Rip and Play HDCD on Mac? (20bits)

hi, i have a lot hdcd cds and others that say 20bits cds, so how is possible rip and play on mac? I use XLD is great but xld do it?

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23430/x-lossless-decoder

the XLD devel respond me:

any way to decode in mac?

thanks

 

Install Windows.

There are several apps for Windows, which utilize HDCD.exe, that can decode HDCD files. The files are expanded to 24 bit, which can, of course, be re-formatted to your choosing.

Foobar - freeware which can decode just as playback and also permanently decode/expand the file
dBpowerAmp - not freeware, but can rip, decode and reformat
CUETools - freeware which can rip, decode and reformat. Not as many format options as dBpowerAmp

 

ok thanks, but not in mac?

and well in pc:
about the hdcd.exe I run before but I dont see nathing, is via command line? or works like a component of foobar?

if I rip in .flac or apple lossless dont work right? i need rip in wav or .aiff right for the decode works?

thank you

 

IIRC, iTunes can decode an HDCD CD for CD playback only - not decode\expand for files.

hdcd.exe is a command line executable, but the programs that I mentioned all have it as part of their program GUI and are much easier to use. With foobar, you’ll have to download/install the separate component and then use the Convert/Processing menu options.

The file format doesn’t matter as far as getting a decoded HDCD file - the application must support it though. Once it’s decoded/expanded, it’s like most other 24Bit files. But you’ll want to use a format that is easily converted to your Apple environment.

 

if i decode with foobar plugin in the bottom of foobar say something like "playing track1.flac hdcd 20bit" or something that indicate that is decoding?

thanks again, great info

 

Foobar does HDCD decoding on the fly but can also do it during a conversion. If you access to a Windows PC with Foobar, you can use it to convert the original CD rips (16 bit with HDCD encoding) to decoded 24 bit WAV/FLAC/ALAC/etc. files.

 

If you want to enable an HDCD "indicator" in Foobar, perform the following steps.

If using the "Default User Interface":

1) Make sure the status bar is enabled (View -> Show Status Bar).
2) Go to File -> Preferences.
3) Go to Display -> Default User Interface.
4) Find the "Status bar" text box and change the text to the following (or customise if you're familiar with Foobar scripting):

%codec% | %bitrate% kbps | %samplerate% Hz | %channels% | %playback_time%[ / %length%] $if(%__hdcd%,'| HDCD (PE:' %__hdcd_peak_extend%', LLE:' %__hdcd_gain%', TF:' %__hdcd_transient_filter%')')

5) Highlight your entire playlist. Now right-click and go to Utilities -> Scan for HDCD Tracks (THIS WILL TAKE AGES).
6) Now when you play an file with HDCD encoding, it'll show in the Status Bar.

If using "Columns UI":

1) Make sure the status bar is enabled (View -> Show Status Bar).
2) Go to File -> Preferences.
3) Go to Display -> Columns UI and then go to the Status Bar tab.
4) Find the "Title format script" text box and change the text to the following (or customise if you're familiar with Foobar scripting):

//This is the default script for the content of the main status bar pane during playback.

$if(%is_status_pane%,%artist% - %title%$crlf(),$if(%ispaused%,Paused,Playing) | )%codec% | %bitrate% kbps | %samplerate% Hz | $caps(%channels%) | %playback_time%[ / %length%] $if(%__hdcd%,'| HDCD (PE:' %__hdcd_peak_extend%', LLE:' %__hdcd_gain%', TF:' %__hdcd_transient_filter%')')

5) Highlight your entire playlist. Now right-click and go to Utilities -> Scan for HDCD Tracks (THIS WILL TAKE AGES).
6) Now when you play an file with HDCD encoding, it'll show in the Status Bar.

 

Hmm actually, the scanning for HDCD tracks is optional. Only needed if you want to see if you have any HDCD tracks hiding in your playlist.

 

I know that I've ripped HDCD's on my Mac with max or xld, to FLAC... then played those FLAC files with Decibel, connected to my Rotel receiver via the digital output, and they were decoded properly. I did nothing special to make that happen.

 

I use dBowerAmp's dsp option to decode HDCD into 24 bit/44.1 files. Works like a charm and is easy.

 

bump.


any progress for hdcd decoding on the osx front..?

(i am a xld user)

 

If the HDCD is ripped to AIFF with XLD accurate rip, won't it be properly decoded when played through a dac with HDCD?

 

This is exactly what I do. If you have access to a Windows machine it is really easy to rip HDCD to an AIFF file using dbPoweramp

 

would the info be stored in a flac, too..? or would I have to rip the disc to aiff..? I thought the info was in all lossless rips, but I could be wrong - I guess the issue is having the hdcd decoding done via software in osx...

 

At present, no decoding on OSX.

 

Yes, you are correct, any lossless compression will work. I always rip to flac in dbpoweramp for HDCD. I also do a 16 bit flac file that keeps the HDCD information intact in case of use with a media player that recognizes and decodes HDCD files on the playback. Otherwise the 24 bit file is what I use for playback in JRiver which doesn't decode HDCD files on the playback.

 

No HDCD on OSX and likely won't be. You will need to install Windows using Boot Camp or Parallels.

 

Some DAC's will decode HDCD; most Denon receivers, Oppo 105, some Cary's, etc. Then it doesn't matter if your media player decodes HDCD.

 

Question: What exactly does HDCD do? Seems to me that an increase from 16 bits to 20 would only result in a slight lowering of CD's already undetectable noise floor.

I understand that some HDCDs do that dynamic range compression/expansion thing, and that would be worth the bother to me. But assuming the HDCD in question doesn't take advantage of that, what's the improvement really?

 

There's two features in HDCD that are worth decoding. Peak extend and gain.
Peak extend is a biggie. Very often quite noticeable when it is enabled and decoded.
Gain is less noticeable. Gain can kick in on things like quiet fade outs and quiet parts of the music. With the gain decoded you'll be able to hear the fade outs trail out a little bit longer.

Here's a post where I list the HDCD titles that I have and what HDCD features each have:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/hdcds-with-peak-extend.283784/page-2#post-7647224

The ones with no peak extend and no gain will have no benefit from HDCD decoding.

 

Hmmm...

On my Mac, I have iTunes and Audio Hijack Pro. If it's true that iTunes decodes HDCD on playback (not ripping), I theoretically should be able to play an HDCD-encoded CD inserted in my DVD-RW drive through iTunes, and capture the decoded audio in real-time via Audio Hijack Pro, no?

 

I've seen no evidence of any truth in this, so you'd achieve nothing by doing that.

 

I don't think iTunes can decode HDCD. Pacific Microsonics developed HDCD, they were bought by Microsoft, Windows computers have the hdcd.exe component that decodes it and it simply doesn't exist in OSX. I have been using dBPoweramp on Windows for years now, and if you enable the HDCD decode option it generates a 44.1K / 24 bit file (though only 20 bits are effectively used). The OS X version does not have this functionality for reasons stated above. Given that HDCD is really a legacy format, i'd advocate using a Windows machine (borrowed, stolen, whatever) to decode your HDCDs as 44.1 / 24 bit FLACs and keep those as your archival copies. While a reasonable number of CD / DVD / BD players and DACs can still decode HDCD I don't envisage this continuing long term. How many HDCDs do you have? Looking at my ripped CDs I reckon I only have 8 out of maybe 1100 CDs (as I put each physical disc in a separate folder and have a few box sets / double / triple CDs / downloaded FLAC albums / audio ripped from DVD or Blu Ray I have no real idea how many actual albums I have bought) that dBPoweramp recognised as being encoded with HDCD, a couple of which from memory had no clear indication on the CD or packaging that they were so encoded.