DVD-Audio Question/ Problem...help?! (mac) Options

[opethfan88]

Hello to all that read this, I'm new to the site and I joined because I am having an issue (or at least I think so) when I create DVD-Audio discs from DVD-Video discs with 5.1 mixes of a band's album (in my case Opeth). I will explain my process and then share the problem.

Process:

1.Rip DVD-video disc (Opeth albums with 5.1 mixes) but 5.1 ac3 only, no video, dts, or stereo. I rip with OSEx and do the necessary things to extract only the 5.1 AC3.

2. Convert 5.1 AC3 using a52decx to (Dolby) wav..(the question I have relates to this)

3. Author DVD-A and create .iso with the wav files using DVD-Audiofile

4. Burn iso

5. Play in my DVD-A player

I decided to look at the info on my .wav files and it says it only has 2 channels....which is stereo (obviously). When I play them on my DVD-A player, I feel like it should sound a little better. The output options on a52decx are stereo, dolby, individual, (stereo) wav, and (dolby) wav. I chose dolby wav thinking it would maintain the multiple channels. Did I do something wrong? Should I be using a different conversion or ripping software?

I can't author a DVD-A with AC3 files using DVD-Audiofile. Is that how it should be? Can someone show me a process that keeps the 5.1? Again, I'm on a mac. I can run windows 7 on my mac, but that is a last resort. Thank you in advance.

[dc2bluelight]

... The output options on a52decx are stereo, dolby, individual, (stereo) wav, and (dolby) wav. I chose dolby wav thinking it would maintain the multiple channels. Did I do something wrong? Should I be using a different conversion or ripping software?

If what you're ending up with is a stereo WAV file, then "dolby" most likely means your original 5.1 AC3 track is encoded via a matrix into a compatible "dolby surround" track, where all 5.1 channels are combined in such a way that a Dolby ProLogic decoder (in your AVR) would decode the 2-channel result back into 5.1 channels. The 2 channel file is technically called "Lt/Rt". It's not a prefect process by any means, but can work reasonably well. The rub is Lt/Rt to 5.1 via ProLogic is designed specifically for film soundtracks where Lsurround and Rsurround are not really fully discrete full bandwidth channels. They are actually a single, mono surround channel band limited to 8KHz, and with a modified Dolby B-type noise reduction process applied. ProLogic processes this back into quasi-Ls, and Rs signals, and also handles LCR channel steering to improve perceived adjacent channel separation. So, some multichannel music mixes won't sound quite the same or as good as the original.