Recording Digital Audio

[Jamil]

Hi, gang. I have a question that hopefully someone here knows the answer to.

I own Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum hardware. I also own a Panasonic portable DVD player that has a digital output jack (DVD-LV75). Attached to this, I use a Monster digital cable (mini jack to toslink) that I plug into the Live drive optical input. That part works just fine.

Here's my question: why is it that I cannot record the DVD side of those dual discs using my Sound Forge software? I can hear the audio just fine when I connect it to my computer, but Sound Forge does not record any audio. It records just fine using the CD side of dual discs, but not the DVD side.

When I play the disc on the DVD side, I select the option for stereo audio on the DVD selection menu for the disc. My portable player is configured for two speakers. Is this a limitation of the sound card? Is this perhaps due to poor drivers for the sound card? (not able to convert the high definition stereo to the 24 bit format I am attempting to record in).

Correction: I cannot record from the optical-in connector in 24 bits, because Sound Forge reports that the hardware does not support 24 bit recording. It records only at 16 bits, but only for the CD side of the dual discs. It appears that Audigy 2 ZS's do not support 24 bit recording from the digital input (this could be a driver or hardware limitation).

Thanks in advance.

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Hmmmmm....I don't use soundforge but it seems stange to me that it will not dither the 24bit to 16bit in your software protocol. Is there a way in sound forge settings to dither the input signal to 16bit?


A Shot In the Dark is only good if it hits something!!!

 

[Jamil]

Thanks for the reply. I figured out the problem and how to get it to record. It's an Audigy 2 ZS setup issue. I was just playing around with the settings and found something I never used before.

In the control panel, there's the AudioHQ applet. After opening that, I brought up Device Controls. There's a tab in this window labeled Bit Accurate Mode. By default, this is disabled. When I turned it on, I was able to hear and record DVD audio connected via the toslink cable using the regular Windows sound recorder.

Edit:

No. No. Scratch that. I had the dual disc on the CD side when I recorded, so this isn't the fix. It still is not able to record the DVD audio side of the disc.

 

[Jamil]

I don't know if this is due to hardware limitations, but I think it may be poor drivers for the sound card. I hear the audio I wish to record through my computer speakers, but I see nothing on the recording meters of the software when playing DVD audio. I am using the latest ASIO drivers for the Audigy card.

When I play DVD audio through PowerDVD, I actually can record the audio with Sound Forge using the Wave input. I just cannot using the SPDIF input.

Another thing I have just found that works is setting the device to Windows Sound Mapper in Sound Forge, and setting the recording device to "What You Hear" in the Windows volume control tool.

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Just a suggestion. I have a project recording studio. soundcard recording is generally foreign to me. You might want to take a plunge and look at a professional digital recording setup such as a Motu 2408, Delta 1010 or echo layla. These are hard disk digital recording systems that have one purpose...getting audio from any source on to your hard drive! Sound forge has all the basic mastering software already on board and you'd enter a whole new level!!! Just a thought.

 

[Jamil]

Thanks for the suggestion. I was actually considering something along these lines. I was looking at some cheaper alternatives, such as the Audiotrack Maya 1010 or Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe. It's not easy finding reviews of this hardware to make a good decision, unfortunately.

 

[EricB]

forget all of that. google dvd audio ripper or ac3 decode and use them to rip the sound to your hard drive (put the dvd in the computer). it's way faster too.

 

[Jamil]

This will work until the next revision of digital audio copy protection becomes available.

 

[EricB]

This will work until the next revision of digital audio copy protection becomes available.

???

you can always copy a dvd video's audio. it was never encrypted to begin with (the video part is)

DVD Audio (which is something completely different from regular dvd movies) is something else. you will never be able to copy it.

 

[Jamil]

DVD Audio is what I was attempting to copy through my Audigy 2 ZS Optical-in connection. The Sound Blaster hardware just cannot handle 24 bit recording for external connections, it seems. It is limited to 16 bits.

As I mentioned earlier, I can play the audio with PowerDVD (with its CPRM support) and record it with no problems using Wave or "What You Hear" as the input source.