Audio DVD disc (Encore 2.0) - adding chapters

Jim.

If you are using separate sound files, how are these connected in the project?
If they are all separate timelines, then you will never get sealess playback.
The only way to achieve this is to compile them all into one long Audio file,
and import that. Set Chapter Points for each song.

Think about it - this is a VIDEO format. This means it is graphically dominant
& Audio subservient. Meaning - in blunt terms - you change the visual &
the audio also changes.
When using AC3, this will be even more noticeable as the decoders will lose the
lock & have to clamp down again. When using separate timelines, no matter
what you do there will be a transition as the player changes timelines. The
solution is DVD-Audio.
FWIW, do not use AC3 either - this is about as good as MP3. Fine for films, crap
for music - especially a disc that is music only. Use LPCM Stereo, and if
quality is important use 24 bit as well.

Quick Rant:
If you must use AC3, remember that Dolby Labs recommend 2 seconds of Audioblack
at the start of every timeline - a recommendation sadly ignored by far too many
"authors" out there. I have lost count of the discs that lose the
first second of audio because some fool did not do this.

      FWIW, do not use AC3 either...

Thanks Neil - I managed to get rid of the short gaps by erasing all of the
chapter end-actions...I had them all in the same timeline from the start as I
only need one button link for the menu. I was considering importing them all as
one file like you suggested but unfortunately I use Wavelab 5 for audio editing,
which has a file limit of 2GB (way to go, Steinberg)***. I initially tried to
author this as a DVD-A project in Wavelab but there are program glitches that
won't allow you to burn the final disc if it is of such length (the project is
for a 24-hour piece of music).

At this point, the 26 files are encoded as AC3 at a pretty high rate - it
actually sounds quite good but I would rather get the best quality I can fit on
an 8.5 GIG DVD...what would you recommend I use for LPCM encoding and DVD-A
authoring? I know Encore can use PCM but can it also use LPCM? Thanks so much
for your response and the great info...

Jim.

This problem (WaveLab 5) is caused by your source file being straight WAV. To
get a WAV file larger than 2Gb on any 32-bit system it must be encoded as WAV
format extensible. AIFF is a good workaround as well.
It's not the fault of WaveLab, but the source file.

A 24-hour file on a DVD-A?
Not certain you can do this.
we can assume - depending on the music - around 40 to 60% reduction in data. So,
24 * 60 = 1440 minutes
Data Rate is:
48(KHz) * 16 (bitrate) * 60 (seconds per minute) * 1440 (minutes) * 2 (tracks) =
132,710 megabits.
Average MLP compression is around 40% (could be higher depending on the music)
so 132,710,400 * 0.6 = 79,626 Megabits.
So far, so good - the total capacity of a DVD9 disc is as follows:
8,500,000,000 (bits) * 8 (bit/bytes) / 1000000 (bits/megabits)
= 68000 Megabits available.

So we have a shortfall in space here.
Lets see what happens if we reduce to 44.1KHz (This sample rate is DVD-A
legal).
44.1 * 16 * 60 * 1440 * 2 = 121,927Mbits * 0.6 = 73,156 Megabits.

It would depend entirely on exactly how much data reduction the MLP system will
give us, and because this is a lossless system it cannot be accurately
calculated (VBR = Reduction in Data, CBR = Reduction in Quality)