Tip of the Day: DVD-Audio does not play on PC DVD-drives. So bring out the ashes and sack-clothes and repent, all ye sinners.
India’s first DVD-Audio title happens to be Boys. Fine, so I’ve heard Aiyyo, Love is Full of Pain from all five speakers. ( YUP! FIVE! The center speaker is ignored with stereo mixed tracks. ) But just for the heck of it, I decided to hear Vasundhara Das singing for me the way she sang in the studio. That’s what they say about DVD Audio, don’t they? The exact replica of a studio-recording, no compression, etc etc. (Funny, that’s what they said when cds came out the first time, exact replica and all) Anyways, I bought the DVD for 125 rupees. Even though it said “This item is not for sale” in bold on the cover. It also said – “This does not play in CD/VCD players”. Took it home, popped it in the drive, and waited, with bated breath and lustful ears, for the glorious Dolby Digital TM5.1 sound to strike my ears.
What struck my ears was 5 plus 1 speakers full of glorious static. That’s when I play it on the Creative Player. When I try the PowerDVD player, it gives me 5 plus 1 speakers of silence.
WAAAAH!
I believe that only Creative DVD-Audio Player (which is installed when you install the creative suite for Sound Blaster Audigy) can play DVD-Audio. No other software can play it yet, including Windows Media Player.
Soundblaster Audigy, huh? :-(
I only have a humble Live! 5.1 card.
Another catch: Only SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY 2 PLATINUM eX has this feature, I guess.
From the creative site,
DVD-Audio™: The only PC solution to enable the Advanced Revolution™ era of 24-bit music fidelity with 192kHz in stereo and 96kHz in 5.1
catch-24? ;-)
Ah! Gollum’s back! We was beginning to missss him, weren’t we, my precious?
Seems PowerDVD Xp version 4+ comes with a decoder that has the capability to play 5.1 DVD audio. It also allows a cdrom drive to play a dvd-audio disc.
Do u know anyone who can get the fullversion software?
No, da! I will let know if I come across anyone who has this.