DVD-Audio capable DDP tool needed

[neil wilkes]

Help.
Desperately need a tool capable of creating a DDP image set from a DVD-Audio tool - Sonic's DVD-Audio Creator cannot do it (only the MEI version has the module for this) & GEAR Pro Mastering Edition simply does not work.

Any suggestions, please?

[guada2]

:)

Try "Pyramix 8.0" or "Merging Technologies Pyramix Virtual Studio 7.0.10"

Bye.

[neil wilkes]

Nope.
DDP support there is for CD only.

[Emulgator]

Sony can do this (I have Sony DVD-Architect Pro 5.2 and 6 here, tested on 5.2)

To check this I just built a DDP 2.10 image from ~1GB AUDIO_TS, ~10MB EXTRAS, ~4GB VIDEO_TS.
chose a DVD-9 with OTP and a suitable layer break.
Result were 2 folders LAYER_0 and LAYER_1, each containing CONTROL.DAT, DDPID, IMAGE.DAT

Mastering time 6:40 on a single drive. Total size 5,16GB, layer sizes: 0: 2.72GB, 1: 2.43GB

Since the DVD-Audio part was a test image I had laying around,
I mounted this part using Pismo File Mount and copied its contents to the AUDIO_TS folder before mastering.

The total filesize of the DDP master came out a tiny bit larger than the sum of the parts that went in
(~0.78M = 0,014% larger), this suggests that the AUDIO_TS folder has indeed become part of the DDP master.

[neil wilkes]

That's seriously interesting news - I also have these versions of DVD-Archi9tect but have never as much as fired them up because they only author DVD-Video as abstraction layer tools.
As such, I would never even have considered it - what a thing!
Can I ask how it handled setting the layer break please?

[Emulgator]

The beauty of Sony DVD-A Pro is that is accepts externally generated DVD folders for DVD-Mastering.
(just another point where the Vegas suite is worth its money)
A VIDEO_TS folder has to be there and the minimal set of DVD-Video files have to be in there.
It won't do data DVDs or pure DVD-Audio.

You set project properties to DVD (Blu-ray projects offer no DDP image creation).
Make DVD -> Write Master (not sure about the english wording, I have a german version here)
Tick "Previously prepared folder".

After importing the root folder containing AUDIO_TS, (EXTRAS, JACKET_P, if any), VIDEO_TS
you will be asked for LB placement shortly after specifying any 2-layered disc like DVD-9 or DVD-18.

No choice of file/folder placement on disc though, the other folders are not mentioned by the GUI.

DVD-Architect Pro offers the matching chapters of the DVD-Video part as a line to choose from,
named by their number, VTS, block position, no timecode.

In my case (only 60% filled DVD-9) there were 5 chapters (8..12) available for LB candidates.
The more the disc is filled, the narrower the LB range
and when disc is used to the max, only one chapter=LB position is possible.

Unfortunately no preview as in ImgBurn.
But as we both know, we should set enough chapters around the assumed LB position in authoring
before muxing anyway.

Maybe after test compiling and mastering remove the unnecessary chapters in the final mux,
then final mastering.
It may take some trial-and-errors with non-empty AUDIO_TS folders.

[neil wilkes]

Thanks very much for this - I shall load up a compiled set & see what it makes of it.
Previously - because of a broken Layer Break setup - I was trying to use GEAR Pro Mastering Edition and could only manage this by first creating an ISO from AUDIO_TS & VIDEO_TS folders (not using IMGBurn - I will have to find out why, but for some reason IMGBurn gives very different layout to what is output from Panasonic's MakeIMG, offering me break points that simply do not make sense compared to Sonic's output from DVD-Audio Creator, but that is for me to try & work out) and then burning that to DL and importing a written disc to DDP.
It simply never occurred to me that a DVD-V tool may be able to create DDP from DVD-A/V output.

Setting break will not be too hard - I will know where it should go (from DAC) and can easily enough pick the right point. I guess the first thing to try is a fully loaded DL image & see where I end up.
Most appreciated, and again my thanks.

@guada2.
I wrote to Merging technologies, and like Sonoris DDP creator it can only do CD. Thanks for the suggestion though.