DVD and CD, it might sound stupid!!!!

[Erikmusicman]

Hey guys, can somebody tell me the diffrences between DVD and the CD quality. I am just talking about the sound quality. Is it true that DVD format is 192 kHz, resolution of 24 bit, with the Mpeg 1- layer 3 file type? I mean when you forexample play a concert on DVD, what is the audio format that it plays and you are listening? Is it the same as 44.1hz, 16 bit as CD?? OR it is 192 & 24. If it is the same as a CD quality then why do they even have that high resolution and higher sample bit. And CAN YOU also tell me what is the format od a regular CD. I know it's not WAVE, it isnot MP3, then what is it ( ormaybe it's wave????). if you are gonna write capital letters tell me what is it abriviated for??? Iknowthese questions may sound stupid but can somebody please answer'em?????????????????????

[3JDamon]

I've done some comparisons between:

- standard CD players - unbuffered DAC's which depend on the digital signal off the disc for clock
- older DVD players - 24/96 DAC's fed from a buffer with a consistent clock
- 192kHz DAC DVD players - also buffered, with a better clock

Most importantly, the buffering used in all DVD players makes a HUGE difference. Jitter caused by poorly mastered CD's is now extinct.

When Toshiba started making an issue of having a 192kHz DAC, I tried to enquire about whether the audio is upsampled before conversion to analog, nothing concrete, but I suspect not. There is a potential advantage of clock stability to a DAC that's capable of 192kHz even if lower bitrates are used, and such chips are generally of higher quality, but only appreciable if you're playing back through some pretty serious gear. The analog shortcomings of common DVD players surely negate any such benefits anyway.

There's one feature on my current DVD player (Hitachi DV-PF73U DVD/VCR combo) that I do think makes a significant sound quality difference: you can disable the auto-power-off function. This allows the analog components to stay warm, which in my experience makes a much bigger difference than the 96khz vs 192kHz clock issues mentioned above. Other Hitachi models probably have the same option, but I don't know which. The same thing can be done with DVD players with "hard" power switches, but I've only seen them on cheap models, which undoubtedly have lower-grade parts.

As for the media, CD is 44.1, DVD is 48. No big deal there. The DVD format allows for 96kHz, but I've yet to see one. The improvement from the buffered DAC is enough to impress anyone, so they'll undoubtedly save 96kHz for when it will stand out more.

The sick part is that my DVD player (like most) has a better DAC chip than what's in the Digi002! (192kHz Burr-Brown vs 96kHz AKM)

[3JDamon]

heh, I didn't really read the question....

CD format is just raw PCM 16/44.1, no actual "file format"
Only DVD audio format I've seen is 16/48 MPEG-1 layer 2 up to 384kbps

btw 384kbps MPEG-1 layer 2 beats:
the best MP3 (256kbps MPEG-1 layer 3) which beats:
the best WMA (128kbps MPEG-4)

Newer compression codecs are designed to make smaller bitrates sound better, and don't improve higher bitrates. DVD audio has plenty of bandwidth to work with, so MPEG-1 layer 2 (which pre-dates MP3) was the right choice.