Hi all,

since there is obviously no way to rip a DVD-Audio in the PC drive (please correct me if I'm wrong), I wonder if anybody has already tried to copy a whole 6-ch 24/96 PCM (!) audio data stream via Firewire/i.Link/IEEE1394.

Is that possible with players such as Pioneer DV-757Ai or DV-868AVi-S and a Firewire card, or is there a copy protection in the data stream which only a corresponding receiver/amplifier can decode?

Thanks in advance.

I doubt that the firewire can be used for transfering high resolution audio digitally from DVD-A/SACD, it's rather for video transfer similar to camcorder -> PC via firewire, I guess - otherwise the device would be illegal.

BTW: There was a similar rumor about that Kiss DP-500 (IIRC) device, the 1st standalone vorbis player (take with grain of salt):
[rumor]
On DVD-A playback digital output > 48khz/16bit was possible
-> Kiss was threatened to be sued by some copyrights protection organization
-> Kiss released a firmware update which disabled high resolution digital out
[/rumor]
I haven't found any reliable information from someone owning the device about it, though.

In the Pioneer players mentioned

http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/product_det...xonomy_id=62-84

http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/product_det...xonomy_id=62-84

Firewire (called i.Link there) is used to connect them to a pioneer receiver with i.Link. The following is a cite from the pioneer page:

"Products equipped with i.LINK Advanced Resolution Digital Audio Interface can directly and securely pass the digital content of an audio disc to a compliant amplifier or receiver. Signals passed through the interface include uncompressed formats (e.g.LPCM or DSD), as well as compressed audio formats (e.g.Dolby Digital,DTS,MPEG). "

The crucial point seems to be transmission to a non-Pioneer device, e.g. a pc firewire card.

Interesting. I wasn't able to find that. I've read something like 'i.link connection for DV (video) transfer' on some shop's webpage, but this information is probably inaccurate.



Any information available about what 'securely' means here exactly?

Let's calculate:

24 bit, 96 khz mono = 2304 kbps wav
* 6 (for six channels) = 13824 kps.

Firewire is capable (in theory) of 400 mbps. In practice, around maybe 350 for sending data. Of course depending of the Firewire chip.

So I would say Firewire/i.Link/IEEE1394 is capable of handling at least 140 channels in that resolution (350000/2304 ~150).

My guess is that 140 channels goes well within the limit to say "secure" transfer of 6 channels of audio data.

EDIT: corrected numbers

...And there are quite a fre Firewire-based audiocards that can be used to transfer more than 6 simultaneous 24/96 channels of pcm audio. A quite cheap 6-channel one is M-Audio Firewire 410.

So firewire should not really be the weak link here.

I think tigre meant that firewire probably can't be used (locked in hardware or something) because of legal matters, not technical matters.

Of course it can. Just encrypt the data stream using some cipher...

You can do it over USB1 or a serial link too (if they were fast enough).