Audio CDs to DVD? How do I author?

[tedbragg]

I'd like to take my CD collection and make them into DVDs. One dvd can hold quite a bit of music, but since my DVD player won't play MP3s, i'm stuck with regular uncompressed CD audio.

But how do I record redbook audio to a DVD? Just rip the AIFFs and burn to the DVD? Or do I have to run it thru some sort of compressor to make AC3/MP2 files?

I'm on a Mac, so...

[jman98]

You can't really do what you are proposing. Nothing will read CD audio burned to DVD media, not even a PC. I'm not aware of any authoring program that will let you burn CD format audio to DVD discs.
If you are unable to burn MP3s, your only other (ugly) option is to make either a DVD-Audio or an audio only DVD. You can convert your CD audio tracks to AC3 for audio only DVD or use PCM (a.k.a. WAV/AIFF) format audio for either DVD-Audio or audio only DVD. Doing either of these is not trivial, unfortunately. MP2 is not valid for DVD-Audio and should be avoided, as a general rule, in regular DVD as it's not valid as the only audio format on NTSC DVDs. It is valid as the only audio format on PAL DVDs.
May I make a suggestion? DVD players that support MP3 are really cheap. Why not just make your life easier and buy one?

[thecoalman]

What you could do is is create an entirely black video at the lowest bitrate possible using VBR. Encode the audio to AC3 and insert each audio clip into the timeline in your editor.

By my calculations using a vodeo bitrate of 500 (the lwest my editor will go) and a audio bitrate of 300 you can get well over 12 hours on a disc.

[Noahtuck]

Audio DVD Creator

It's not free but i have used it many times and the quality was great!!

Audio DVD Creator is a tool that changes the way you listen to your favorite music. You can create DVD disc compiled from normal Audio CDs and MP3 files, and play it on any DVD player since it is DVD-Video compliant. Choose audio format from high quality (~6 hours PCM 48kHz/16bits) or high quantity (~45 hours AC3 192kbps)

[thecoalman]

Audio DVD Creator

It's not free but i have used it many times and the quality was great!!

That's a very interesting tool, looks like it does what I suggested except creates the menus.... Only trouble is he's using a Mac.

[Noahtuck]

Audio DVD Creator

It's not free but i have used it many times and the quality was great!!

That's a very interesting tool, looks like it does what I suggested except creates the menus.... Only trouble is he's using a Mac.

Ooop's

Yep, i would try the way thecoalman said, except you could just use a .jpg for the video as it will encode the .jpg only as long as the audio clip is.

Unless there is a tool like the one i listed that would work on a mac.

[tedbragg]

Thanks guys. i've decided to get a cheap MP3 capable DVD player at Wally World...35 bucks beats the snot out of hours of tinkering and frustration.

[Raga]

You'll probably save your 35 bucks just in the price of the media.

[Noahtuck]

You'll probably save your 35 bucks just in the price of the media.

Yep, i have gotten over 165 mp3's @ 128Kbps on one cd-r that plays great on a standalone player that plays mp3 cd's.

[thecoalman]

You'll probably save your 35 bucks just in the price of the media.

Not mention the hours and hours you'sd have to spend to build a menu if you wanted one, that app for PC's looks nice though.