Fidelizer 2.0 - Introducing new UI with multi-core optimizations
May 7, 2011 at 1:47 AM Post #76 of 188


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When you have it set to start up at boot up, it will boot your default browser every time as first thing it does. We gonna have to go to the page sooner or later to check up on any updates if we dont come here.I gonna in up blocking the page on my browser as I pretty much comes here for updates. I dont need my browser to start up and show a big o HP ad that part of his page.




told him the same thing, he's paranoid about people bundling his app with professional audio packages... An alternative is a splash screen, but it seems like it's hard to make one in installer silent mode.

by the way, it still sets the default browser modes to single page on so be careful not to accidentally lose your browser session (although it's an improvement that you can untick the start-up box and save it now
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Yea the plan I had didnt last long any way. The router started to act up with the setting on to block certain sites from showing. Really wish he wasnt paranoid. The sad thing it wouldnt stop them from including it in the their software. all they would do is  modfity the coding of the app and take out the page opening line. Might as well just include a read me in the zip or a file with the site url as it file name. A clickable link in the program would be nice. I hope theres a program which you can run that stops a certain program from opening a browser. Because I would Def use it in a instant. HP must be giving him alot of cash with that big hp flash ad that takes up the window.
 
May 7, 2011 at 3:03 AM Post #77 of 188
Yea the plan I had didnt last long any way. The router started to act up with the setting on to block certain sites from showing. Really wish he wasnt paranoid. The sad thing it wouldnt stop them from including it in the their software. all they would do is  modfity the coding of the app and take out the page opening line. Might as well just include a read me in the zip or a file with the site url as it file name. A clickable link in the program would be nice. I hope theres a program which you can run that stops a certain program from opening a browser. Because I would Def use it in a instant. HP must be giving him alot of cash with that big hp flash ad that takes up the window.


He's aware of that too, and I did a quick demo of it for him :D and also suggested a clickable link/update check link on the main page or splash screen. (wonder if he could trap command line params without silent mode, in which case the splash screen idea should be more than doable)
You could use an advanced firewall that lets you control apps that try to open browser windows (since people can leak info through urls that way) and block the fiddlizer process from opening browser windows. I remember a few years ago Jetico Personal Firewall could do it. But I don't know if they updated it to work with win7/64b, new browsers and the like.To top it off the old Jetico firewall used to be pretty buggy, including DPC issues. (also, the return call to fidelizer might check for successful execution and return an error/exit when shell execute is blocked)
 
May 7, 2011 at 8:49 AM Post #78 of 188


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Yea the plan I had didnt last long any way. The router started to act up with the setting on to block certain sites from showing. Really wish he wasnt paranoid. The sad thing it wouldnt stop them from including it in the their software. all they would do is  modfity the coding of the app and take out the page opening line. Might as well just include a read me in the zip or a file with the site url as it file name. A clickable link in the program would be nice. I hope theres a program which you can run that stops a certain program from opening a browser. Because I would Def use it in a instant. HP must be giving him alot of cash with that big hp flash ad that takes up the window.



Any minimally capable software firewall should be able to block that app from opening a browser window, and can save that setting so the action is done automatically. Are you looking for a free or a paid app?
 
May 7, 2011 at 9:24 AM Post #79 of 188
This is a great idea, I have noticed that process WPDBusEnum adds a fair of graininess to the highs, while netprofm is definitely veiling the bass 
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Really though, how is this "audio platform optimization" different than any of the other much more well-respected, established, and tested service stripping programs out there? I can think of at least two that I would feel a lot more comfortable with, especially since they spell out what services are being stopped and exactly what it does to your computer. Let me guess, the only difference is, I found those on computer web sites, not on an audiophile web site? 
 
May 7, 2011 at 9:28 AM Post #80 of 188
Any minimally capable software firewall should be able to block that app from opening a browser window, and can save that setting so the action is done automatically. Are you looking for a free or a paid app?


The problem also is, if it simply blocks the shell call executing the browser, you'll get this:


Aside from blocking the call it'd be nice if it also faked the successful execution return value to the shell exec call.


Let me guess, the only difference is, I found those on computer web sites, not on an audiophile web site?

apparently it's not because of paranoia, but because stating the services stopped is confusing to users. Advanced mode has also already been suggested along with the rest of the above (with the ability to at least pick the services to stop).
 
May 7, 2011 at 9:54 AM Post #81 of 188


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This is a great idea, I have noticed that process WPDBusEnum adds a fair of graininess to the highs, while netprofm is definitely veiling the bass 
rolleyes.gif

 
Really though, how is this "audio platform optimization" different than any of the other much more well-respected, established, and tested service stripping programs out there? I can think of at least two that I would feel a lot more comfortable with, especially since they spell out what services are being stopped and exactly what it does to your computer. Let me guess, the only difference is, I found those on computer web sites, not on an audiophile web site? 



Lol
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Not being clear as to what exact changes happen to the system just doesn't do it for me, specially since by fixing DPC issues is more than enough for me, I don't believe in magic audio optimizations, but I would be willing to try it out if it weren't for the ads and overall erratic behavior of an app that should never be so. If the author wanted to monetize the app, he should make a free and a paid version.
 
May 7, 2011 at 11:15 AM Post #82 of 188
Lol
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Not being clear as to what exact changes happen to the system just doesn't do it for me, specially since by fixing DPC issues is more than enough for me, I don't believe in magic audio optimizations, but I would be willing to try it out if it weren't for the ads and overall erratic behavior of an app that should never be so. If the author wanted to monetize the app, he should make a free and a paid version.


now that you mention it - the pop-ups are annoying (just disabled the pop-up and ad-blockers to check and opera's content blocker to unblock the windowsx site, lol). and who knows what they might be showing tomorrow when the ads site gets hijacked to show malware :wink:


The other thing that annoys me is that the app doesn't exit after it finishes, saying it needs to run in the background to keep optimizing things.
I can't seem to find anything useful that it does after showing that message box, since it calls and stays in an infinite sleep call:frowning2:calls kernelbase.sleep with Timeout = INFINITE http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1886527/why-would-i-use-sleep-with-infinite-timeout without anything to resume those threads later externally... In fact, msdn suggest it's a bad idea/= 'unofficially' suspending the thread http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686298(VS.85).aspx ).What's more that makes it very hard to manually kill the app. I can't terminate it from taskmgr, but need to run sysinternals process explorer and then kill the two remaining threads (main in sleep and the second sleep related one shown respectively). So effectively it becomes a zombie process after it runs?

The author was, as usual, very unhelpful at explaining why this is so. Insisting "I don't understand it", but refusing to explain :D. Then again, maybe I don't understand it, and keeping the process running in pseudo-suspended mode keeps the system from resetting some settings (e.g. TimerResolution, since NTTimerResolution seems to reset back to 0.5ms as soon as Fidelizer exits)



 
May 7, 2011 at 12:01 PM Post #83 of 188
So I'm supposed to trust my critical system services to some weak, self-taught, guesswork coding? Without even being told what specific services are to be touched? 
 

 
May 7, 2011 at 12:01 PM Post #84 of 188


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Any minimally capable software firewall should be able to block that app from opening a browser window, and can save that setting so the action is done automatically. Are you looking for a free or a paid app?



 A Free one, I think Zone Alarm may have had the option to do so but it been ages ago since I used it.
 
 
May 7, 2011 at 12:29 PM Post #85 of 188


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 A Free one, I think Zone Alarm may have had the option to do so but it been ages ago since I used it.
 



You could try Comodo Firewall (firewall alone, not the security suite that included an antivirus).
 
May 7, 2011 at 12:57 PM Post #86 of 188
You could try Comodo Firewall (firewall alone, not the security suite that included an antivirus).


mmm? I'm using it well, comodo CIS, but anyway. It doesn't seem to block it by default (doesn't ask). I tried a custom defense + policy blocking blocking fidelizer from starting opera, but it's not working... (win7, 64bit here)
nevermind, redefined the policy and it now works... Something strange was going on. Btw, the app quits after the messageboxes http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/542004/wip-windows-vista-7-audio-platform-optimization-project/75#post_7455454 when being blocked, so in my book that's a win (instead of waiting/hanging) on second thought, since the system changes the NTTimerResolution after exiting back to 1ms, maybe it does need to stay running and infinitely sleeping 'is just fine'.
 
May 7, 2011 at 6:01 PM Post #87 of 188
Well I decided to try it out on that separate SSD, what interested me was not the service changes but the other under hood changes like thread priorities and that whole clock magic(which probably doesn't affect me as I am using an Async transport).
 
There were no audible differences.  Just for the sake of science I will concentrate on listening to the modded OS.  On another note, a memory based player might be best suited for this as standard windows GDI interferes with USB outputs.(moving a window around will delay).  As such I maintain that Aero is the BEST, as most basic processing is on the GPU which doesn't handle any audio related or USB related tasks.  This is moot point if your using it as a full screen audio device only.
 
 
 
May 7, 2011 at 7:13 PM Post #88 of 188
If using it means no harm to system, you should give it some time like a week or two so your ears can adapt to changes you haven't noticed before. NTTimer will reset after requested app exits so I have to hold the process and since start/stop services multiples times is resource hogging task amd can cause system being unstable so I decided to leave it until reboot. To be honest, I almost dropped this project before releasing because I got lazy to write whole bunch of code for free while pseudo audio output hook with some messed up DSP like A*cough*a can easily charge for hundreds and got praised.
 
Well, not many people use real hiend sources like dCS/Emm Labs/Esoteric and such anyway. I understand.
 
May 7, 2011 at 7:24 PM Post #89 of 188
You should do this work with Linux and created an embedded solution.  Then profit from it :wink: 
 
Though I will give it some time( and its on a separate clean OS).  Don't need a source worth $7k+ to hit high end. :wink:
 
That said I don't believe in DSP's~  oddly enough I don't trust those high end players to be faithful.  But Fidelizer is about optimization~ so even if there is/was a difference I wouldn't expect it to be huge.  Definitely is great for systems that are less powerful as well.  The concept behind fidelizer is not unlike what many of us did to eke out the most performance for our games when even a simple 100mhz overclock was enough to make a game PLAYABLE. 
 
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If using it means no harm to system, you should give it some time like a week or two so your ears can adapt to changes you haven't noticed before. NTTimer will reset after requested app exits so I have to hold the process and since start/stop services multiples times is resource hogging task amd can cause system being unstable so I decided to leave it until reboot. To be honest, I almost dropped this project before releasing because I got lazy to write whole bunch of code for free while pseudo audio output hook with some messed up DSP like A*cough*a can easily charge for hundreds and got praised.
 
Well, not many people use real hiend sources like dCS/Emm Labs/Esoteric and such anyway. I understand.



 
 
May 7, 2011 at 7:31 PM Post #90 of 188
This market is too small to make profit without boastful advertising lol. I'm already making fine living now for more than what I need. I just don't want to see possibility of some smartass people making XStreamer Ultra-like stuff with Fidelizer on startup and claim more $$$ saying it's their innovation or something to fool around. Maybe it's too good to give it for free huh? But who would buy some random and mysterious application without believable technical advertising?
 
Anyway, I used to give it a try for Linux but main problem is decent audio interfaces usually ended up running on either Windows/Mac. Weiss MAN202 tried to archive ones in Linux for avoiding fixed cost with license from OS+Application but it seems far off from Windows/Mac in terms of SQ and usability.
 
P.S. Hiend really rolls out once your ears can truly appreciate it. It's not ****ing wonderful audiophile sound but all for purist and high musicality in sound reproduction. I use $8k each for transport/dac though as cheapest possible ones I can accept. Each to their own though so don't really believe in what I've just said.
 

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