Best way to store music - DVD's ?

[Cardenio]

Hi, everybody, here goes my problem.
I have these audio files that i got from a pc satellite card, mostly from radio stations. These files are in .m2a format, which, i believe, are a mp2. format.
I can edit them directly in ADOBE AUDITION 1.5 without having to convert them first to wave format. ADOBE AUDITION 1.5 has an option in Multitrack View, which is "Audio from Video" that lets you edit mp2 files.
I don't know what are the output formt in ADOBE AUDITION 1.5, i presume it is by default WAVE format (Can somebody confirm it, please ?).
So, my first question is: as the source of my files is .mp2 format, there's no point to convert it to WAVE, as i won't get more sound quality. Am i right ? If so, it is better to keep the files in their original format (if possible, which i don't know) or in .mp3 format (for storage matters). The question here is to store the files with the minimum storage and maximum quality (quality is prior to storage to me). If all this is true, how can i set output format in ADOBE AUDITION 1.5 ?
Second question, i intend to burn the files to DVD's with a DVD Authoring program. Do DVD Authoring programs burn mp2 or mp3 files ? Or simply wave ?
Please, do bear in mind that the goal is to achieve the best quality with the minimum storage.
Just tell me what would you do if you were me.


Thanks everyone,

Cardenio

[Koepi]

Here (at no. 12) (http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm) you find the answer ;-)

(Two consecutive threads like "what's best"? What's up today?)

You might want to take a look at dvda-author: http://dvd-audio.sourceforge.net/

[Arky]

You are correct on virtually all your guesses:


m2a is MPEG 1 Layer 2. This format is Spec-legal for PAL DVDs only.

You should keep your files in their existing format - as you correctly state, decompressing them to .wav will take up more space with NO benefit in sound quality.

Never recompress a compressed file into another compression format - you will get all manner of compression artifacts since most compression formats employ some form of data redundancy - once it has been thrown away, trying to repeat the process with an alternative codec will result in an audible mess.

Provided you are authoring a PAL project, most DVD authoring programs (well, all the Spec-compliant ones, anyway...) will accept, and multiplex, .m2a.

.mp3 is not a legal format within the DVD Specifications.


Arky ;o)