Bugzilla – Bug 1105
HDCD decoding support
Last modified: 2011-11-06 23:25:22 UTC
I would like the Squeezebox to be able to decode HDCD information when it is present in a FLAC/PCM stream. With a 96kSps/24bit capable DAC, it should be no problem to play the 44.1kSps/20bit decoded HDCD stream. The downside is that the HDCD decoding algorithm will have to be licensed from Microsoft. The licensing will likely require a non-disclosure agreement, which means that the decoding will have to be in the SlimDevices' proprietary firmware, and not on the open-source server side. There are very few HDCD-encoded albums out there (I think I have 5 or 6 out of 500 albums) so I gave it a fairly low priority.
will look at this after we ship.
SB3 can now play 88.1 and 96KHz files, which may help. Is it that hard to rip to a format we can play?
Can the SB3 now play 96khz files? Is that true? Anyway, I guess what we want is to be able to rip our HDCDs , and Squezecenter to be able to reproduce those files with the extra information HDCD includes. Of course I guess the issue here is the licensing costs.
It can, but Sean would actually like to remove that feature. For anyone who is looking at this bug, the wikipedia page on HDCD is a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Definition_Compatible_Digital Unfortunately it looks like the kind of processing the that HDCD requires to take advantage of the additional features is exactly the kind of processing that the Ubicom chipset of our current products are not very good at. More likely to be possible with future products with more DSP power.
Christopher Are you syaing that the average PC we use as a server hasn't sufficient power to decode HDCD? From experience Windows Mdia Player hardly shows the load when decoding HDCD. Do it on the server and send it to the SB as 24/44 flac stream. I use 24/44 flac quite often without problems and yes it is possible to hear a difference with the right material.
Chris: >It can, but Sean would actually like to remove that feature. Can you elaborate on this? My understanding was that this was not working _properly_ at all. Maybe Im wrong. I agree with Stan, why dont do it on the server and send with FLAC to the SB? I can understand if this is an issue with licensing, but dont think its an issue with server power. regards
Ah on the server, yes that would be much more possible.
I would really love to see this feature come to life. Would prefer firmware decoding, but would certainly be happy with a server side solution.
FYI: how to do this, server side (Windows XP only): http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=70256
Unassigned bugs cannot have a priority.