Recording 5.1 audio: is it possible?

[Stephen99]

Hello,

I have a Laserdisc collection and I have read suggestions here that it is best to back them up to dvd in case the day ever comes when the ld player cannot be repaired or replaced.

Is recording of the digital audio and ac3 impossible with stand-alone dvd recorders? I presume it is a feature that is missing to keep the cost down and/or to prevent people from making copies of dvds (though there are other ways of doing that I imagine)

I think that there are sound cards for your pc that have 5.1 inputs and outputs so is it possible to capture 5.1 sound via a pc recorder or have I got that wrong?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Broadz]

There was once a Philips standalone DVDR which supported optical in and could record a DD5.1 audio track - but that track could then only be played back on the same Philips recorder. Put the DVD in any other DVD player and only a digital stereo track could be heard. It also didn't have other very basic features such as the ability to play back DTS, so it was soon removed from the market.

 

[Gavtech]

I don't know of any DVDR's that capture 5.1 either.

There are some sound cards that can do it.

 

[Para]

if you can do it via a pc its possible, stand alone units don't tend to.

 

[kevin_476]

if you can do it via a pc its possible

other wise not.


Free TV

 

[Maximumbaz]

have a look at the thread http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=626332

seems a new Philips will record 5.1

 

[bxd]

Hi,

I've been watching that thread for a while (it's been going since last September) and activity on it does seem to have picked up recently.

I'd had a look at the manual for the recorder and the fact that ac-3 can only be played back on the same unit is a bit of a 'downer' but I wasn't aware of the dts issue (not that I have too many dts LDs) with the recorder (thanks Broadz!).

It might be just as easy to keep a LD player as back up.

I'm not familiar with the PC options as I've got a Mac_ are there any options there?

Brian

 

[Broadz]

I'd had a look at the manual for the recorder and the fact that ac-3 can only be played back on the same unit is a bit of a 'downer' but I wasn't aware of the dts issue (not that I have too many dts LDs) with the recorder (thanks Broadz!).

Brian, the Philips I was talking about was from three or four years ago. Whether it's the same one being featured in the posts above or not I don't know - and if it is a different one, whether Philips have now seen the light and decided to include DTS processing or not I also don't know. It seems strange that any company would consider releasing a DVD player in this day and age that couldn't process DTS, but Philips are a law unto themselves...

 

[bxd]

Hi Broadz,

It's the Philips 5570 which is being discussed a bit further down the page.

I was a bit surprised to see it as well_ I remember it being discussed ages ago, and there was some comment when Philips announced a unit but nothing ever seemed to come of it.

I had a quick look at the manual on the Philips site and it was mainly about recording DD off satellite rather than LD. Since LD ac-3 is quite a low bitrate it seems as if you can use SP mode for recording as well as HQ. I presume that if it can record dts it may only do so in HQ mode as it's full (CD) bit rate.

Brian

 

[bradavon78]

The current Philips HDD/DVD Recorder still has this function. AFAIK Freeview is Stereo only though and so is Sky unless you have Sky+.