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Author Topic: HDCD Decoder??  (Read 3926 times)

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Offline Əkoostikal

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HDCD Decoder??
« on: January 18, 2010, 08:02:07 PM »
I have been trying to archive all of my Cd's lately and I am noticing a lot of HDCD's. I always knew I had these but never had an HDCD player before. I realize that Winn Media Player will read HDCD and it actually gives me a little icon showing when one is being played. I have ripped a test of one of my HDCD's and I am only seeing 16bit/44.1 wav (which makes sense to me) I have done a little reading and it seems there is some sort of plugin for foobar that can decode the HDCD info and create 24bit wav (actually 17-20 bit). Anyone know how to do this? I found a command line app called HDCD.exe but I can't seem to make anything of it. Basically I am looking to make 20-24bit Flac files from my HDCD's. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance - Kiel
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Offline Gutbucket

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Re: HDCD Decoder??
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2010, 10:38:31 AM »
Snippet from the HDCD Wikipedia entry-

Windows Media Player
...Windows Media Player does not decode HDCD audio streams during ripping (for obvious reasons) and the decoded encoded extra HDCD information is lost (but the information is maintained provided the data is stored in a lossless format). By using a WAV output recorded plugin, it is possible to grab a perfect digital copy of a decoded HDCD stream, which can then be used for encoding into other formats.[citation needed]

Software decoders
A user of the Doom9 forum has created a DOS based software utility to decode HDCD audio data stored ripped from a CD in WAV format, the tool and source code be found here [2]. This program creates a 24-bit wav file by decoding the HDCD data in a ripped CD 16-bit wav input file. Using a software decoder like this allows the any hardware supporting 24-bit playback to play the HDCD content as it would be heard from a HDCD capable decoder. It is also important to note that while the output files will be listed as 24-bit, only 20 bits per sample contain actual data.

Illustrate's dBpoweramp CDGrabber has a DSP effect that allows tracks from HDCDs to be ripped to 24-bit WAV files.[12]. dBpoweramp's decoding of HDCD data uses the free DOS based utility listed above but makes it easier to use with their GUI interface.

A 24-bit capable sound card is required in order to play the files. Format conversion programs can also use these files to create 24-bit lossy and lossless files. The format, of course, must support 24-bit samples.


Possibly relevant Doom9's Forum HDCD thread-
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=129136&highlight=hdcd
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Offline Əkoostikal

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Re: HDCD Decoder??
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2010, 01:22:32 PM »
Snippet from the HDCD Wikipedia entry-

Windows Media Player
...Windows Media Player does not decode HDCD audio streams during ripping (for obvious reasons) and the decoded encoded extra HDCD information is lost (but the information is maintained provided the data is stored in a lossless format). By using a WAV output recorded plugin, it is possible to grab a perfect digital copy of a decoded HDCD stream, which can then be used for encoding into other formats.[citation needed]

Software decoders
A user of the Doom9 forum has created a DOS based software utility to decode HDCD audio data stored ripped from a CD in WAV format, the tool and source code be found here [2]. This program creates a 24-bit wav file by decoding the HDCD data in a ripped CD 16-bit wav input file. Using a software decoder like this allows the any hardware supporting 24-bit playback to play the HDCD content as it would be heard from a HDCD capable decoder. It is also important to note that while the output files will be listed as 24-bit, only 20 bits per sample contain actual data.

Illustrate's dBpoweramp CDGrabber has a DSP effect that allows tracks from HDCDs to be ripped to 24-bit WAV files.[12]. dBpoweramp's decoding of HDCD data uses the free DOS based utility listed above but makes it easier to use with their GUI interface.

A 24-bit capable sound card is required in order to play the files. Format conversion programs can also use these files to create 24-bit lossy and lossless files. The format, of course, must support 24-bit samples.


Possibly relevant Doom9's Forum HDCD thread-
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=129136&highlight=hdcd

Thanks.... I tried the DOS based utility and got nothing to work. I will try the dbpoweramp prog. and see if I can get anything there...... If anyone has actually used this please let me know. I am wondering if it will be worth the time to rip these as 24bit or not. I have done some reading on the Doom9 forum listed in the wiki and they seem to state some good points why it would be worth it to rip at 24 bit. 
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Offline Əkoostikal

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Re: HDCD Decoder??
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2010, 05:17:49 PM »
Seems as though dbpoweramp will rip the HDCD stream to 24bit wav files. I compared a track ripped using EAC and the only thing that seems weird is the 24bit files have a 6db lower amplitude  compared to the 16bit files. I also took the 16bit files that was ripped using EAC and used the HDCD decoder plugin in dbpoweramp and the results are the same. Can anyone explain why this is happening?

Here is the comparison I did using Amadeus Pro.

Test Track #1

- 16bit Rip - EAC
Minimum sample value   -0.9886   -0.9886
Maximum sample value   0.9886   0.9886
Peak amplitude   -0.1 dB   -0.1 dB
DC offset   0.0000   0.0000
Minimum RMS power   -88.6 dB   -88.6 dB
Average RMS power   -15.0 dB   -15.2 dB
Maximum RMS power   -9.6 dB   -10.0 dB
Clipped samples   0   0

- 24bit HDCD Rip - dbpoweramp
Minimum sample value   -0.4943   -0.4943
Maximum sample value   0.4943   0.4943
Peak amplitude   -6.1 dB   -6.1 dB
DC offset   0.0000   0.0000
Minimum RMS power   -94.6 dB   -94.6 dB
Average RMS power   -21.1 dB   -21.3 dB
Maximum RMS power   -15.7 dB   -16.0 dB
Clipped samples   0   0

- 24bit +6.0db Amplitude using Amadeus Pro
Minimum sample value   -0.9862   -0.9862
Maximum sample value   0.9863   0.9863
Peak amplitude   -0.1 dB   -0.1 dB
DC offset   0.0000   0.0000
Minimum RMS power   -88.7 dB   -88.6 dB
Average RMS power   -15.1 dB   -15.3 dB
Maximum RMS power   -9.7 dB   -10.0 dB
Clipped samples   0   0


__________________________________________________________________
Test Track #2

- 16bit - EAC
Minimum sample value   -0.8986   -0.9028
Maximum sample value   0.9613   0.9510
Peak amplitude   -0.3 dB   -0.4 dB
DC offset   0.0000   0.0000
Minimum RMS power   -88.6 dB   -88.6 dB
Average RMS power   -23.8 dB   -24.5 dB
Maximum RMS power   -6.1 dB   -6.1 dB
Clipped samples   0   0


- 24bit dbpoweramp HDCD converted from 16bit EAC rip
Minimum sample value   -0.4493   -0.4514
Maximum sample value   0.4806   0.4755
Peak amplitude   -6.4 dB   -6.5 dB
DC offset   0.0000   0.0000
Minimum RMS power   -94.6 dB   -94.6 dB
Average RMS power   -29.8 dB   -30.5 dB
Maximum RMS power   -12.1 dB   -12.1 dB
Clipped samples   0   0
BONGWATER via Etree:

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