Standalone FLAC player to connect to HiFi

Originally Posted by dcbullet

I agree. I don't know how you build your own cheaper than the Revo.

yeah, no cheaper with selfmade

an alternative to revo
barebone system for 200€
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...Netbox-nT-330i

[sysoverload]

Originally Posted by saltman

There are a lot of alternatives just like the REVO. I hope I don't sound like a spokesperson.

The key with these REVO like products that use the Atom processor is to use audio/video software that allows hardware acceleration. Not all does. This moves the video calcs from the slow atom processor to the ion video chip (ion2 with the new REVO 3700). I use Media Player Home Cinema which is free. Without hardware acceleration the video is choppy.

I don't know that mine is setup completely correctly because I haven't had a lot of time to play with it. I am having some difficulties with some blurays. I get a little stutter (very minor with no drops in audio) sometimes. I have seen videos on the internet with the REVO playing blurays flawlessly so I don't know if it is on my end or they are faking videos. I get the stutters on bluray files when streamed over my network or with a USB hard drive plugged in.

It plays 1080p mkv with 24 bit audio perfectly. No glitches at all. This make me think it should play blurays also.

Keep in mind the 3610 is the old model. I think they are selling the 3700 now.

It is my understanding that it works with ASIO drivers and is bitperfect.

It does 24/192 over hdmi perfectly.



If I had it to do all over again, I would probably build a super cheap micro ATX computer with a better cheap CPU. Something like a core I5. I think you could do that in a cheap box for about the same price. The down side would be it would use more energy, be bigger, and louder but I think it would be worth it.

I have the same problem. I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema, and it will play some blu-rays just fine. With other blu-rays, I get some stutter or choppiness in the video, but no audio problems. I tried a couple other players which only performed worse than MPC, but much to my surprise Windows Media Player played the M2TS that exhibited choppiness in MPC perfectly. WMP reported that it didn't recognize the M2TS extention, but was able to play it fine with ffdshow installed. No choppiness at all. So for those blu-rays that won't play well with MPC, I'll be firing up Windows Media Player with ffdshow installed from now on. Never thought I'd use that app ever again.

[direwolf-pgh]

Originally Posted by oxymoron

Logitech Squeezebox™ Touch
up to 24Bit/96kHz !!!

I've read this is a nice player but endusers complain of two major issues.
1. you cant hookup a hard drive directly to it - it chokes when dealing with large collections.
2. intermittent stuttering streams - it has buffer issues.
..thats two big strikes on the device, imo.

Originally Posted by direwolf-pgh

:1. you cant hookup a hard drive directly to it - it chokes when dealing with large collections.
2. intermittent stuttering streams - it has buffer issues.
..thats two big strikes on the device, imo.

really???
this soundz not good

in the moment i play my sound with cPlay/ASIO4ALL2.1
with cPlay the sound ist upscaling to 24Bit/192kHz, NO problems !

[direwolf-pgh]

best practise guide for OS X playback
..and more thoughts here

++++

if you have a quality HD sound card in your PC it is very easy to enjoy bitperfect playback.
Foobar2000 > wasapi plugin > HDMI/optical to receiver. done.
..this is bitperfect. all songs will playback at native sample/bitrate - zero upsample/downsample - even in shuffle.

if you have a newer receiver you can verify the bitrate being received. the wasapi playback support (in win 7) is the key.

Originally Posted by direwolf-pgh

best practise guide for OS X playback
..and more thoughts here

++++

if you have a quality HD sound card in your PC it is very easy to enjoy bitperfect playback.
Foobar2000 > wasapi plugin > HDMI/optical to receiver. done.
..this is bitperfect. all songs will playback at native sample/bitrate - zero upsample/downsample - even in shuffle.

if you have a newer receiver you can verify the bitrate being received. the wasapi playback support (in win 7) is the key.

no OS X
XP
yeah
have also foobar with asio plugin, check the other plugin (wasapi)
my soundcard is a fuckable internal Audigy 2, the other is an external tascam 144mkII (testing)
use it with external DA via optical (very short) up to 24Bit/96kHz

24Bit/192kHz only with aux output from the Audigy (use this with higrade audio transformer )

Originally Posted by direwolf-pgh

wasapi plugin

not for XP

[direwolf-pgh]

correct. wasapi was written by microsoft and introduced in Vista / now featured in Windows 7
(ASIO is an early implementation and should be used with XP)

in layman terms, it allows the playback client to take full control of the audio stream (exclusive mode) and 'speak directly' to the audio driver/soundcard. the direct path allows for a bitperfect stream output.

before wasapi the OS would/could/does 'mess and mix' the sound output -depending on playback variables.
currently OS X and Linux do not offer a bitperfect solution ATM and microsoft media products do not currently support their own wasapi code yet..go figure.

Windows Audio Session API – Very low level API for rendering audio, render/capture audio streams, adjust volume etc. This API also provides low latency for audio professionals through WaveRT

[daddyray]

if that is in layman's terms I am fucked!

[Five]

Originally Posted by direwolf-pgh

correct. wasapi was written by microsoft and introduced in Vista / now featured in Windows 7
(ASIO is an early implementation and should be used with XP)

in layman terms, it allows the playback client to take full control of the audio stream (exclusive mode) and 'speak directly' to the audio driver/soundcard. the direct path allows for a bitperfect stream output.

before wasapi the OS would/could/does 'mess and mix' the sound output -depending on playback variables.
currently OS X and Linux do not offer a bitperfect solution ATM and microsoft media products do not currently support their own wasapi code yet..go figure.

okay so does this mean that the wdm drivers actually work correctly now

does asio get any less lag as a result?

currently I'm using asio on xp (upgrade from wdm) for recording. I'd like to try this asio4all with foobar2000 at some point because it was described as "bit-accurate" but according to yer post it never was

right? I really don't get the low level stuff thx for your patience!

[direwolf-pgh]

asio (asio4all w/foobar2000) does bypass the kmixer and is bitperfect/bit-accurate/bit transparent of course, you aways need a soundcard up to the task
ASIO is an early implementation of what wasapi offers for vista/win 7 users - and yes it reduces the latency.

do the wdm drivers actually work correctly now? I'm not certain I understand exactly what you mean..but Ill ramble some thoughts
The main issue now with a HTPC depends on how 'pure' you demand the signal.
I wish there was an option in Foobar (and a capable soundcard) to send flac direct/unconverted/native to my receiver. (when you hit play it converts .flac to PCM).
Currently there are only a couple HDMI HD Video/Sound cards that can send native Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD - most convert each stream/channel to PCM.
not a big deal, but some audiophiles would prefer their expensive amp/receiver DAC to handle all the work and the computer to only serve the data.
the idea here is when you play .flac > the receiver registers FLAC and when you play Dolby TrueHD > the receiver registers TrueHD/DTS-HD.
In most common scenarios (today) a receiver will register PCM no matter what codec you start with ..cause well, the computer converted the original source. its still lossless but I agree with the argument that a native signal would be optimum.

..I'm not an authoritative expert in this field, mr. Five just sharing/regurgitating the hours of white papers read & what I know from hands on experience.

alternative to acer revo
ITX motherboard with Atom D525 (fastest Atom!) + ION, DDR3, a lot of usb/sata with HDMI out
for ~165€, plus RAM (4GB) 50€ plus 2.5" HDD (WD 320GB) 41€ plus ITX Case 45€
complete around 300€

[LazyTaper]

These seem pretty nice also. Same thing. different alternative. Also cheap.

http://www.dlink.com/boxee/

[dcbullet]

Originally Posted by LazyTaper

These seem pretty nice also. Same thing. different alternative. Also cheap.

http://www.dlink.com/boxee/

I don't like the form factor of that. The qwerty remote is awesome.

I think I'm starting to realize that unless I want to wait 3-5 years for the "perfect" version of these devices, I just need to pick one and realize that it will have it's faults. I think I need to use it before I know what I like and what I don't like.

[saltman]

I think in 3-5 these functions will be built into the A/V receiver. Samsung and others have tried to do it in the TVs but that is pretty much a fail right now.