DTS surcode generated wav and Vegas / DVDA

asheraa wrote on 10/28/2004, 11:22 PM

We all know DVDA will not code DTS, neither Vegas.

The Surcode DTS-DVD encoder price has droped fron arround 2K to $499, and the CD vertion for only $99!!!!!!!
( Surcode works very simple, you input 6 wav files and spits out ONE .wav file with DTS encoding on it). So it is even possible now to have 5.1 DTS in a standard CD !
( provided you play the CD via digital to a DTS decoder receiver, etc )

now, my question is:

1.- Can DVDA import the DTS encoded .wav file, and leave it untouced, without re-compressing? by fooling it to be a PCM? will DVDA mess arround with a PCM wav and re-process an uncompressed file? Will DVDA produce a DTS video this way?

2.- If above does not work, beacuse the DVDA "possible" forced-recompression.
Maybe using VEGAS 5 to import the coded .wav file, merge and encode with the video portion, spitting out a mp2 video, with DTS. AND HOPEFULLY allowing DVDA to accept Vegas output mp2 file, without re-compression, and have a DTS video !!!!

Thanks in Advance !

Ant.
www.ashera.com

Comments

Rom wrote on 11/8/2004, 10:11 AM

I’ve tested the Surcode DVD-DTS with DVDA and here is what I’ve found so far.
The ‘wav’ output can be imported into DVDA as an audio track and you can burn a DVD with it. It is treated as a PCM wave data stream from what I can observe. My DVD player played the disk and fed the PCM data to the surround sound amplifier, which recognized it as a DTS 5.1 data stream and played it properly.
DVDA would not import ‘Padded DTS’ and ‘Compact DTS’ formats created by the Surcode encoder.
I wouldn’t treat this approach as a sure way to embed DTS audio in DVDA’s output for reasons other than experimental due to the dubious data stream format compliance. DVDA thinks it’s a funny sounding ‘wav’ file, not DTS, and it probably doesn’t properly identify it on the burnt DVD as ‘DTS’, so proper playback isn’t guaranteed on all h/w.
Having said all that, the audio difference was obvious (DTS was better – clearer, better special resolution), even my wife noticed it, and she really doesn’t care about DTS or Dolby Digital for that matter.
I really think that Sony should consider supporting DTS in the future. I, for one, will make all my home videos with both DD and DTS from now on, even though DTS takes up more than 3 times the space – space is cheap. However, I don’t plan on using this kludge for any serious work at this point.