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Difference Between DVD-Audio & PCM Stereo

Discussion in 'Audio' started by TimGunz, Feb 10, 2005.

  1. TimGunz

    TimGunz Member

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    I am confused here...

    I understand that DVD-Audio is 5.1, and Stereo is 2 channels, but I just purchased the AC/DC Back In Black DualDisc, and one side is CD Audio, and the DVD-Side has videos, and the album in "PCM Stereo."

    I thought all CDs were PCM? What is PCM Stereo, and how is it different from the CD side?
     
  2. djscoop

    djscoop Active member

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    PCM stands for pulse code modulation. Basically, it is the format for reading the data off of audio CDs, and converting the data to audio (through a D/A converter). Yes, all audio CDs are PCM. I am more of a SACD person, so my knowledge on DVD-Audio is limited, but my guess is that the "PCM Stereo" on the album is referring to the CD only, but its possible that the DVD-Audio is stereo only, with no surround sound, so it may be called PCM stereo cause it uses the same format at audio CDs, just a higher samplerate.
     
  3. TimGunz

    TimGunz Member

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    Thanks...that makes sense. It's definitely not coming in 5.1, so it must just be a higher sampled Stereo Track.
     
  4. SSChicken

    SSChicken Member

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    I've seen alot in this specific forum about DVD Audio and PCM or "WAV" format CD-Audio. It's kindof been bugging me because theres alot of mis-information in regards to this.

    When it comes to wav, it's a raw data file. Any way you look at it, nothing is compressed per se, just left out alltogether. A CD running at 44.1Khz 16 bit stereo is just that, no compression and therefore takes up alot of space.

    One thing I have seen alot here is that people saying that theres no such thing as 5.1 Wav files. Well, youre right and wrong. Technicly, there is no such thing. You can't just put 5.1 channels into a wav file and expect it to work on 5.1 channels. If, however, you encode something into a dolby or even DTS data stream, then put that raw data into a wav file, then burn that to a CD you do indeed have a 5.1 standard CD. It won't work in your everyday CD player because it is a digital CD, but if you have a reciever with 5.1 Dolby decoding or DTS on it, a standard audio CD will be able to hold a full 5.1 channel surround sound on such a setup.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2005
  5. diabolos

    diabolos Guest

    DVD-Audio discs use LPCM to achieve sample rates higher than CDs using PCM. The sound is not always in 5.1 suround al the time. LPCM has a range of Mono too 5.1 channels. There is much to the DVD-Audio format though, please visit the link below for more info on DVD-Audio.

    DVD-Audio in a nutshell:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Audio#DVD-Audio


    Wave files can be formatted in whatever way the source file is. Waves that are ripped from CD tracks are PCM-Waves because the CD has PCM audio streams on it. A wave file created from an MP3 can be an MP3-Wave (if the Mp3 was not resampled at fixed Wave standards). [bold]The Wave format is an umbrella that can contain any audio format as well as being a raw audio-data storage format![/bold]

    The Wave format:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wav

    Ced
     
  6. TimGunz

    TimGunz Member

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    So is it safe to assume that an album on the DVD Side of a DualDisc that is in "PCM Stereo" is just a two channel recording sampled at 24 bit or higher?
     
  7. TimGunz

    TimGunz Member

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    So is it safe to assume that an album on the DVD Side of a DualDisc that is in "PCM Stereo" is just a two channel recording sampled at 24 bit or higher?
     
  8. djscoop

    djscoop Active member

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    I suppose so, but it puzzles me why they would call it PCM Stereo, when the link diabolos provided above explained that DVD-Audio format is LPCM, the L standing for lossless compression, because DVD-Audio is compressed, where as CD audio is not.
     

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