DCC Archive WMP 8 on XP - HDCD detection

Windows Media Player on Windows XP will detect whether a disc is HDCD encoded. It confirms the rumours that Time Out on Columbia Legacy is HDCD encoded without mentioning it as well as In the Court of the Crimson King being the only Virgin release without this encoding.
NP In The Wake of Poseidon

 

John, I'm running Windows 2000.

Is there a similar way to tell on 2000 if a CD is HDCD?

Mikey

 

No.

At this time, WMA Player 8 is exclusive to Windows XP. Don't worry about it. 8 will come out soon as a seperate download. Right now, 7 is out, betas are in the works, but nothing public yet.

 

I've never used Windows 2000, but this may be a function of Media Player 8 - it will undoubtedly be available for download soon. WMP 8 also fixes the problem with "gaps" between tracks that was present in WMP 7.1. In View, click visualisations, and tick album art. The HDCD logo comes up on the bottom left hand corner of the player if the disc is so encoded.

 

I also just checked out Close To The Edge - a Japanese HDCD - and this also came up as HDCD. I suddenly thought that this labelling may be a part of downloading details about the album from the MS site, but the details are those for the regular non-HDCD edition. Next test is to see if this works on a CD not already inserted while not connected to the net.......or if there is someone who also has XP and non-HDCD versions of the Yes albums mentioned below, see if the HDCD button (to the left of the Artist/Playing text)appears or not.
Incidentally, for those lusting after these Yes Japanese CDs, take care with Close To The Edge and Fragile - they are WORSE than the regular remasters. Yessongs and Relayer are very good, while TFTO is a revelation.

 

If I'm not mistaken but I believe Microsoft purchased the company and rights to HDCD. So expect to see more about this is the future.