# Ripping audio from DVDs?



## Guest

*I've ripped audio from audio and video streams before never directly from a DVD.* Recently, on top of a lengthy list of operas that have only been released in DVD format (Doctor Atomic, Alice In Wonderland, The Minotaur, Faustus, etc...), NEOS finally released the exact tracklists for _Donaueschinger Musiktage 2014_, and it appears that about a third of the works will be released on a DVD. Now, the video will surely be a fine thing to witness, but I couldn't help but be dismayed that one of the tracks I was looking forward to most on this new comp (Steen-Andersen's Piano Concerto) will not be released in mp3 format.

*Does anyone have any experience ripping audio from DVDs? Recommended apps? Helpful comments?*

As a side note, I've never ripped a DVD into a video file either; and if I can do that, I can always extract audio from the video file. So if you have no experience ripping audio from DVDs but do have experience ripping video, please feel free to comment as well.


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## KenOC

An approach using a free piece of software. I've not done this, so...

http://www.ehow.com/how_5790301_rip-audio-tracks-dvd.html


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## Guest

I suppose I could run some tests on my Boulez Ring Cycle...


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## SixFootScowl

I use a program called Handbrake to create mkv video files that are about 1/4 the file space of the original DVD disk image. The mkv can be loaded into Audacity sound editor and re-saved as MP3 files, breaking out chunks at appropriate points in the entire work. Sound quality seems to depend on which sound format you pull in on Handbrake from the original DVD, many of which have several selections. May have to experiment a bit.


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## Taggart

I've use VLan to extract audio. Has the advantage that you can script the whole thing.

See

https://wiki.videolan.org/Extract_audio/

and

http://www.wikihow.com/Rip-DVD-Audio-to-MP3-Using-VLC-Media-Player

The nice thing is that it will pull audio out in MP3 or FLAC.


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## Badinerie

Im still using Mini Disc. My DVD is plugged into my hi fi. I make compilations from the DVD and listen to them on my Portable Mini Disc player. No Computer or awkward software issues experianced.


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## bigshot

Florestan said:


> I use a program called Handbrake to create mkv video files that are about 1/4 the file space of the original DVD disk image.


Handbrake should be able to rip straight to an MP3.

I use MakeMKV to rip losslessly from DVD and Blu-Ray, and Handbrake to compress.


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## SixFootScowl

bigshot said:


> Handbrake should be able to rip straight to an MP3.


I just may not know how to do that yet. Supposedly you can rip straight from the VLC player. I actually create a .iso image file (using Brasero) of the disc and play that off my 1TB external drive, and make the smaller sized Handbrake .mkv files off the image file for my netbook which has only 125GB hard drive. The nice thing with the Handbrake files is I can select the preferred audio track and burn in the subtitles, then it runs the opera (or other program) straight out rather than having to hassle with menus and selections.


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## ptr

I've been using DVD Audio Extractor for many years, works perfectly! But is but free...

/ptr


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## Guest

I'll be testing these methods at the end of the week when amazon is finally ready to make the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2014 box available in the U.S. (already pre-ordered with priority shipping weeks ago...)

If all goes well, I'll be turning some of my meager spending power to works released only by DVD. Namely the Neuwirth and Fuentes DVDs on Kairos, and then operas such as _Alice In Wonderland_, _The Minotaur_, _Faustus_, _Rasputin_, _Dionysos_, and so on...


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## Sonata

Yeah, I'd like to do the same with Lohengrin with Jonas Kaufmann


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## Granate

Interested in this topic. I have purchased for the first time a Concert DVD in *LPCM 2-channels* because of my interest in the performance. I would like to be able to play to it like it was a CD or rip it in a HQ audio file. I do see that VLC can equalize the DVD audio, but is it enough in your experience to enjoy a performance without the need to rip LPCM into WAW?


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## Kiki

Granate said:


> Interested in this topic. I have purchased for the first time a Concert DVD in *LPCM 2-channels* because of my interest in the performance. I would like to be able to play to it like it was a CD or rip it in a HQ audio file. I do see that VLC can equalize the DVD audio, but is it enough in your experience to enjoy a performance without the need to rip LPCM into WAW?


On a software media player, incl. VLC, one can select which chapter/title to play so that's kind of similar to playing a CD. However, a DVD always starts playing by showing you all those banner/logo screens, which will take up to a minute or so, before it will show a menu for you to select chapters/titles. Some media players will let you manually jump to the menu during those screens (don't know if VLC can do this) but you still have to manually click click click to do so. And then there are some DVDs that have no menu at all, in which case you will have to sit through all those banner/logo screens and then the concert/opera will start immediately after that. The user experience is not quite the same as playing a CD.

On the other hand, if you want to extract the audio from a DVD-Video disc -

I don't use VLC but it should be able to do that. It claims it can copy the original audio, so you can preserve the original's quality.

Note: LPCM is a raw data stream. WAV (or AIFF on Mac) is a file format - think of it as a container that contains the LPCM data. Therefore you should extract the LPCM stream to a WAV file. I believe VLC can also extract to a FLAC file, so you have a choice between WAV and FLAC. The quality of WAV/FLAC is exactly the same as the LPCM.

However, to my understanding, VLC cannot handle most copy-protected DVDs. While most classical music DVDs are not copy-protected, if unfortunately your DVD is copy-protected, you will need to either 1) install a standalone decrypter (e.g. "DVDFabPasskey Lite" (free)) before using VLC to read the DVD, and/or 2) try a different audio extractor program (e.g. "DVD Audio Extractor" (30-d trial)).

Warning: I'm always wary of what such programs will do to my OS. Therefore I strongly suggest making a system image of the OS before installing them. After you've extracted the audio, restore the system image to get rid of these programs!

There are many other ways to extract the audio from a DVD-Video disc. Personally I use "HandBrake" with the "Haali Media Splitter" to extract the video&audio into a MKV file, then use "eac3to" to extract the FLAC from the MKV. This method requires more manual work, but these programs are free, reliable and I know they are safe.


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## robertzombie

DVD Audio Extractor is the way to go. Rip to WAV, use the same recording rates in order to get a truly lossless extraction (probably 16 bit, 48 kHz*). DVD-AE can rip by chapter markings so the files are split correctly.

* If burning to CD select 44.1 kHz.


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## Granate

Thank you. I'll find out when the DVD arrives. Burning and splitting could be more comfortable, as long as I can make it sound like a CD master in high quality.


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## SixFootScowl

Brasero will make a virtual image of the disk, called a .iso file. It will play just like the DVD including menus etc. I hasve only ever had one or two DVDs that would not copy with Brasero.


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## robertzombie

Granate said:


> Thank you. I'll find out when the DVD arrives. Burning and splitting could be more comfortable, as long as I can make it sound like a CD master in high quality.


If ripped correctly it will sound identical to the DVD 

One thing to watch out for is multi-channel (i.e. 5.1) audio tracks. These can sometimes require volume reduction during extraction to prevent digital distortion. Most classical DVDs come with a 2.0 LPCM soundtrack though, which is your best bet for what's being described in this thread.


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## Granate

DVD Audio extractor worked out. I still have the WAWs but I don't now if the LPCM does actually have a 24bit source or the CD quality is actually the best audio codec. The Player also activates a particular equalizer for this album. Stunning playing.


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## HenryPenfold

I would so like to rip the audio from my Birtwistle Minotaur DVD.


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## SixFootScowl

If you get the video into .mp4 format you can simply change the ending to .mp3 and it works.


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## HenryPenfold

SixFootScowl said:


> If you get the video into .mp4 format you can simply change the ending to .mp3 and it works.


Wanna do it on my Mac - rip the DVD audio to may hard-drive.


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## SixFootScowl

I wonder if Audacity would pull sound tracks from a DVD. There must be programs that can extract the sound tracks. Open the DVD as a folder and see if there maybe are some sound files inside. I do think I recall seeing video and audio files separately listed.


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## robertzombie

HenryPenfold said:


> Wanna do it on my Mac - rip the DVD audio to may hard-drive.


DVD Audio Extractor is a cross-platform application runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora).


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## HenryPenfold

SixFootScowl said:


> I wonder if Audacity would pull sound tracks from a DVD. There must be programs that can extract the sound tracks. Open the DVD as a folder and see if there maybe are some sound files inside. I do think I recall seeing video and audio files separately listed.


I need to research this more. Would be nice to have such a facility.


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## HenryPenfold

robertzombie said:


> DVD Audio Extractor is a cross-platform application runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora).


Thank you - I will look into this.


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## Kiki

Granate said:


> DVD Audio extractor worked out. I still have the WAWs but I don't now if the LPCM does actually have a 24bit source or the CD quality is actually the best audio codec. The Player also activates a particular equalizer for this album. Stunning playing.


Good to know it works for you!

The 2-ch LPCM stream of all DVD-Video discs that I have come across are 16-bit 48kHz, even though technically it could support up to 24-bit 96kHz.

Beware - if you select "CD Quality" in DVD Audio Extractor, I do not know if it would convert the sampling rate from 48kHz to 44.1kHz (since CD uses 44.1kHz exclusively). I would make sure the setting in the ripper will not re-sample, i.e. keeping the original 48kHz sampling rate in the output WAV or FLAC files.

Such re-sampling will always downgrade the signal quality, even though it may not be noticeable depending on how good DVD Audio Extractor's re-sampling algorithm is and the quality of your playback equipment; But that is not the point, since I believe you want to extract exactly the same quality from the DVD-V, so I would suggest you check the setting to make sure there is no re-sampling.


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## Granate

No Kiki. I ripped the Audio DVD in WAW 48kHz 24bit files (I don't know how to check if the original source was in 16bit).
I had to check out the picture I uploaded to see that my final FLAC files have a 48kHz rate. :lol: I thought I converted them to 44.1 on Audacity but I just replaced the codec and put a CD quality bitrate.


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## TonyBombassolo

Granate said:


> DVD Audio extractor worked out. I still have the WAWs but I don't now if the LPCM does actually have a 24bit source or the CD quality is actually the best audio codec. The Player also activates a particular equalizer for this album. Stunning playing.


I've used this file as well and I have seen no evidence it isn't bit perfect.

I consider it the equivalent of Exact Audio Copy but for DVD-A, as my experience is it shows all available streams.


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## TonyBombassolo

Granate said:


> No Kiki. I ripped the Audio DVD in WAW 48kHz 24bit files (I don't know how to check if the original source was in 16bit).
> I had to check out the picture I uploaded to see that my final FLAC files have a 48kHz rate. :lol: I thought I converted them to 44.1 on Audacity but I just replaced the codec and put a CD quality bitrate.


this kind of builds on the question I posted about ripping SACDs

the real answer is it depends on what the original content was recorded at. If you had an original master DAT recording, that would only max out at 16bit48khz. Whereas with current technology, you could record this in DSD format or even 96/192, as the technology allows for the recordings to have a larger bit depth and sample rate. Making a 24bit file of a 16 bit master dat recording that went to DVD-A is really just upsampling for no reason as the original content didnt record sounds at the ranges you are upsampling to.


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## premont

ptr said:


> I've been using DVD Audio Extractor for many years, works perfectly! But is but free...
> 
> /ptr


I see that one has to purchase a licence. How often must this be renewed? 
Every month, 
every year? 
or never?


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## Limb

From their website:

Benefits of Purchase

Valid license to remove the 30 day limit.
Lifetime free upgrades. Yes, it's true! You will never need to pay again for upgrades. Once purchased you can use all the future versions for free!
Unlimited email supports.


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## premont

Limb said:


> From their website:
> 
> Benefits of Purchase
> 
> Valid license to remove the 30 day limit.
> Lifetime free upgrades. Yes, it's true! You will never need to pay again for upgrades. Once purchased you can use all the future versions for free!
> Unlimited email supports.


But does this mean that one doesn't have to renew the licence regularly? 
With Microsoft Office eg. you have to renew the licence every month, even if updating is included.


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