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Topic: Peter Gabriel (Read 4078 times) previous topic - next topic
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Peter Gabriel

Hmm, I think I know the answer to my question already, but perhaps some of your smart people can put a new spin on things for me.

As you probably already know, Peter has released his latest album UP over the web in Windows Media Player 9 DD 5.1 format.  I know it is most likely hype, and he didn't really record any separate info for all 6 channels, but I would like to see if it's for real.  Is there any way to get this audio onto a cd that will play on my DVD player to pump through my main receiver in DD 5.1?  I don't think there is, but had to ask.

Another question.  I don't have a sound card with digital out (or 5.1) yet, but if I did, could I hook it to my main receiver and get true 5.1 from this WMP9?  Or does the WMP9 only decode and output the sound through the analog jacks on the soundcard?

Thank you in advance for your answers, and pardon me if any of these questions is "dumb". 

Peter Gabriel

Reply #1 –
I don't know for sure but I would look at the mini dvd authouring guide at doom9, and then ask your question in the audio forum.

Do a search of the board first as they have zero tolerance for people who do not use the search function.

Peter Gabriel

Reply #2 –
Oh, that is helpful, cannot post a reply or an original post for 5 days on that forum, LOL. 

FYI - I did find a related post, and it makes sense that the format to aim for would be AC3.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&t...ghlight=wma+5.1

So far, there is no useful info on how or if we can rip WMA 5.1 though.

Peter Gabriel

Reply #3 –
If your CD-player id digitaly connected to your Receiver you could create an DolbyDigital-AudioCD.
You need HeadAC3he to convert the ac3 to ac3-wav. It doesn´t reencode or decode the ac3 so no information/quality get lost. Then you can burn the wav like a normal wav on a Audio-CD.

Peter Gabriel

Reply #4 –
Quote
in Windows Media Player 9 DD 5.1 format.  

WMA9's 5.1 capability isn't DD, unfortunately; rather, it uses the WMA format for compression. I haven't tried it out since I don't have much 5.1 material, but from mwhat I've heard, it only begins to sound ok above 192kbps (and even that's a bit low). This means that in order to put the material on a CD, you would have to transcode from WMA9 Professional to AC3 or DTS, which poses several problems. A.) You'd need to demux the wma9 stream into seperate PCM files. I don't know for sure, but I think that dbpoweramp might be able to do this if you download the beta patch for wma9 (which includes the encoder for the 5.1 format). B.) You'd need to find an AC3 or DTS encoder, which (if obtained legally) are expensive. C.) Transcoding from wma9 to one of these formats will cause quality loss, as all transoding does. However, the extent to which it will be noticable is a different story; I can't tell you that. And finally, WMA is big on the whole DRM bit....I would almost guarantee that any file distributed online will be "protected", and I'm not sure that the software out there will convert protected tracks to wav's. Hope this has helped!

Peter Gabriel

Reply #5 –
Quote
WMA9's 5.1 capability isn't DD, unfortunately; rather, it uses the WMA format for compression.

It can also decode DolbyDigital, but only with a decoder like InterVideo Audio Decoder installed. Of course also wma 5.1 is crap, like all wma/wmv.
Quote
This means that in order to put the material on a CD, you would have to transcode from WMA9 Professional to AC3 or DTS, which poses several problems.

That aren´t so big problems: Decoding to 6ch pcm should work with GraphEdit:
6channel-wma.wma -> WMA Decoder -> WAV Dest -> File writer (6channel.wav)
This 6ch wav can be opened with Sonic Foundry Soft Encode for Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding, or for DTS, you need to make 6 mono-wavs from it, this works good with CoolEdit. Now you can encode to DTS with Surcode DTS. GraphEdit is freeware (also it´s from Micro$oft!), Soft Encode and Surcode can be bought with google easiely.
Quote
I would almost guarantee that any file distributed online will be "protected", and I'm not sure that the software out there will convert protected tracks to wav's. Hope this has helped!

There is a special winamp-plug-in for wma at rarewares, but I don´t know if it´s able to play wma9 5.1. If it can, use disk-writer output.