get a big audio hum. However, if I take the mixer out of the equation and connect the audio from the DVD player directly to the power amp, I get no hum.

So I'm assuming the hum is from the TV, but why am I getting it when I run the audio through the mixer and not direct to the amp, and how can I fix it (all connections are RCA btw) - is it something to do with grounding?

Unfair use.

dontrockwobble — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 06:35:00 -0800

How to capture audio from a DVD movie on MacOS Tiger? I searched and came close, but if the answer to this specific question is here already, I am sorry that I overlooked it:

Does MacOS Tiger deliver the tools necessary to allow me to play a DVD movie that I own and record a few seconds of the audio into MP3 or other type of audio file? If not, how do you recommend I do this?

How to get an AVI file burnt to DVD with proper audio sync?

gwenzel — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 12:57:34 -0800

Ok, my google-fu has failed me. I'm trying to find a simple software program that will allow me to take an AVI file (or multiple AVI files - TV shows, mostly) and burn them to a DVD-R while still having the audio sync up properly. I've tried a couple of programs, and for some reason, the audio ends up being out of sync toward the end, although it's just fine at the beginning.

Why are CD/DVD releases always on Tuesday?

clgregor — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 08:57:58 -0800

They're talking today about "Super CD Tuesday" on MSNBC...Why are CD/DVD releases always on Tuesday?

How do I make Windows Media Player mute on a timer?

Servo5678 — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 08:22:07 -0800

I like to fall asleep while watching DVDs on my Windows XP PC in Windows Media Player. The problem is that on DVDs with loud menu screens after the movie is over the DVD returns to the menu and blasts loud exciting action music, waking me up. Is there a freeware program out there that will mute Media Player after the movie is over? I already have a program that shuts down the PC after time elapses, but there are some nights I want to leave the computer on overnight. What I want is a program that will mute Media Player (or the whole computer) after X minutes have elapsed and, if possible, activate the screen saver or put the monitor into standby mode. Anyone seen anything like this?

Windows Freeware/Shareware to Rip DVD Audio?

bkdelong — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:01:12 -0800

How can I dump DVD audio to make it editable? I have looked everywhere for an accurate soundtrack of White Christmas however the closest one I've found had the songs recorded after the movie ran - and is not the exact same dubbing as used in the movie. [+] ...so I'm looking to take the DVD and dump the audio, editing it into MP3s, and making a CD for myself. That way I can include misc tracks that lead up to the songs.

Any suggestions for free/shareware to use and the process of using it to get desired results?

Thanks in advance.

Can you use AirPort Express to stream audio to the stereo from a DVD player?

o2b — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 07:56:43 -0800

AirPort Express allows you to stream audio to your stereo from iTunes, and only from iTunes. I would love it if I could get it to stream audio from the DVD player as well, but this is probably a fool's errand. Unless... Is there a way to make a local source of audio look like an internet radio station? To generate a stream that iTunes can grab onto? If that could happen, then it would be the answer I'm looking for (provided you can maintain the original quality -- or close enough).

If there isn't a solution for this already, I'm kind of hoping someone more tech-y than I will run with the idea.

Is there a way to separate music from sound effects and dialogue in a film, starting with a DVD?

scarabic — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 20:58:48 -0800

I watched Donnie Darko again recently and I thought it was a damn shame that Tortoise didn't do the soundtrack. I became ever-so-briefly obsessed with the idea of replacing some of the musical sequences with Tortoise music, but I wouldn't know how to do this without completely removing any sound effects and dialogue from those scenes. Is there a way for a non-audio-geek to separate these audio elements? Assume I'm starting with a DVD.

How can I obtain the audio from a video DVD?

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 06 Jun 2004 05:19:19 -0800

How should I rip the audio from a video DVD? For free, please.