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Topic: How to grab DVD-Audio? (Read 730747 times) previous topic - next topic
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How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #325
Hey. Ive been using "ImToo DVD Audio Ripper". Is this no good for ripping the audio? It seems to work. I rip to WAV then create an ISO image and then run it through EAC to get ~V0 VBR Lame MP3s.
Cheers

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #326
Hey. Ive been using "ImToo DVD Audio Ripper". Is this no good for ripping the audio? It seems to work. I rip to WAV then create an ISO image and then run it through EAC to get ~V0 VBR Lame MP3s.
Cheers

This program does not rip DVD-A discs.  The website language (or course) is misleading.  It simply rips the audio from the dvd-video tracks.  So your copies are of the soundtrack to the video.  Still, they're going to be very good quality, but not DVD-A.


How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #328
This is probably a dumb question, but how come there's no open-source MLP decoder/encoder?

Anyone want to clue me in?



Meridian Lossless Packaging (MLP) is a licensed, proprietary process...and I can't imagine an open-source encoder/decoder would be something Meridian would look kindly on.  But given the failure in the marketplace of DVD-Audio, maybe they should.

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #329
There is a (probably equally expensive) proffessional app called Surcode MLP that can also sort of decode MLPs (through a workaround).

Workaround: You first have to have a set of dummy wavs, one for each channel the mlp you want to decode has. The trick is to set the options so that the app, after an encode, does a test decode, which makes it writes was to disk. You first encode your dummies, then before you hit "ok" for the decode/test process to start, you swap the dummy mlp you just produced with the one you want to decode. Hit ok, temporary wavs will be produced and the app will report a failed test (duh). Before you hit "ok", copy those wavs and there you have it, a decoded MLP track.

I've generally had good luck with this method. I can't say too much here (see TOS 9), but surcode is definitely available through a torrent of bits.

i've tried this method and it doesn't work for me. when i try to replace the dummy MLP before decoding, i get an error that basically says i can't overwrite the file because it's in use. i've been able to remove the dummy file from the folder, but when i try to put the real MLP file in the folder and hit 'ok', surcode doesn't decode it.

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #330
Geez, this discussion went all over the map....

I have grabbed several songs from DVDs that I wanted to have separately, and I did it the rather easy and obvious way.

Play the DVD and capture the desired audio stream in real time using a utility like TotalRecorder (Win) or Audio Hijack (Mac, and much better than Total Recorder). Granted, it isn't really "ripping" per se, but the files can be saved in uncompressed or compressed formats as you see fit. You may then edit the audio into tracks or whatever is required.

Easy, it just takes a bit of time and so I don't do it very often.

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #331
Easy, it just takes a bit of time and so I don't do it very often.


The last one I did was to capture the ridiculous theme song from "The Blob" (1960) because my kids thought it was hysterical. They are correct.

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #332
So, are these tools still  available for download somehwere? Or are they long gone?

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #333

There is a (probably equally expensive) proffessional app called Surcode MLP that can also sort of decode MLPs (through a workaround).

Workaround: You first have to have a set of dummy wavs, one for each channel the mlp you want to decode has. The trick is to set the options so that the app, after an encode, does a test decode, which makes it writes was to disk. You first encode your dummies, then before you hit "ok" for the decode/test process to start, you swap the dummy mlp you just produced with the one you want to decode. Hit ok, temporary wavs will be produced and the app will report a failed test (duh). Before you hit "ok", copy those wavs and there you have it, a decoded MLP track.

I've generally had good luck with this method. I can't say too much here (see TOS 9), but surcode is definitely available through a torrent of bits.

i've tried this method and it doesn't work for me. when i try to replace the dummy MLP before decoding, i get an error that basically says i can't overwrite the file because it's in use. i've been able to remove the dummy file from the folder, but when i try to put the real MLP file in the folder and hit 'ok', surcode doesn't decode it.


Are you sure your dummy and real file have exactly the same name?



How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #336
this dingus appears to allow 'certain' players to digitally pass high-rez PCM and transcode DSD to same.  So basically  they're asking  $600 for a subset of functions performed by a $160 Oppo 970HD  DVD-player via its HDMI output.    Bravo!



How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #338
Are you sure your dummy and real file have exactly the same name?
of course.

Here's a the full text of a the pertinent (in your case) part of the guide I used to successfully rip one (1) unencrypted, multichannel DVD-A disc.

Code: [Select]
III. DECODE MLP FILES (if necessary)
SurCode MLP is a simple program that takes several mono .wav files as input (2 for stereo and 6 for multichannel, i.e. one .wav file for each channel) and encodes them inte a single .mlp file. You may be wondering; why do I need to use an encoder when I am trying to decode files? Until someone cracks a dedicated decoder, a workaround needs to be used.

While this software is meant to encode files, it features a verification step that can decode an .mlp file immediately after it is encoded in order to check for errors in the encoding process. Normally, it shouldn�t allow the decoding of arbitrary .mlp files, but luckily it doesn�t check that the .mlp file that it is verifying is actually the one it just encoded. The trick is to encode a set of dummy .wav files, thus producing a garbage .mlp file, and then substituting the garbage file with the .mlp file you wish to decode. The substitution must be performed just after the garbage .mlp file has been encoded and right before it is verified. Fortunately, a status window pops up after the encoding process, providing an opportunity to swap the files.

First of all, you need to make sure you have two separate drives (e.g. C: and D:). This is necessary to get around the problem of having to overwrite a locked file. Next, launch the SurCode MLP encoder and make sure the software is properly configured:

    1. From the Options menu, click Encoder Options.
    2. Uncheck Downmix and ReBit ™ Bit-Depth Reduction and check Verify after encoding is complete, Write decoded wave files while verifying, and Play back individual channels. Then click Ok.

    IPB Image



In the main window, prepare to encode the garbage .mlp file:

    1. Set the destination file path by clicking the Destination button and choosing a directory on your other drive (e.g. D:\temp). For the sake of simplicity, choose a short filename since this is the garbage .mlp file you will be replacing (e.g. foo.mlp so the destination file path is D:\temp\foo.mlp).
    2. Set the Channel Assignment drop-down to a value matching the content of your audio. If your audio is stereo, select (Group 1) L, R. If it is multichannel, select (Group 1) Lf, Rf, Ls, Rs / (Group 2) C, Lfe.
    3. Select the dummy mono .wav files by using the following buttons: Left Front to select Lf.wav, Right Front to select Rf.wav, and if your audio content is multichannel, Center to select C.wav, SubBass LFE to select LFE.wav, Left Surround to select Ls.wav, and Right Surround to select Rs.wav.
    4. In the Playback frame in the bottom right corner, set the radio button to Verify/Play: Destination.
    5. In the Encode frame in the bottom left corner, make sure the start field is reset to zero (00:00:00.00) by pressing the R button to the right of the field. This field will need to be reset to zero after each encoding is performed.

    IPB Image

    6. Start encoding the garbage .mlp file by clicking the Encode button. A few seconds later, a status window will pop up saying that everything encoded fine. DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW YET. The application is now waiting for you to click Cancel to begin the verification process. While this pop up window is still open, you need to substitute the newly encoded garbage .mlp file with one of the .mlp files extracted from your disc in step (II).
    7. Open the directory where the extracted .mlp files reside (e.g. C:\extracted). Select the .mlp file you wish to decode and rename it to foo.mlp (or whatever name you gave the garbage .mlp file). Copy the file by selecting it and then pressing Ctrl+C.
    8. Open the directory where the garbage .mlp file resides (e.g. D:\temp). Delete that file by selecting it and then pressing Shift+Del.
    9. Paste the file you copied by pressing Ctrl+V. Your extracted .mlp file has now replaced the garbage .mlp file you just encoded.
    10. Close the SurCode pop up window by pressing the Cancel button. The encoder will now begin the verification process where it decodes the substituted .mlp file into 1 or 3 stereo .wav files (1 if the content is stereo, 3 if the content is multichannel).
    11. When the verification is complete, another window will pop up with the verification status. Pay no attention to whether it reports that the verification step failed or succeeded as the .wav files are decoded fine in either case. Most likely it will report that the verification failed.
    12. Close the status window before working with the newly decoded .wav files, since they are released only once you have done that. The decoded .wav files are now located in the same destination directory where the garbage .mlp file is located (e.g. D:\temp).


If your audio content is stereo, the .wav file is ready to be encoded with the lossless codec of your choice, skip to step (V). If your audio content is multichannel, you will have three stereo .wav files containing the Left & Right front, Center & LFE, and Left & Right surround channels, continue on to step (IV-A).


IV. PROCESS MULTICHANNEL .wav FILES
Depending on the type of track you extracted, MLP or LPCM, you will need to following section (A) or section (B), respectively:

    A) Decoded MLP Track
    In the case of multichannel content, you need to merge the 3 stereo files into one single 6-channel .wav file. For this, you will need to launch WaveWizard and configure it properly by choosing the Edit menu and selecting Preferences:

        1. Set the Output directory, any place will do (e.g. D:\temp).
        2. In the General settings frame, check Stream manipulation and set it to Merge files. Make sure that all other setting that might affect the audio are disabled: Channel mapping, Sample conversion, Sound level control, and Dithering.

        IPB Image

        3. In the main window, make sure the list of files is empty and then add the three stereo files by clicking the Add button, adding them in the following order: surcode_lfrf.wav, surcode_clfe.wav, surcode_lsrs.wav.
        4. Click the Convert button.

        IPB Image

I'd like to bring your attention to step 2 in the first part, where you have to chose the channel mode. Open DVD-A Explorer and look at your track's properties. You should see somewhere "Group 1 Channel Assignment" and "Group 2 Channel Assignment". Make sure the settings in SurCode matches what DVD-A Explorer shows about your track.

Also, in DVD-A Explorer, take a look at the fist track's channel info. Now take a look at the following tracks'. Does only the first track have channel info? That is because it is the only way to create gapless playback on a DVD-A (from what I can understand). If your disc is this way, then you'll have to merge all your MLPs together before decoding (under windows, copy /b track1.mlp+track2.mlp+track3.mlp+... should do the trick (it did for me)). Once that is done, decode your big merged MLP, merge the wavs with correct channel order and then you can proceed to split the wav in separate tracks, if you chose to. Sadly, I have not found any accurate way to do this. DVD-A explorer only reports track lengths to the nearest second. If you have an exact CD copy, then you could try getting a CUE from the CD and applying it to your DVD-A wav rip. Personally, I did it by ear since the CD I had didn't have the same timing.

Have fun

So, are these tools still  available for download somehwere? Or are they long gone?

PM me. (TOS9)

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #339
Quote
Is there any other software player that can decode .MLP?

There is a (very expensive) commercial application for DVD-A authoring called "DiscWelder Chrome". It will decode MLP files to PCM Wav.



Will this software allow straight playback of mlp discs to a 24/192 capable soundcards?  Does it have a software based player?

Thanks,

gabe

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #340
Discwelder Chrome is quite unrealible. I'd recommend Surcode MLP instead. (Discwelder often cuts off the end of some files, especially noticable with tracks that flow into eachother - this happens less often in Surcode)

gabeg: Once you have a 24bit 192khz decoded pcm file, even sndrec32 can play it as long as your soundcard supports that resolution.

 

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #341
I have a few things I'd like to extract from a DVD-A disc, if anyone can help me locate this software I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #342
After lots of trial and error here are the best methods I came up with for ripping DVD-As:

Note: I do not have an Audigy sound card, so my main goal was getting full quality DVDAs to play on my computer.

TO PRODUCE A DVD-A COPY
1) Run DVDARipper (I had to use WinDVD5 seems some versions of WINDVD7 dont work well)
If you have trouble finding a version of WinDVD that works just google for "WINDVD5.exe"

2) Run DVDAExplorer and open any one of the IFOs created in step 1
I found it was unnecessary to first burn the decrypted files to a DVDA (using GEAR or whatever) like others have suggested.

3) Extract all tracks in desired format (surround or stereo)  - does not matter if they are MLP or WAV

4) Use DiscWelder. Drag the track file(s) into the project and either burn to DVD or save as an image.
The image produced will not have an ISO extension but in reality that's what it is. You can mount this image with DaemonTools for playback on your PC.

Observations:
I found that I could NOT just use GEAR Pro to burn the decrypted files from step 1. When I did this the resulting disk would not play.

I found that PowerDVD would not play the original DVDAs but it gladly played the unencrypted disks produced by this method. Moreover it even played the ripped DVDAs at full quality (no frequency cut off).

Finally for watermarked DVDAs the ripped copy would NOT play in a standalone DVD-Audio player but it played just fine in PowerDVD.

TO PRODUCE WAV/FLAC/etc FILES FROM DVDA (for listening on your computer)
Do steps 1-3 exactly as above.

4) If the extracted files are in wav format then you are set... just use WaveLab or your favorite wav editor to combine/convert them.

If some/all of the extracted files are in MLP format then we need to decode them first. Here you can use the SurCode MLP workaround like Funkdude suggests. That works to produce 3 wav file (front left & right, rear left & right, center & LFE) which you can then combine/convert in WaveLab.

That being said, I found the Surcode workaround fairly clumsy and I am working on creating an MLP decoder. The Surcode app is really simple so figuring out the MLP decoding from that does not appear too hard.... hopefully : )

--JSmith

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #343
Here's a the full text of a the pertinent (in your case) part of the guide I used to successfully rip one (1) unencrypted, multichannel DVD-A disc.

Code: [Select]
III. DECODE MLP FILES (if necessary)
SurCode MLP is a simple program that takes several mono .wav files as input (2 for stereo and 6 for multichannel, i.e. one .wav file for each channel) and encodes them inte a single .mlp file. You may be wondering; why do I need to use an encoder when I am trying to decode files? Until someone cracks a dedicated decoder, a workaround needs to be used.

While this software is meant to encode files, it features a verification step that can decode an .mlp file immediately after it is encoded in order to check for errors in the encoding process. Normally, it shouldn�t allow the decoding of arbitrary .mlp files, but luckily it doesn�t check that the .mlp file that it is verifying is actually the one it just encoded. The trick is to encode a set of dummy .wav files, thus producing a garbage .mlp file, and then substituting the garbage file with the .mlp file you wish to decode. The substitution must be performed just after the garbage .mlp file has been encoded and right before it is verified. Fortunately, a status window pops up after the encoding process, providing an opportunity to swap the files.

First of all, you need to make sure you have two separate drives (e.g. C: and D:). This is necessary to get around the problem of having to overwrite a locked file. Next, launch the SurCode MLP encoder and make sure the software is properly configured:

    1. From the Options menu, click Encoder Options.
    2. Uncheck Downmix and ReBit ™ Bit-Depth Reduction and check Verify after encoding is complete, Write decoded wave files while verifying, and Play back individual channels. Then click Ok.

    IPB Image



In the main window, prepare to encode the garbage .mlp file:

    1. Set the destination file path by clicking the Destination button and choosing a directory on your other drive (e.g. D:\temp). For the sake of simplicity, choose a short filename since this is the garbage .mlp file you will be replacing (e.g. foo.mlp so the destination file path is D:\temp\foo.mlp).
    2. Set the Channel Assignment drop-down to a value matching the content of your audio. If your audio is stereo, select (Group 1) L, R. If it is multichannel, select (Group 1) Lf, Rf, Ls, Rs / (Group 2) C, Lfe.
    3. Select the dummy mono .wav files by using the following buttons: Left Front to select Lf.wav, Right Front to select Rf.wav, and if your audio content is multichannel, Center to select C.wav, SubBass LFE to select LFE.wav, Left Surround to select Ls.wav, and Right Surround to select Rs.wav.
    4. In the Playback frame in the bottom right corner, set the radio button to Verify/Play: Destination.
    5. In the Encode frame in the bottom left corner, make sure the start field is reset to zero (00:00:00.00) by pressing the R button to the right of the field. This field will need to be reset to zero after each encoding is performed.

    IPB Image

    6. Start encoding the garbage .mlp file by clicking the Encode button. A few seconds later, a status window will pop up saying that everything encoded fine. DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW YET. The application is now waiting for you to click Cancel to begin the verification process. While this pop up window is still open, you need to substitute the newly encoded garbage .mlp file with one of the .mlp files extracted from your disc in step (II).
    7. Open the directory where the extracted .mlp files reside (e.g. C:\extracted). Select the .mlp file you wish to decode and rename it to foo.mlp (or whatever name you gave the garbage .mlp file). Copy the file by selecting it and then pressing Ctrl+C.
    8. Open the directory where the garbage .mlp file resides (e.g. D:\temp). Delete that file by selecting it and then pressing Shift+Del.
    9. Paste the file you copied by pressing Ctrl+V. Your extracted .mlp file has now replaced the garbage .mlp file you just encoded.
    10. Close the SurCode pop up window by pressing the Cancel button. The encoder will now begin the verification process where it decodes the substituted .mlp file into 1 or 3 stereo .wav files (1 if the content is stereo, 3 if the content is multichannel).
    11. When the verification is complete, another window will pop up with the verification status. Pay no attention to whether it reports that the verification step failed or succeeded as the .wav files are decoded fine in either case. Most likely it will report that the verification failed.
    12. Close the status window before working with the newly decoded .wav files, since they are released only once you have done that. The decoded .wav files are now located in the same destination directory where the garbage .mlp file is located (e.g. D:\temp).


If your audio content is stereo, the .wav file is ready to be encoded with the lossless codec of your choice, skip to step (V). If your audio content is multichannel, you will have three stereo .wav files containing the Left & Right front, Center & LFE, and Left & Right surround channels, continue on to step (IV-A).


IV. PROCESS MULTICHANNEL .wav FILES
Depending on the type of track you extracted, MLP or LPCM, you will need to following section (A) or section (B), respectively:

    A) Decoded MLP Track
    In the case of multichannel content, you need to merge the 3 stereo files into one single 6-channel .wav file. For this, you will need to launch WaveWizard and configure it properly by choosing the Edit menu and selecting Preferences:

        1. Set the Output directory, any place will do (e.g. D:\temp).
        2. In the General settings frame, check Stream manipulation and set it to Merge files. Make sure that all other setting that might affect the audio are disabled: Channel mapping, Sample conversion, Sound level control, and Dithering.

        IPB Image

        3. In the main window, make sure the list of files is empty and then add the three stereo files by clicking the Add button, adding them in the following order: surcode_lfrf.wav, surcode_clfe.wav, surcode_lsrs.wav.
        4. Click the Convert button.

        IPB Image

I'd like to bring your attention to step 2 in the first part, where you have to chose the channel mode. Open DVD-A Explorer and look at your track's properties. You should see somewhere "Group 1 Channel Assignment" and "Group 2 Channel Assignment". Make sure the settings in SurCode matches what DVD-A Explorer shows about your track.

Also, in DVD-A Explorer, take a look at the fist track's channel info. Now take a look at the following tracks'. Does only the first track have channel info? That is because it is the only way to create gapless playback on a DVD-A (from what I can understand). If your disc is this way, then you'll have to merge all your MLPs together before decoding (under windows, copy /b track1.mlp+track2.mlp+track3.mlp+... should do the trick (it did for me)). Once that is done, decode your big merged MLP, merge the wavs with correct channel order and then you can proceed to split the wav in separate tracks, if you chose to. Sadly, I have not found any accurate way to do this. DVD-A explorer only reports track lengths to the nearest second. If you have an exact CD copy, then you could try getting a CUE from the CD and applying it to your DVD-A wav rip. Personally, I did it by ear since the CD I had didn't have the same timing.

Have fun
i realize this is a late response, but i just now got around to re-ripping my DVDAs. i followed the steps you pasted in the code box and everything worked out well. turns out i hadn't been doing everything i needed to do when i first tried to convert MLP to wav. after reading your post and taking the time to figure it out, i now have DVDA audio on my harddrive and in wavpack. the only downside to converting MLP to wav, and this looks like it's a limitation of my DVDAs, is that i can only capture 16bit versions of the audio tracks, instead of the 24bit versions i had recorded the first time. according to DVDAexplorer, the DVDA seems to have 16bits as the limit for making copies of the MLPs.

but anyway, i can now listen to the downward spiral and with teeth in surround sound! and the best part is, using foobar's 'convert 5.1 to stereo' DSP, i was able to convert the 6ch files to 2ch files while retaining the surround effect, which i then converted to lossy for my ipod.

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #344
I'm just wondering, is this only relevant to DVD's with surround sound? And is it only relevant to DVD Audio DVD's?
I have DVD movies with AC3 audio and I'm wondering if it's possible to rip the audio without the dialogue (since you can have multiple language audio you would think so). I also have surround sound ones. I have no idea when it comes to ripping DVD audio correctly, so don't be afraid to explain stuff, I'm not going to get all "I'm not a noob!" on you.

- Spike

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #345
Let me first say that it is now possible to remove the encryption without having windvd installed! Head over to doom9: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1013597#post1013597

Someone compiled it for me and it seems to work.

Quote
That being said, I found the Surcode workaround fairly clumsy and I am working on creating an MLP decoder. The Surcode app is really simple so figuring out the MLP decoding from that does not appear too hard.... hopefully : )

Any updates on the MLP decoder?

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #346
Interesting progress.

lol
From the last reply at the time of click-age
OT:
Quote
It may also be a problem to us audophiles who can, in fact, hear the difference between FLAC and 320kbps MP3. Just because the people who made it can't hear it, doesn't mean nobody can.

How to grab DVD-Audio?

Reply #347
Quote
I have read this thread a few times now and am still not clear if it is possible to backup my watermarked DVD-A's onto a DVD-R so they can be played on a standalone player..

Is this possible?

No, it's not possible yet to remove those watermarks.