Winamp, bitstream or passthrough

[bondino]

Hello everyone,

Im looking for a solution to allow my home avr to do all my FLAC decoding. its a pioneer elite sc79, capable of decoding FLAC. I have winamp currently sending via PCM and 24bit enabled but i really want to see my receiver decoding and getting the most out of its 32bit sabre DAC. Unless it still pass's the audio through the DAC then its all irreverent because PCM is digital.

Please enlighten me if the AVR DAC will still be in play or not and a way to passthrough or bitstream winamp.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

There are only two ways for Your AVR to naively decode FLAC files
a) It supports DLNA (aka UPnP) - aka install DLNA server software on your pc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UPnP_AV_media_servers_and_clients
and stream Flacs straight to avr

OR

b) copy Flac to usb storage device - external HD, usb key etc... and play it locally

If you want to play flac on winamp on your pc/mac the connection to avr is digital, but you can't bitstream FLAC only PCM which is also digital and lossless signal. The only difference is Flac is lossless compressed, while PCM is lossless un-compressed - aka RAW signal

 

[JMJVK]

Old habits die hard, and media playback software is amongst the hardest changes one can make, but Winamp development has been stagnant, and was almost completely killed. Bitstreaming was not much of a concern back when Winamp was still king, so it stands to reason that it is now left somewhat limited in this department.

I know AOL/Time-Warner almost killed it, and doubt they have made much improvement on it in quite a while. If your open to trying something new, you can try to change your player software.

JRiver does allow one to bitstream digital files to an AVR, DAC or pre/pro from a PC's HDMI connexion.. I can vouch for, I've seen it in action.

 

[JMJVK]

Ok, done some reading and testing for VLC:

-----------------------
ATI video​

Older versions: Go to Audio Menu / Audio Device/ choose A/52 over S/PDIF
Newer versions: Go to: Tools / Preferences / Audio choose Direct X output and tick the box "USE S/PDIF when available" .

Note that this requires Audio/HDMI drivers compatible with bitstreaming.

On systems with ATI adapters, I've learned that a "5xxx" series adapter is required for full compatibility. I think it's a HDCP issue, but can't say for certain. Tested with success on my old Vaïo i5 with a ATI Radeon HD 5470


Configuration of the "HDMI playback device" for 7.1 works. This setup Played back both DTS-HD Master and Dolby True HD, but either the streams' flags (ID of the bitstream type) was not properly relayed to my receiver's display, or there's something going on to make it work as regular DTS 5.1 / Dolby 5.1.

-----------------------
Intel video​

I've also tested it on an old Gateway vista system with a "Intel 4 series Express chipset" intel video adapter, also described as " GM45 Express Chipset" in the device manager. This chipset does not support HDCP.


Configuration of the "HDMI playback device" for 7.1 works. Though Dolby digital is listed as being the only codec supported by that device's properties, I can get only 5.1 out, with DTS level decoding. Warning; playback of very large files is not always fluid.

CAVEAT:​

Using this scheme will maintain all PCM files as such, (Including Flac files) but it will play multi-channel PCM, AC-3 and DTS streams (Basic DTS level extracted form the higher stuff for adapters with that limitation.).
Support is iffy and uneven across devices and CODECs, and devices' listed support is not necessarily exact.
Windows Multimedia Device Output does pretty much the same thing.


Hope this helps you.


Edit. found out that though 7.1 check sounds worked, actual playback was only 5.1.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Before radeon 5xxx Ati did not implemented bitstreaming.

 

[JMJVK]

Thanks for the confirmation, BoredSysAdmin.


Ok, done yet more reading and testing for MPC-HC. It actually works better (Streams more codecs, better playback) than VLC, so it is my new PC video bitstreaming system.

It just shows how good it can be to go out of one's comfort zone... I'll test how this goes on the little I3 with Intel video tomorrow.

-----------------------
ATI video​

Install, MPC-HC and required filters (FFDSHOW, LAVxxx, et al).

right-click -> audio -> options -> "internal filters" - > Audio decoder

Select the tick boxes for all CODECs supported by your receiver/pre/pro.

Edit to put up better quality screenies

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I like MPC-HC quote a lot - it does few things better than VLK, like handing IFO DVD files (menus) etc
but VLC has a bit better codec support imo. For example playing WAV with DTS is easy on on VLC, but not so on MPC-HC

 

[JMJVK]

Funny thing about my MPC-HC setup is that I did not bother downloading FFDShow and the other open-source CODECs, once installed, I tried using MPC-HC as-it, and it worked. I'm thinking it is either using the libraries from my VLC (2.5-64) or some other player's, which I have installed.

If you look closely at the 2nd screenshot on my last post, you can see at the top left, I'm using MPC-HC, but on the lower left, I sometimes have the VLC icon showing in the status bar. I'm planning on a complete clean re-install, but found it to work as is for now, it's not cute or proper, but it works.


Have you got DTS-HD Master and Dolby TrueHD bitstreaming to work on VLC ? I can't seem to make it work except for the lossier stuff like plain AC3 and DTS.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

No, never tried to bitsteam with any Windows box. My openelec bitsteams hd audio just fine on atom d2700/Nvidia 6300 combo.
Funny thing about mpc-hc, this conversation got me thinking.
I was watching a tv show on my laptop last night and the video tearing was really bad. I played with few things including madvr renderer, but in the end best fix for my case was mpc-hc built in evr (custom profile) with D3D full-screen. Much more pleasant presentation of video content

 

[cynan]

Before radeon 5xxx Ati did not implemented bitstreaming.

Old thread. But, FYI, higher end Radeon 4xxx cards supported bitstreaming just fine (I think the HD 4600 and definitely the HD 4800 cards). I'm still using an HD 4850 -> Denon AVR and it does bitstreaming just fine.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Old thread. But, FYI, higher end Radeon 4xxx cards supported bitstreaming just fine (I think the HD 4600 and definitely the HD 4800 cards). I'm still using an HD 4850 -> Denon AVR and it does bitstreaming just fine.

Are you referring to HD DTS/MA and HD Dolby bitstreaming?
If yes then :