Video Asylum

DVD recorder audio quality?

85.1.97.7

Allen Wright

I have a European Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder and need to use it as a back-up recorder to make some Live hi quality audio recordings, and it's my only other recoding device beside analog tape.

The specs in the User Manual only say: Audio: "Dolby Digital" and give ZIP further info.

Does anyone know if it records in CD 44/16 format, or better, and how the recording format changes as the recording times go from one hour up to ultra slow at eight hours?

I know for sure the pix quality goes down, but never have had the chance to really test the audio.

Thanks, Allen

Follow Ups:

Thanks Guys,,, - Allen Wright 09:10:41 08/20/08 (0)
,,,I guess it won't replace my 15IPS half track Revox then...?

Regards, Allen
audio quality is consistent - Joe Murphy Jr 19:18:47 08/18/08 (3)
As in consistently Dolby Digital crap. While the picture quality goes up as you decrease the recording time, audio quality remains the same for pretty much all of the stand-alone DVD recorders.
- Ok, but... - Allen Wright 04:17:51 08/19/08 (2)
  ...what exactly does "Dolby Digital" mean?
  
  Is it CD format 16.44 or worse?
  
  What happened to 24/96 that DVD was supposed to support?
  
  I measured the frequency response of the recorder on 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour and 8 play speeds and the frequency response is identical, as you suggested - flat to 20kHz and then NOTHING higher.
  
  But what's the bit rate?
  
  REgards, Allen
  - for your application - Joe Murphy Jr 00:12:41 08/20/08 (0)
    it's basically a lossy format 2-channel 16-bit/48kHz encode running at 192kb/s. There's a very slight, but improbable, chance that it may run as high as 224, 384 or 448kb/s. Just because the format supports 24/96 doesn't mean all devices or software allow for this quality.
  - RE: Ok, but... - David Aiken 19:15:08 08/19/08 (0)
    It's worse.
    
    Dolby Digital is a means of packing 5.1 channels of lossy compressed sound into a single signal. First the player has to decode it to PCM and then it gets converted to analog via a DAC. How lossy depends on the options your recorder offers and the decisions you make but it is lossy, and it sounds noticeably inferior to the new Dolby True HD format on Blu-ray discs since True HD is lossless.
    
    Dolby never offered 24/96 to my knowledge but their competitor DTS did and I have one DVD with a 24/96 soundtrack. It sounds quite good but it's still a lossy compression algorithm.
    
    For lossless compression you need to think in terms of the Dolby and DTS high definition audio formats for Blu-ray. On the lossy formats I think DTS sounds better than Dolby and that's probably because DTS uses less data compression than Dolby, meaning less gets thrown away.
    
    Someone else can probably provide the specs for the bits/sampling rate for Dolby Digital but the bottom line is that it is lossy compression and it doesn't sound as good as CD to my ears.
    
    David Aiken

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