[PencilGeek]

As U2Lynne knows, I'm the original taper of many shows -- spanning 30 years. All of my shows are the master recordings.

Many of these shows are worthy of being mastered as DVD-Audio in addition to the standard CD-Audio. We tried releasing Stevie Wonder @ Greek Theater as DVD-Audio, and it eventually got pulled because too many people complained they couldn't play it. It was presumed the posting was in error, but after looking into this, I don't think the posting was at fault. I believe the posting was fine.

I have two DVD-Audio players: My primary Denon 3910, and my secondary Onkyo DV-SP800.

I've been debugging this for three days now, and here's what I've discovered.

My DVD-Audio mastering software will play the DVD-Audio on either of these machines. However, if I use the AUDIO_TS files themselves and use NERO to burn, the DVD-A will play fine on my Denon, but won't play at all on my Onkyo. Next I tested a NERO DVD-COPY operation instead, and that works fine. So that eliminates at least one category of bugs in NERO. Next I burned the ISO, and that worked every single time without failure.

Following these experiments, I used some DVD diagnostics software to try and get a technical view of how the disc was encoded, and then I duplicated that exact scheme with NERO options -- guess what -- it didn't work. I then searched the web and found many older DVD players had problems unless the disc was encoded as UDF-1.02 file system, instead of any of the newer UDF versions (this DVD-A is encoded as UDF). So I tried overriding the default UDF encoding in NERO and forced it to burn at 1.02 -- it didn't work.

So it would appear the only guaranteed method to ensure the disc plays on the widest variety of players, is by burning the ISO file itself. The ISO file was guaranteed to run on any player.

So now, what do we do at TTD? I'd like to distribute some of my most worthy shows as DVD-A, but I don't want another fiasco of people complaining they can't play it -- all because whatever software they're using doesn't set whatever options are necessary to burn the disc properly.

I would propose that TTD break new ground here, and allow ISO file posting under strict guidelines. For example, only allow them from trusted traders; only allow them for DVD-A; and only allow them when the trusted trader is the original taper. You'd basically be trusting them at their word; but you know who these people are, and you know whether or not you can trust them (use your judgement). I'm personally only interested in making my own shows available; I have no interest in posting anything else, by anybody else, found or traded by any other means. I only want to post my own stuff.

You could also set up a 'moderated' posting policy for DVD-A ISO files. Postings would be submitted and seeded by the original author. You guys burn them to a VIRTUAL DVD drive and check that the contents match the fingerprints supplied by the author. You'd be getting so few of these that I don't think this would be too much of a burden.

So what do you say? Ready to break new ground and give yourselves a leg up on your competition? Here's your chance.

/PG