XXHighEnd

http://www.bso.org/bso/shop/productCategories.jsp?id=bcat13360032

They are beginning to release the recordings of their live performances online in 88.2kHz, 24bit.  I can choose between AIFF and WMA (these are lossless files right?)...
  :wtf: not WAV ...  :smirk: Anyway, I thought I'd pick up a year subscription for $50 (4 hirez available now more coming)... but what format should I choose; can XXHE convert one or the other to WAV?  permanently?
Thanks,
dave

ps
kinda cool they are releasing these I think.

XXHighEnd can play AIFF but can not convert permanently from/to it. But this is because nobody asks. And might you ask ... later ... :yes:

I assume that WMA is lossless, but you never know, and it can be lossy just as well. I would ask if I were you ...

K I think I know the answer but,
XXHE plays both AIFF and WMA files, and XXHE temp decodes/copies those files to wav (and main hdd if chk box too)... kinda? right?
So it doesn't really matter which of these two 24/88 formats I get.   ?

If XX plays WMA please point me out how to do that !

But no, I'm afraid it doesn't.

This is probably the wrong thread for this post, but what the hell...

I've been having fun and games with these 88.2/24 AIFF files from BSO:

On loading the files from the library I get errors 1 and 2 below (the file names are typically 'BSO_01_01_daphnis_chloe_01', etc).
If the 'Allow Format Change' box is unchecked, I get errors 3 and 4 appearing between tracks, even though all tracks are of the same format!

And to top it all off, my DAC thinks these 88.2/24 AIFF files are HDCD-encoded!

Craaaazzzyyyy.

Mani.

Must be my fault. I never tested AIFF at 88K2. :cry:

I'm not surprised you didn't test for these - you don't see many 88.2 AIFF files for download.

Peter, any idea why my DAC is detecting an HDCD signal from these files (I know it has nothing to do with XXHE)? Could it be the way headers are treated in AIFF as opposed to WAV? I'm just curious...  :wacko:

Mani.

I'm thinking of some pure coincidence. Some bit up in the header while the header is interpreted wrongly. I don't know yet.
If 0.9x-4 is doing this better, there's another dimension in play. Me again. :swoon:

No, I can't get any 88.2 aiff files to play in 0.9x-4. Pressing 'play' simply does nothing.

In any event, as I said, my HDCD enigma has nothing to do with XXHE... however, the error messages I posted earlier do! Would be nice to get them sorted, though I don't think this is a priority by any means.

Mani.

I did the $50 for a year deal today.  The first 24/88.2 AIFF album I downloaded.  Set the fireface software from 48 samples to 128 samples...and tried to play an AIFF file ... took a while to load, no problem has to do its thing; they're big files ... an error window or two pop up.. music plays... .. hmm I decide to do what I always do in these similar computer anomolies...
I pull up XXHE and stop/quit it.  Reboot the computer.
(shut off fireface software... why not)
fire up XXHE and push play on the AIFF loaded album files

It Plays, wallpaper pops up ... yea

But
only one song plays and then XXHE bounces back up.  I can select any song I'd like and it plays,,, but only one at a time.
Wish they'd just release this as a WAV/CUE file ... DON'T You??
Also, the liner notes/info they give is in pdf form.... any way to pull that info off as jpg? so XXHE can use it?  Any way XXHE can ues pdf?  Seems like more and more music downloads are including pdf (grrr) and not jpg (yea free).

I think my second dl is ready now... Mahler sym 6; I'll give it a go.  Again though, pretty good deal from BSO; hope other large orchestras consider doing likewise.

Here's a nice simple way:

Open up the .pdf as normal and use the readers zoom function so the size of the image is of a suitable quality, then do a screen capture ( SHIFT/PRINT SCREEN ).  Use something like Photoshop to crop the section of the screen capture to want.

Cheers,

Russ

Or print it, and scan it.:blob8:

Dave, any chance you can get me one of such a file ? http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=721.0
One is enough, and the two in a row I will test by copying it to another name.
Please don't pick a particular small one, unless you can recognize that doesn't matter. It you are not sure, pick two afterall (two of which the second won't play).

Btw, I think I know what is causing all this (since it is proven that it plays), and it must be related to the longwinding process of conversion which takes place, but in an area I could never test because of not having any AIFFs. I think you should be up and running (your) tomorrow, Dave.

... excluding error messages (Mani).

Btw, I'd better provide explicit AIFF->WAV conversion with it because it is stupid to convert these files (real time) over and over.
Ok ok ok.

All these things are solved in the upcoming 0.9x-7.

Note that these files are really too large to be dealt with including conversion. So I guess I am implementing explicit AIF->WAV conversion right now ... :)

Done. Will be in 0.9x-7 as well.

Yea, thanks
How is the aif being played back now, albeit now one song at a time, if not being converted first to wav?  Will you be able to pull off the "tags" that are on the aif and use that info?  When are you releasing your new dac?; wait, is that a bit off topic?

They play without explicit conversion allright. But it's kind of slowish.

For now I won't be pulling tags from anything. I'll keep that for when there's not much to do really. :)

The new DAC is awaitening a new version for myself first. Could be two weeks. Many things improved if all is right, but didn't hear anything from it so far.