Lossy or Lossless?

[harmon712]

I was thinking about using my Zoom H4 to get the audio from DVDs would that be lossy or lossless?

[LeifH12345]

Depends.

Only PCM (LPCM) DVD's have lossless audio. Anything else is lossy (AC3).

I might be missing one aspect, but that's the idea.

[Audioarchivist]

How would you be going from DVD to the Zoom?
Unless you've got some digital outs on the DVD player that go into the Zoom, you'd have to be using analog out / in and that would mean going through a needless step through extra DA/AD converters, and make it lossy in my opinion.
There are ways to rip audio directly from DVD digitally right in your computer.
But as Leif12345 said, only LPCM audio on a DVD is lossless.

[harmon712]

Originally Posted by Audioarchivist

How would you be going from DVD to the Zoom?
Unless you've got some digital outs on the DVD player that go into the Zoom, you'd have to be using analog out / in and that would mean going through a needless step through extra DA/AD converters, and make it lossy in my opinion.
There are ways to rip audio directly from DVD digitally right in your computer.
But as Leif12345 said, only LPCM audio on a DVD is lossless.

RCA inputs

[harmon712]

Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll just do it for myself and not send 'em to anyone or upload 'em.