Converting DVD 5.1 Surround to FLAC?

[Eleven13]

Hi everyone,

I've had dbpoweramp for a while now and love it, and I'm pretty comfortable with using it for CDs. But I recently obtained a copy of Opeth's Still Life remaster which includes a DVD of the album in 5.1 surround sound, and this supposedly is the best sounding version available.

I'd like to rip the DVD and figure out how to downmix it in dbpoweramp and convert it to FLAC for use on my music player. However, I don't have any experience ripping or dealing with DVD files, though I've found some recent threads on other websites mentioning that dbpoweramp can downmix quickly and easily (though when searching this board all I found was very old threads without much information).

So my questions are:

1. Can dbpoweramp be used to rip a DVD, or would I need to use another program?

2. Once the DVD is ripped, how can I use dbpoweramp to downmix the files and convert them to FLAC?

Sorry if this is actually more complicated than my questions make it seem, like I said I don't have any experience with doing something like this, but would like to learn!

Thanks

[mville]

I've had dbpoweramp for a while now and love it, and I'm pretty comfortable with using it for CDs. But I recently obtained a copy of Opeth's Still Life remaster which includes a DVD of the album in 5.1 surround sound, and this supposedly is the best sounding version available.

I'd like to rip the DVD and figure out how to downmix it in dbpoweramp and convert it to FLAC for use on my music player. However, I don't have any experience ripping or dealing with DVD files, though I've found some recent threads on other websites mentioning that dbpoweramp can downmix quickly and easily (though when searching this board all I found was very old threads without much information).

So my questions are:

1. Can dbpoweramp be used to rip a DVD, or would I need to use another program?

2. Once the DVD is ripped, how can I use dbpoweramp to downmix the files and convert them to FLAC?

1. No, you would need to use another program e.g. DVD Audio Extractor or DVD-A Explorer.

2. Take a look at this thread: https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthr...ing-5-1-to-2-0

[Eleven13]

Thanks, I had read that I'd need something like DVD Audio Extractor but just wanted to double check.

And if I'm reading that thread right, I would rip the files, then choose "Simple Channel Count" as the DSP and it'll convert it? At least with that thread it doesn't seem like the end product is too great but that was from a while ago, do you know if it's changed at all now?

[mville]

And if I'm reading that thread right, I would rip the files, then choose "Simple Channel Count" as the DSP and it'll convert it? At least with that thread it doesn't seem like the end product is too great but that was from a while ago, do you know if it's changed at all now?

I assume you want to downmix the 5.1 mix to 2.0 (stereo). Theoretically of course this is possible and in dBpoweramp you would use the Channel Count DSP. I have no experience of using the Channel Count DSP.

However, a 5.1 mix is what is and levels are mixed for a 5.1 speaker setup. IMO, trying to downmix 6 channels down to 2 channels with software does not work well and I have yet to hear a decent 5.1 downmix.

Still, that does not stop you from trying and hearing for yourself. Why not give it a go, compare it to the CD remaster mix and report the outcome here.

... by the way, do you have a 5.1 speaker setup?

[Eleven13]

Yeah that's exactly what I was looking to do, sorry like I said I don't have too much technical know-how unfortunately.

I was reading this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/449663/opet...master-2-0-wav and that person seems to have gotten good results doing that, I was just wondering if there was an easier way to do something like that using dbpoweramp. I will probably still give it a shot though, and if worse comes to worse I always have the actual CD to rip instead.

And unfortunately I don't have a 5.1 speaker set up, maybe some day

[BrodyBoy]

IMO, trying to downmix 6 channels down to 2 channels with software does not work well and I have yet to hear a decent 5.1 downmix.

I agree. I have quite a few concert DVDs & Blu-rays, and because they often have bonus content not available on their corresponding CD releases, I've tried various approaches to extracting that audio and downmixing to stereo. While it's "better than nothing" when I have no other way to get those live performances into my music library, the results are noticeably inferior compared to professionally-mixed stereo.