[paba]

Ok please be gentle.

I never heard anything above redbook (such as SACD, DVD-A, 24/96 etc..) I would like to take that giant first step.
I understand that there are a few 24/96 songs out there for free download either in Wav or FLAC.
I would like to download, then burn a DVD and play that DVD on my DVD player through the 2 RCA analog outs.

If the higher rez is obvious even via cheap DVD player then I will consider investing in a proper hi-rez setup (HW and SW).

I have a mac with iDVD and itunes..but am willing install any freewares required...

Thanks for getting me started.
/paba

[Crimson]

Here's the help topic on making music DVDs with iDVD. You can skip the part about adding photos and just burn the disc with music only.

[richidoo]

On SACD hybrid discs, I can easily hear the benefit of SACD over CD in smoothness and detail on my stock Samsung 841 universal disc player.

[paba]

Thanks Crimson
i have idvd 6 but I guess it should be very close to 7.
will the 24/96 audio tracks then play one after the other like a CD or will it require clicks on the DVD player remote?
and do I need any file conversion from the original downloaded format....wav to idvd or flac to idvd or will idvd take care of it?
or is that what itunes will do once the download file will appear on the HDD?

Richidoo, that is encouraging, but I wonder if it sounds better simply because there was more care in mastering/edit stage of SACD production in general, i.e no compression loudness wars etc... compared to CD mastering which is getting really bad now almost impossible to listen to on some pop/rock recent recordings.

[Crimson]

will the 24/96 audio tracks then play one after the other like a CD or will it require clicks on the DVD player remote?

I'm not really sure. The help topic is specific to 'music dvds', so maybe there are ways to make it behave like a regular CD (by adding a DVD menu option to 'play all', for example).

and do I need any file conversion from the original downloaded format....wav to idvd or flac to idvd or will idvd take care of it?
or is that what itunes will do once the download file will appear on the HDD?

I'd think as long as the files are in WAV (or any other format that iTunes recognizes), iDVD will have no problem including them in your playlist.

Now you've got me thinking.

Maybe later today I'll try this out with some 24/96 material I have, and we can compare notes. Thanks for the idea.

[paba]

ok here is my progress... clearly I'm struggling...

I downloaded 10 FLAC 24/96 tracks...strangely they appear on my desk as .songname.flac.txt
googled around and found xact freeware to convert flac to wav.
coverted all 10 and was able to play the wav files thru my mac book speakers. So conversion worked hopefully the wav files are 24/96.
now opened idvd.
idvd won't see the wav files unless I import them into itunes first. (thanks to more google searches)
imported into itunes.
back in idvd
try to drag and drop some audio into a theme... no can do. I must be an idiot. after an hour on idvd I gave up. I guess you need to pick at least one photo or one movie clip to be able to add audio or something. But I didn't try that.
Now I'm burning the wav files to dvd as wav files which I'm pretty sure won't play on a DVD player.
I will move the files to a vista PC to see if I can make any progress there.

Please tell me that there is an easier way. I guess something called Toast could do it?

no joke, 3 hrs  of effort.

[Crimson]

Yeah, I doodled with it for a while and saw the same thing. You need to add a slideshow even if it contains just one slide/picture, and then drag the music file over. Unfortunately, if you add multiple music files to the same slide show you can't skip songs during playback (no chapter access unless you add movies). Also, making multiple slideshows containing one song each lets you select individual songs but then you can't play them in succession!

I've read quite a bit about Toast, but never tried it. It does, apparently, support making music dvds.

[paba]

Ok, gave it another crack...

this time using iMovie... drag the songs into imovie, share to idvd and then you get a DVD that plays on DVD player but I got one long song with no interuptions ... proof of concept works not to refine it.
But certainly not trivial. And no assurance that the songs are still 24/96.

I'll keep at it. but I think a special authoring sw might be the only way in one step Flac to a dvd-v audio disk.

paba

[paba]

so to summarize

flac to wav using xact
wav imported into itunes
imovie used to insert the above songs from itunes library
share imovie to idvd
render in idvd and burn dvd

long and painful...tonight i will give it listen in my main system.

/paba