CDDA on DVD-R

[DereX888]

I'd like to compile few audio CDs (CDDAs) on a single DVD-R.
I have some live albums that were originally split onto few CDs (i.e. Metallica Live Shit Binge & Purge - Mexico City concert is about 3hrs on 3 CDs), which I have dumped on my hdd as a .wav files using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and recreated them into one long concert recording (removing fade ins/outs where original CDs ended/started).
I have no problem to upsample it all to 48kHz and create blank MPEG-2 video and multiplex them as videotracks with PCM sound.
Please understand: I want to preserve original disc's audio quality and I am not interested in dowsampling audio to any lower quality formats, the video part has no importance here.
However I am affraid that adding even lowest quality video will take away some space on DVD-R that I need for audio, as described below:

The problem:
Since blank DVD-R has 4,707,319,808 bytes (I took as example blank Ritek G04) and that comes to 2,298,496 sectors (@2kB each) which equals 510min 48sec of audio capacity (in terms of AudioCD quality - PCM stereo @1411kbps).
Some of it must be taken by authoring overhead, lets say ~200,000kb, therefore it leaves me only about 4,500,000 bytes available (which is 2,197,265 sectors, what equals to 488min 20sec).
Now one of the multiple CD albums that I'd want to put onto DVD-R has a total playing time of 483min 11sec. Apparently if I use any video for each of its tracks (47 tracks) even at lowest video bitrate, I may not be able to fit all of them on a single DVD-R disc.
Therefore my question is: is there a way to author DVD-Video disc with only PCM audio track and without any video? Or is there any flaw in my calculations? Perhaps my knowledge of the subject is too shallow and it is possible to make DVD-Video with audio tracks only?
I am also open for any other suggestions (that don't require purchasing $500 software ofcoz )

TIA!


Please accept my apology if this subject has been brought up here before. Before posting above problem I have read about a dozen of threads, but apparently they were all about different subjects only slightly related to my problem (since I am not interested in downsampling my CDDAs to "mp3 on DVD-R" or "mp2 on DVD-R", and I dont want to create any DVD-A either).

[Cornucopia]

Your math is slightly off--

Use 16bit/48kHz/2ch. for audio bitrate. You're right in realizing the need to resample.

If blank DVD-R has 4,707,319,808 bytes, then

4707319808 * 8bits per byte = 37658558464 bits

37658558464 bits / 1536000 bits per second = 24517.2907 seconds

24517.2907 seconds / 60 seconds per minute = 408.6215 minutes

Using 5% as the overhead...
408.6215 - 5% = 388.1904 minutes or 6 hours and 28+ minutes!

Not counting any overhead for video.

*Note: You don't have to worry about sectors on DVD, as ALL DVD's are "DATA" track type and use 2048byte sectoring, unlike CD's.

Now, on to your main problem...
Yes, as per the DVD spec, you have to have a video track (otherwise it wouldn't be DVD-"Video"). What to do?

Not a problem, really. Use a DVD authoring app that can accept MPEG STILLS! The data usage for those are miniscule. Make a disc that puts the stills over the audio track, possibly in Title space, possibly in Menu space, and set the duration to be the length of the audio track.

Try it with a subset (possibly on MiniDVD) as see!

HTH,
Scott

[DereX888]

Cornucopia - Thx for the tip!
Yes, video *stills* is the answer to my problem I dont know why I forgot that DVD-Video can use stills as a "video background" to audio track (if I may put it this way )

Using 5% as the overhead...
408.6215 - 5% = 388.1904 minutes or 6 hours and 28+ minutes!

Not counting any overhead for video.

Yup, your calculations are correct.

In my case video overhead can't be much since i will use only 25 stills for 25 audio tracks (probably I'll use 352x240 black pic to minimize size t absolute minimum) and perhaps one high quality picture for menu background (but I haven't decided yet do I really want any video menu on it, or will I leave it as is - 25 black video tracks selectable on a remote with numbers, to make it look more like "regular" CDDA would "look" and play on a dvd player).

However - your correct calculation made me sad.
~380minutes of PCM audio (with stills) is more than enough for putting entire Metallica Mexico concert on a single DVD-R as DVD-Video, but it is not enough for my Woodstock concert CDs set which is 8hrs+ of continuus audio in total
Oh well, I guess I'll wait with Woodstock CDs transfer to DVD-R until recordable DVD9s become available (and affordable).

Im going to author first dvd tonight and test on DVD-RW, I'll post results later.


Edited:
OK, I did it, it works perfect
I've created some simple guide based on this experience - it is available in Guides section of the forum, or go URL HERE:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=737076#737076