XXHighEnd

Thought I might as well start a new thread relating to testing on Win8 rather than clutter up one of the others.

I downloaded the preview from the link Cris posted ( http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1779.msg18341#msg18341 ) and installed an X64 version on a test HDD on my music server.

Installation went smoothly and I was greeted with a completely new interface, that looked reminiscent of a cheap media player. Bleugh !!

Took me a while to find the components of Windows I was used to dealing with, and eventually created a folder on the new C drive for XXHE and copied 0.9z-6 into it.

On initial start, the system responded by stating that .net 3.?? was needed, and it eventually downloaded it from microsoft via the internet.

A second start of XXHE and it died trying to install the 2 OCX's I presume.

I tried registering them manually but the system threw its hands up and complained that the call to dllregisterserver had failed.

That's where I am at the moment.

Will google the error code tomorrow when my mind is fresh.

The new windows look is going to take a bit of getting used to. As a veteran windows user, it looks like its been dumbed down for the masses.

Cheers,

Russ

Got the initial OCX's registered :)

XXHE needs to be run as Administrator initially.

I think i've managed to change the Juli@ drivers to the one's used under Win7 X64, but the system keeps crashing when I start up XXHE now.

Onwards we roll .....

Cheers,

Russ

If anyone is interested in an overview of Win8, go here ( http://www.buildwindows.com/ ) and watch the keynotes from Day # 1 presentation. It gets a little technical from the 30 minutes mark, but the beginning will give you a feel for what Microsoft are trying to achieve.

Strongly focused on touch screen's, it seems obvious the management at Microsoft must have decided that iPad's and Android tablets pose a serious treat to their wellbeing so they've developed their own style. Looks powerful !!

Cheers,

Russ 

Hey Russ,
you are fast I admit that :) Yes new Windows is more for 'dummies' one click solution resolve OS and more flexible for touchscreens and multimedia systems where I think is his bigger advantage (at least on paper) but will be more clean than 7 and Windows7>Vista. So we all hope W8>W7>Vista
and ofc sounds better.
Regards, Cris.
P.S. I wanna try it too but not enough time :(

Yes, I have been following Windows 8 as well.

Here is my dream
Have XXHighEnd UI become touch enabled by taking advantage of the new metro development environment.  This way it can easily run on a tablet.

You can then either run a USB cable from the tablet to the DAC or better yet use Bluetooth to automatically pair up with the Phasure DAC.  UI events (e.g. press play button) automatically get transmitted to the DAC which has a microprocessor and tiny disk with minimal OS and XXHighend drivers to execute the playback. 

just a thought...

I'm putting further trialing getting XXHE running on Win8 on hold for the time being.

Main reasons are that I haven't found a working driver for the Juli@ card that suports KS output on the SPDIF channel. Until I can it's pointless as far as I'm concerned. Version 1.07 (X64) drivers list KS output for the analog channel of the card, but even selecting that, I can't get XXHE up an running. Too many initial system errors cropping up, and I don't want to burden Peter at this stage with further work in sorting it out.

From what I've been reading it may not be possible with Win8 to cull all the new features so it may well be an exercise in futility. I'll leave the image as it on the testing harddrive until such time as Peter wants to have a play with Win8 himself.

Cheers,

Russ

Let me tell you ...

When you started this topic, my initial thought was : OMG.

So, I'm happy now you don't succeed.

Ok, I'm making fun of it a bit, but there's also truth in it. When I ...

When I think back about the time W7 came about, I recall (well, we all do) that it was first "you" (XX users) who hopped over to W7, to next fall into the mess of things as they were back then. I *had* to come along, and the really only way that could work was leave Vista behind and listen to W7 only.
We all remember what happened, and only when all settled down at last (after a year ??) someone had the hunch that Vista was better afterall. I guess that was me.

I won't repeat the story what happened after *that* and I better skip what happened right yesterday - but what I think is that we all must stop trying new OSes and stuff until that new OS is proven to be for the better. This latter may never happen, because it may first require "tweaks" from my side, and actually I don't want to spend time on stuff without a real reason (other than people have that OS running).
IT IS TOO CONFUSING FOR EVERYBODY.

And I am sure everybody agrees with this.

Additionally, it is in my mind that there is nothing much to complain about at this moment. If that were so, all is different - like it was with W7 Vanilla back at the time and nobody could find the one-and-only setting.

On the other hand, I don't like to be the one who determines it all either, so it might be a difficult decision. In the end it could be for the better, and those with W8 (and are new) may be in bad luck.

:scratching:
Peter

Hey there Pete ...

it's those very reasons you outlined above that had me thinking "is this really going to end in an improvement of mammoth proportions?". In the end I decided it was unlikely, and hense I've stopped playing with Win8 for the moment. It's given me a chance to have a feel for what it does and I'm not convinced it's for me at this stage, certainly running on a typical PC. On a tablet it might be a different proposition, but then again, my preference is for Andriod OS in those instances.

Besides, I'm at the stage now where I'd rather spend time listening to music than fighting with yet another OS!!

Cheers,

Russ

I hope to have my DAC soon.I  am a MAC user. Initially I will be using this, but I am sure that I will be hopping onto PC soon due to positive sound attributes vis-a-vis the NOS 1 USB DAC. In my situation I hope to jump straight onto W8 than W7 or Vista. Specially if this is better OS - as yet to be proven. Hence I am rooting for Calibrator to pave the way ahead for the newer Mac USB DAC users....and then Russ has stopped....
oh! never mind!!

G'day Karma :)

sorry to have got your hopes up, but I just couldn't see the benefit of pursuing Win8 at this stage.

I can guarantee though, that if you stick with Win7 vanilla, you WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

If you had been around a year or so ago you would have seen the confusion that arose with swapping back and forth between O/S's and eventually sanity prevailed, and I believe we have collectively, settled on the best O/S version to date to support XXHE.

Is there a possibility that Win8 may have a better underlaying  structure for sound? ... possibly, but it's way too early in it's development to get too excited about that. Gut feeling tell's me no though. All the added layers to support Metro interface will surely have negative influences.

So in the interim, hop onto a Win7 environment, then just sit back and smell the roses :)

Cheers,

Russ

Hi Karma,

I don't want to impose the "this may be beyond you", but actually it well might ...

This is all not much about "the better OS" as such. It is about the better OS for audio. And, as we know by now, this is not even in general anymore, but is now XXHighEnd dedicated (the "OS problem" I mean). So :

What happened when W7 came about, is that it was the better OS compared to Vista. Not because we in here said so, but because it was commonly known, with Vista being so poor in the mean time (not that I had much complaints, but the whole world had). Thus, everybody wanted to install W7 - and did.

But what happened, was that W7 was (and still is) completely messed up for internal priority (and more) stuff, and everybody started to have gaps were gaps shouldn't be, Wallpapers not appearing, OSD things not working out properly, OSD running time being audible - and what not. Not a very general noticeable thing (e.g. Foobar would be ok), but because the high constraints on timings XX puts to everything (with ultra low latency playback and things), it all didn't work anymore. So, good OS according to all, but misery for XXHighEnd.
More to the end it sounds like sh*t also, but we could attack that with more and more tweaks (ending up in 0.9z-6 from today). Still things are not quite right, because W7 (now !) without Service Pack sounds way better than with.

This (misery) happens when people think a new OS is better, for general things, but skip audio.

If -mind you, if- this is about control with tablets (which I think should be the objective), no W8 is needed for that at all. It's an inherent tablet thing, like e.g. the iPad. or an Android application indeed.
I don't see where any "W8 tablet" comes in, but *if* it does, it will be a remote control device, and nothing where the audio plays.

This may go further than any Mac-(environment-)dedicated person will normally think, because the Mac world is full of nice connections, always using WiFi of course. But as "of course" in here WiFi is not allowed. It is devisating for audio. It distorts the signal through air (RFI and stuff, see WiFi impeded noise ? (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1559.0) for an example) and otherwise it hammers on the PC/Mac OS in the most hard fashion. This is nothing how "Mac users" think or like to think, but they should. And so should you.

WiFi is allowed allright, if you only have it connect to a "PC" in the network elsewhere to next go by cable to the audio PC/Mac and have no transceiver in the neighbourhood of the DAC.

I hope this is helps a little ...
Peter

Peter,
As you mention the sound quality is heavily dependent on the OS.  And certainly you have put a ton of time into supporting people's OS problems. 
An alternative would be to separate the playback engine from the user interface.  Hence, a microprocessor and disk in the Phasure or tiny little computer that plugs into the DAC configured/built by you for optimal playback.  Eliminates support.  The user interface, which depending on how it is designed, can have a lot less dependency on the OS.  If it is developed using HTML5 it would run on any OS, tablet, mobile device. 

Just need a communication mechanism between the user interface and microprocessor and the syncing of the music catalog.

You are completely correct that this is certainly independent of Windows8.  The reason I originally brought it up in this thread, is that part of Windows 8 is the ability to create visually stunning applications that are touch enabled (they are being called metro applications).

And I understand about WiFi.  The disk with the music catalog would have a hard connection to the microprocessor and would need to figure out what the optimal (for sound quality) communication protocol would be between the device with the UI and microprocessor.  There are several options other than WiFi (although don't know if they are better)