StarDestroyer.Net BBS

If I want to record some things from a DVD in my DVD drive, and get the best sound quality possible, how should I do it? All I know how to do now is use a program like Goldwave, play the DVD, and record with the PC's mic. Is there a better way to do this (besides getting better speakers and mic)? My speakers and mic aren't the greatest.

There's no need to be using the mic at all.

If you tweak your volume properties for recording:

Open the volume control on your taskbar
Select options
Select properties
Check the box that says recording, and press ok

You should be able to find a channel that will record the sound before it goes out to the speakers.

Then you just need to record it in your wave editor of choice, make any tweaks to it you want, then encode it to mp3 using something like Lame.

This should be at close enough quality to the original so as to be indistinguishable. In the unlikely event of any distortion occuring, you will most likely be able to fix it by tweaking either your output volume or your recording volume.

There's also the method of ripping the DVD and extracting the AAC or DTS music and transcoding from there.

I found this guide that goes through it step by step.

Awesome!

namdoolb wrote:There's no need to be using the mic at all.

If you tweak your volume properties for recording:

Open the volume control on your taskbar
Select options
Select properties
Check the box that says recording, and press ok

You should be able to find a channel that will record the sound before it goes out to the speakers.

Then you just need to record it in your wave editor of choice, make any tweaks to it you want, then encode it to mp3 using something like Lame.

This should be at close enough quality to the original so as to be indistinguishable. In the unlikely event of any distortion occuring, you will most likely be able to fix it by tweaking either your output volume or your recording volume.

I'm not finding a channel at all that will let me do this without a mic. I have all of them checked EXCEPT the mic, and it's not working.

Ok, I've made some progress. I can rip my DVD, and open the files with Goldwave and turn them into MP3's. I used that ripper that Glocksman linked me to.

Next problem, I want to record from a different track. There are a couple of language tracks, one with commentary, and one with only music. I want the music, so how can I get it to rip just that one?

Superman wrote:Ok, I've made some progress. I can rip my DVD, and open the files with Goldwave and turn them into MP3's. I used that ripper that Glocksman linked me to.

Next problem, I want to record from a different track. There are a couple of language tracks, one with commentary, and one with only music. I want the music, so how can I get it to rip just that one?

Using smartripper? Enable stream processing. You should be able to choose which which streams get extracted. Extract only the music one. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out which.

I was able to enable the stream processing, but I end up with the same PLS files. Should I just check each one individually, and try ripping them that way?

Superman wrote:I was able to enable the stream processing, but I end up with the same PLS files. Should I just check each one individually, and try ripping them that way?

Yes.

Superman wrote:I'm not finding a channel at all that will let me do this without a mic. I have all of them checked EXCEPT the mic, and it's not working.

Strange and perplexing.

Are you sure you're adjusting the properties for recording and not playback. In the recording volume controls you should only be able to have one channel active at a time. Sounds like you have multiple boxes checked at once, so I'm not sure you're in the right place.
this is what you should be seeing, and the channel I use, which works for me.

I recommend Audacity. It is free, easy to use, and will record audio from any source on your computer. You can convert to Wave, Ogg Vorbis, and mp3, although you also need the LAME.dll file--first time you try to convert to mp3 Audacity will ask you where the library is.

In the upper right hand side is a drop menu which lets you choose the source of your sound--so you can record the sound going to your speakers (what you want) or from a microphone, or some other options too which I have not played with. Make sure you are recording in stereo, and you are good to go. The editing tools are simple and let you trim the length as you see fit.