[HeadLover]

Hi
I am using EAC with my red-book CD's
Now - I have some HDCD albums, and I want to rip it and have all the HDCD stuff of it to (20bit or whatever)

How can it be done? do I need to change something in EAC or what? can someone please explain me?

I want to get a BIT PERFECT of the album + the HDCD stuff, and being able to play it (include the HDCD stuff) on Foobar2000

 

[leeperry]

the only official HDCD decoder on PC is within WMP(m$ bought the company who created it I think), all the others have been reverse-engineered...but most ppl say that none of these PC decoders do it entirely right.

anyway the CDDA part of HDCD's is +6dB clipped, so it's still better than nothing.

prolly the best option would be to play the CD's in WMP, and capture the output through Total Recorder. just an idea

 

[m1abrams]

Actually dbpoweramp will decode HDCD via dsp while ripping. I think you need the reference version to do it.

 

[leeperry]

yes, and it's been reverse engineered...just like hdcd.exe

even the hdcd.exe coder will agree that it's not fully HDCD compliant, the official decoding does a little bit more DSP on top of it.

 

[HeadLover]

amm and isn't there a way to play it from the CD with HDCD content ?

 

[leeperry]

WMP does it, I think...but then you need the ASIO plugin I guess. so you get the best possible HDCD decoding on a PC, together w/ a bit-perfect output renderer.

 

[HeadLover]

Where is the ASIO plugin? and is there a WASAPI plugin for media player on Vista ??

 

[Billyk]

I know that dbPoweramp reference will rip HDCD to flac and back to CD again maintaining the HDCD. I have yet to try to play the flacs back into a unit capable of decoding. I have a receiver that will decode HDCD, I'll have to see what I can do to set it up. My computer audio setup is at the office and the HDCD is at home, Hmmmm...

ASIO4all

 

[Jaska]

Just use dBpoweramp Reference and make sure you enable the HDCD DSP effect. Note that Apple Lossless can't be used "properly" since the dBpoweramp ALAC codec can only accept 16-bit input, so FLAC is probably the best choice, and better since you're wanting to use foobar2000 for playback anyway. Aside from that, you of course would need an output device capable of playing hi-resolution audio.

Note that technically speaking, as long as you get a good rip with any lossless codec, the extra HDCD content will be preserved for playing back through an HDCD-capable DAC, burning back to audio CD, etc., but the approach outlined above will allow you to actually play back and hear the material in all its HDCD glory without using the CDs themselves or any software or hardware HDCD decoder.

 

[HeadLover]

amm the problem is that dBpoweramp doesn't support CUE and gaps now

(only next version maybe)
Also
Does the HDCD is a good correct working thing? I mean, is it a reverse engineering that just "aim" to do what it should do, or is it true "bit perfect rip" ??

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadLover /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does the HDCD is a good correct working thing? I mean, is it a reverse engineering that just "aim" to do what it should do, or is it true "bit perfect rip" ??

Yes, it's a "correct working thing." If you rip an HDCD using any other program, or even dBpoweramp Reference without enabling the HDCD DSP effect, and then rip the same HDCD with dBpoweramp Reference with the HDCD DSP effect enabled, and play back the normal and hi-resolution files in foobar2000 with a capable output device, you should clearly hear the difference between the two sets of files.

As far as reverse engineering is concerned, who cares? Even the dBpoweramp ALAC codec is reverse engineered, but does that make it a non-lossless codec? No. Even WMP can't rip the extra HDCD content, and HDCD is MS's baby.

 

[HeadLover]

I mean, how do you know for sure that using it or using Media player (that support HDCD) will give the EXACT results? I mean how can we be sure it is BIT PERFECT ??

 

[Jaska]

Well, you could start by referring to the AccurateRip results. Then, you could of course use the most secure ripping settings in dBpoweramp. You could also rip the same HDCD using dBpoweramp with two different, properly configured optical drives and comparing the CRCs. If you're super paranoid, you could then use foobar2000 to convert each set of output files from the two different drives to a single WAV file and compare the WAVs using EAC's Tools > Compare WAVs menu.

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaska /img/forum/go_quote.gif Even WMP can't rip the extra HDCD content, and HDCD is MS's baby.

yeah, well WMP has an official licence...anyway, I find it amazing that this damn HDCD content can't be properly decoded per specs on a PC

but well, even hdcd.exe does a great job...the CDDA portion on a HDCD is +6dB clipped, it's a massacre. selling such CDDA's is really unacceptable to me...you buy a CDDA(that's been HDCD encoded) to play on a CDDA player, and you end up w/ sub-par 14bit music

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif the CDDA portion on a HDCD is +6dB clipped, it's a massacre. selling such CDDA's is really unacceptable to me...you buy a CDDA(that's been HDCD encoded) to play on a CDDA player, and you end up w/ sub-par 14bit music

I'm not sure how much of that is true or where you've come up with these assertions, but according to the dBpoweramp web site, "It is worth noting that HDCD tracks have a -6dB gain in relation to most other tracks, if ReplayGain is used on the audio player it will be self corrected."

If HDCD tracks have a -6dB gain in relation to most other tracks, this doesn't suggest to me that the Red Book portion of an audio CD is "+6dB clipped," as you write.