Hippo
30th January 2004, 19:48
Multichannel audio formats are very confusing to use indeed. After personally trying out what multichannel formats are really useful here some data I like to share. The table shows the incompatibility between certain multichannel sound file formats and popular multimedia players/software.
Conclusion is that it is difficult to find an universal software player, which handles all possible uncompressed multichannel audio formats.
Here the test results with the following criterium:
Does it play the multichannel soundfile correctly on my Windows2000 (SP3) computer ?
Soundcard is a RME HDSP Digiface, selected output is WaveOut device HDSP ADAT1(1+2) (1).
6-channel DTS 5.1 (16 bit & 44.1 KHz)
(Only possible with additional analog 5.1 compatible soundcard inside the computer. Simply select analog multimedia sound device & 6 channel speaker configuration, but choose HDSP ADAT1(1+2)(1) as wave output device).
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - yes
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - yes
6-channel WAV format (16 bit & 44.1 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - Yes
Foobar 0.77b - Yes
Windows Media Player 9 - No
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Yes
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Yes
8-channel WAV format (24 bit & 48 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - Yes (but audio truncated to 16 bit)
Windows Media Player 9 - No
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - No
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Yes (but playback of multichannel audio is truncated to 16 bit, import to eight separate mono WAV files works at 24 bit resolution though)
6-channel uncompressed WAV in AVI format (16 bit & 44.1 KHz)
(made with Windows Media Encoder 9.0 commandline utility "WavAVIMUX")
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - No
Windows Media Player 9 - No (no import error, but seemingly can not play its own format)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Yes
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - No (also does not accept file as "insert Video file" in Multitrack View, sees the file as being stereo)
6-channel uncompressed WAV in AVI format (24 bit & 48 KHz)
(made with Windows Media Encoder 9.0 commandline utility "WavAVIMUX" - Hell, which software can play these Microsoft made 24 bit WAVEFORMATex files ?)
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - No
Windows Media Player 9 - No (no import error, but seemingly can not play its own format)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - No (error message: unsupported media type in audio switcher)
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - No (also does not accept file as "insert Video file" in Multitrack View, sees the file as being stereo)
6-channel WMA format (16 bit & 44.1 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
Windows Media Player 9 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
8-channel WMA format (24 bit & 48 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
Windows Media Player 9 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
Final other conclusion is that specific audio compression programs such as Monkey Audio do not recognize multichannel WAV formats. Therefore these programs can not be used for audio compression !
However if one can find an application that stream high-resolution audio-only WAVEFORMATex AVI files (the AVI format having the advantage that you are not limited to the 2 Gbyte maximum file size of raw WAV files) and stream it from inside a compressed WinRar archive, that would be make a nice computer substitute playback system for DVD-audio. The RAR file compression is equivalent to the way the Meridian MLP encoder compresses DVD-audio by means of lossless packing, a method which makes it possible to store more music on a disc.
Any ideas which software plays uncompressed multichannel 24 bit 96 KHz WAVEFORMAText AVI files ? Some other commandline routines from Windows ?
Hippo
Conclusion is that it is difficult to find an universal software player, which handles all possible uncompressed multichannel audio formats.
Here the test results with the following criterium:
Does it play the multichannel soundfile correctly on my Windows2000 (SP3) computer ?
Soundcard is a RME HDSP Digiface, selected output is WaveOut device HDSP ADAT1(1+2) (1).
6-channel DTS 5.1 (16 bit & 44.1 KHz)
(Only possible with additional analog 5.1 compatible soundcard inside the computer. Simply select analog multimedia sound device & 6 channel speaker configuration, but choose HDSP ADAT1(1+2)(1) as wave output device).
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - yes
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - yes
6-channel WAV format (16 bit & 44.1 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - Yes
Foobar 0.77b - Yes
Windows Media Player 9 - No
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Yes
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Yes
8-channel WAV format (24 bit & 48 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - Yes (but audio truncated to 16 bit)
Windows Media Player 9 - No
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - No
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Yes (but playback of multichannel audio is truncated to 16 bit, import to eight separate mono WAV files works at 24 bit resolution though)
6-channel uncompressed WAV in AVI format (16 bit & 44.1 KHz)
(made with Windows Media Encoder 9.0 commandline utility "WavAVIMUX")
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - No
Windows Media Player 9 - No (no import error, but seemingly can not play its own format)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Yes
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - No (also does not accept file as "insert Video file" in Multitrack View, sees the file as being stereo)
6-channel uncompressed WAV in AVI format (24 bit & 48 KHz)
(made with Windows Media Encoder 9.0 commandline utility "WavAVIMUX" - Hell, which software can play these Microsoft made 24 bit WAVEFORMATex files ?)
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - No
Windows Media Player 9 - No (no import error, but seemingly can not play its own format)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - No (error message: unsupported media type in audio switcher)
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - No (also does not accept file as "insert Video file" in Multitrack View, sees the file as being stereo)
6-channel WMA format (16 bit & 44.1 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
Windows Media Player 9 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix)
8-channel WMA format (24 bit & 48 KHz):
Winamp 2.81 - No
Foobar 0.77b - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
Windows Media Player 9 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
Windows Media Player Classic 6.4.7.6 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
PowerDVD XP 4.0 24174.5 - No
WinDVD Platinum 4.5 - No
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 - Partially (becomes stereo downmix with audio truncated to 16 bit)
Final other conclusion is that specific audio compression programs such as Monkey Audio do not recognize multichannel WAV formats. Therefore these programs can not be used for audio compression !
However if one can find an application that stream high-resolution audio-only WAVEFORMATex AVI files (the AVI format having the advantage that you are not limited to the 2 Gbyte maximum file size of raw WAV files) and stream it from inside a compressed WinRar archive, that would be make a nice computer substitute playback system for DVD-audio. The RAR file compression is equivalent to the way the Meridian MLP encoder compresses DVD-audio by means of lossless packing, a method which makes it possible to store more music on a disc.
Any ideas which software plays uncompressed multichannel 24 bit 96 KHz WAVEFORMAText AVI files ? Some other commandline routines from Windows ?
Hippo