2012-04-02, 09:11
(2012-03-29, 05:44)DDDamian Wrote: A user asked about DVD-A and MLP files. Thought I'd share a few pointers about ripping/handling/playing.
That user was me!
(2012-03-29, 05:44)DDDamian Wrote: DVD-Audio was one of two competitors to follow up on the Redbook CD standard - it's rival being SACD.
It was a way of storing high-definition audio on a DVD, making use of almost the full capacity of the DVD for tracks in PCM stored in MLP-packed format, and sometimes in DTS 96/24 format. Coming out later than normal DVD-Video, it was difficult to backup/rip due to a newer protection scheme and the use of a different structure than what most DVD-V ripping software used. Files were stored in the AUDIO_TS folder as opposed to the normal VIDEO_TS folder and .aobs were used similar to .vobs.
MLP stands for Meridian Lossless Packing, and is used in Dolby TrueHD lossless compression as well.
A program called DVD-A Explorer came to the rescue, allowing DVD-A's to be ripped in their native MLP-packed PCM, to unpacked PCM in wave headers, or with the addition of a path to FLAC.exe to FLAC-compressed lossless PCM.
Both formats are losslessly compressed, so either is identical in terms of audio quality.
MLP decoding has been part of FFMpeg for some time, and allows XBMC to unpack MLP to PCM, which was a feature used to bring lossless TrueHD decoding, but not bitstreaming, to XBMC. One of the things DanielaE has done is allow XBMC to bitstream MLP to a receiver capable of decoding it, including TrueHD and DVD-A MLP files. In the case of DVD-A, with FFMpeg repacking the audio in MLP dataframes and databursts, it maintains the 24-bit depth of DVD-A and TrueHD. Because the 24-bit data get's repacked into MLP frames it slips 24-bit data past the current XBMC 16-bit limitation.
So use DVD-A Explorer to rip/backup your precious DVD-A's and you can:
1) playback the MLP files and get lossless DVD-A
2) rip them further to 24-bit FLAC for track separation and metadata embedding. This further step can be done by ripping the files to wav's in DVD-A Explorer, then using EAC3TO and More GUI to convert to 24-bit FLAC and MP3Tag or other tagging software to embed metadata. When AE is merged you will get the full 24-bit glory from these as well, like all high-fidelity FLAC's.
I've got about 20 DVD-A's and especially since they are mostly out-of-print and few come out now (unlike SACD which has at least some titles still coming out) they are worth ripping. Hope that helps anyone who also has them and wants them preserved and part of their library.
This worked brilliantly. I skipped the step of using the eac3to and more gui, and just fed DVD-A explorer the flac.exe (as you suggested to me earlier), and the process was quick and plays back perfectly. It's so much nicer to have the surround tracks accessible through the music library, than how i was doing it before - ripping TS folders and setting up favorites in the skin for easy access. Now to dig out all the jewel cases and re-rip some surround music!
Thanks Damian!