Hello XZP land!
I've had mine for a while (since launch actually), and I really love the device. However, I've come upon a conundrum that I think needs some technical elbow grease (which I am not skilled to do).
I own some Hi Res audio, and my favorite player (Neutron), as well as some others, supports playback of it. The thing is, the XZP doesn't show as having the ability to, according to this Neutron thread on the matter Hi Res in Neutron. Our devices currently do not offer the Hi-Res options.
Qualcomm on their site for our chipset says;
Developed by an audio technology leader, Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD 9340/9341) supports high-resolution standards that recording studios use to master tracks, creating a pure audiophile listening experience. It has an integrated DAC (digital-to-analog converter) that supports native Direct-Stream Digital (DSD) and pulse-code modulation (PCM) Hi-Fi audio playback. DSD is a standard found on Super Audio Compact Discs (SACDs), and the Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec can decode DSD files natively. The DAC on the Qualcomm Aqstic codec has ultra-low Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise (THD+N), which means no additional noise or signal is added for the most authentic sound reproduction. The Qualcomm Aqstic codec is also designed to give you the highest dynamic range available, so you can feel the dramatic change of volume and emotion in your favorite music.
SO I know the chipset can do it.
Now, Sony provided us with the "DSEE HX" quality audio setting... and it says "upgrade quality of compressed music files to 'NEAR' Hi Res'". Meh, okay, so you can muck around with compressed files and make em sound better. I don't believe that resolves my issue, and enables anything firmware wise.
I believe this means we need to enable the feature via firmware and bypass Sony's attempt at audio features in their DRM space. Has anyone been able to enable this in Neutron? How's your Hi-Res playback?
charlatan01 said:
Hello XZP land!
I've had mine for a while (since launch actually), and I really love the device. However, I've come upon a conundrum that I think needs some technical elbow grease (which I am not skilled to do).
I own some Hi Res audio, and my favorite player (Neutron), as well as some others, supports playback of it. The thing is, the XZP doesn't show as having the ability to, according to this Neutron thread on the matter Hi Res in Neutron. Our devices currently do not offer the Hi-Res options.
Qualcomm on their site for our chipset says;
Developed by an audio technology leader, Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD 9340/9341) supports high-resolution standards that recording studios use to master tracks, creating a pure audiophile listening experience. It has an integrated DAC (digital-to-analog converter) that supports native Direct-Stream Digital (DSD) and pulse-code modulation (PCM) Hi-Fi audio playback. DSD is a standard found on Super Audio Compact Discs (SACDs), and the Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec can decode DSD files natively. The DAC on the Qualcomm Aqstic codec has ultra-low Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise (THD+N), which means no additional noise or signal is added for the most authentic sound reproduction. The Qualcomm Aqstic codec is also designed to give you the highest dynamic range available, so you can feel the dramatic change of volume and emotion in your favorite music.
SO I know the chipset can do it.
Now, Sony provided us with the "DSEE HX" quality audio setting... and it says "upgrade quality of compressed music files to 'NEAR' Hi Res'". Meh, okay, so you can muck around with compressed files and make em sound better. I don't believe that resolves my issue, and enables anything firmware wise.
I believe this means we need to enable the feature via firmware and bypass Sony's attempt at audio features in their DRM space. Has anyone been able to enable this in Neutron? How's your Hi-Res playback?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not just use the stock Sony music player for hi res playback? Hi res audio files have been supported since the Z2 and onwards. You can just use the Sony music player for hi res and neutron for everything else. I think that its auto enabled by default within the Sony music player. When you see the "HR" logo on the album art I suppose that means its enabled.
If your trying to enable the same thing in neutron and it doesnt work because theres a toggle. Id blame the creators of the app or simply Google for the lack of support. It can be one of 2 things stopping it from working for you. The android os or the app itself. I dont use neutron personally and never have. Ive always used the Sony one after I gave up on poweramp. I wouldnt blame the device itself. Its just like my issue of vulkan support whereby apps cant see that the device does support it. In that case I would blame Google. This is as much help as I can offer.
Hi-Res is enabled out of the box with the in-built Sony Music application and contrary to what RJASSI21 said, the HR logo does not appear on all Hi-Res audio tracks album art, only on 24bit Hi-Res tracks album art and I have been using Hi-Res audio on my Z5P and my XZP but I have only ever used the Walkman/Music app provided by Sony and it works.
Mobfigurz said:
Hi-Res is enabled out of the box with the in-built Sony Music application and contrary to what RJASSI21 said, the HR logo does not appear on all Hi-Res audio tracks album art, only on 24bit Hi-Res tracks album art and I have been using Hi-Res audio on my Z5P and my XZP but I have only ever used the Walkman/Music app provided by Sony and it works.
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Click to collapse
Thanks to both of you for the info. I am going to see if I can get the Neutron dev to add the libraries or whatever's needed to get that app where I want it.
charlatan01 said:
Thanks to both of you for the info. I am going to see if I can get the Neutron dev to add the libraries or whatever's needed to get that app where I want it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Much appreciated! I was looking for these Neutron settings on the XZP too since they were n my LG V10 (before it died on me last week). Neutron music player has been my go to player for several years now so here's hoping we get some positive updates soon.
Thank you!
There was an update to Neutron for Oreo support yesterday and now I can finally see the Hi-Res Codec and Hi-Res Speaker options.
Related
Anyone else have an issue? I use Zoomplayer and I have ffdshow. I didn't know anything was left to not be playable!
Check what codec it wants with Gspot(http://www.headbands.com/gspot/)
For a player you can try MediaPlayerClassic(http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=403110) or get MPC included with a pretty robust codec pack CCCP(http://www.cccp-project.net/download.php?type=cccp)
As a last resort try VLC(http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) it plays pretty much anything, but not always in an optimized way
FFDShow can play TouchPro/Fuze videos, but it may not be configured to recognize the files by default.
GSpot reports video: MP4V, and audio: AMR.
Look under your start menu for the link to ffdshow config (eg: Start > Programs > ffdshow > ... or CCCP > Filters > ... if you use that pack)
Choose FFDShow Audio Decoder Configuration
→ Under the Codecs category, look for AMR and set Decoder to libavcodec.
Then choose FFDShow Video Decoder Configuration
→ Under the Codecs category, look for Other MPEG4 (you will see MP4V noted in the FourCC) and set Decoder to libavcodec
Close ZoomPlayer (or MPC, which I highly recommend), and reload. FFDShow will now properly decode and play the videos.
Man I hate the nightmare over which player to use. I used to use only MPC, but people told me it had inferior video quality and/or couldn't support 5.1.
If you're using the default video format (.mp4), here's a trick that will usually play the video on a PC using Quicktime.
Change the .mp4 file extension to .3gp.
In the advanced menu on the video camera, you can also change the capture format to H.263 and those files seem to play fine on my PC without any changes.
thehyecircus said:
Man I hate the nightmare over which player to use. I used to use only MPC, but people told me it had inferior video quality and/or couldn't support 5.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically MPC isn't a factor when it comes to video quality or support for additional features. Video/audio quality depends on the filters/decoders being used (such as ffdshow, coreavc, powerdvd, etc). Support for extra features comes from splitters (such as Haali Media Splitter, which will tell MPC how to read/playback different kinds of data in a file) and other kinds of filters (such as directvobsub for rendering subtitles).
MPC is pretty much just a GUI that lets you control all those splitters/filters. Without any splitters/filters, MPC is pretty useless, and the default filters would use (that are included in Windows) are indeed pretty low-quality. But ffdshow is one of the best quality decoders out there.
Just for reference, ZoomPlayer is also a good player which uses the same splitters/filters to play media files--it's just a matter of GUI preference. The CCCP package is popular because it includes both MPC and ZoomPlayer as well as the best (non-commercial) splitters and filters like Haali and ffdshow.
If you're interested in getting more information, this is a good start:
http://www.cccp-project.net/wiki/index.php?title=Media_Players
Hopefully this isn't too far off-topic
Is H.263 a poor video quality? I can open it with Media Player and I installed the CCCP, but it takes a while to open my original video file for some reason. And I'd rather never use Quicktime, in fact The CCCP site had me uninstall it. But anyway - does H.263 matter compared to MPEG4? What can I do to have my next video file not be such a pain?
"Choose FFDShow Audio Decoder Configuration
→ Under the Codecs category, look for AMR and set Decoder to libavcodec.
Then choose FFDShow Video Decoder Configuration
→ Under the Codecs category, look for Other MPEG4 (you will see MP4V noted in the FourCC) and set Decoder to libavcodec"
I am going to do that now. I would have done it before, but I did not have those files.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.263
There's a lot of rude and ignorant posters on this site, aren't there? I went to the Wiki page first thing - and guess what, there's no information. So *gasp* I asked here. Directing me backwards won't help.
It's pretty complicated so I'll just try to keep it simple:
MP4V is just an identifier for MPEG-4 video. There's a lot of technical stuff behind MPEG-4 codecs concerning quality, but I would say it's safe to assume the Fuze/TouchPro uses just the simple profiles (optimized for handhelds). H.263 is quite simply just an older codec but is similarly intended for handhelds. MPEG-4 technically can offer much better quality, but the Fuze/TouchPro does not let you change the codec's internal settings (since it's built-in to the camera app and/or camera chip).
So whether one codec is better than the other isn't clear; you'll just have to test both modes and see which one you prefer (but at 320x240, I doubt the difference will be very noticable). If the quality is almost the same, the other significant factor is that one codec may produce smaller files.
Hope that helps.
I am developing my application, where voice should be recorded for later playback. According to official Android DevGuide I use AMR-NB encodec (only one available), but recorded sound quality is nightmare...
So my question - is this possible to encode sound using other (better) codecs, eg. FLAC or Vorbis?
Moreover, I am not native code developer - only android, so please explain me... Is this a problem to port LAME or full Vorbis to Android? I suppose yes, because nobody did not do it.
I would think the problem encoding to FLAC would be two-fold, one processing (slow little old things these phones are), and two storage.
It may be better (if voice is your target) to look into Speex, which is a variant of Vorbis/Flac designed for voice. Perhaps the person who ported FLAC to Android could help pursue this?
Check here.
Thanks for reply...
And what about Lame - also OS codec for mp3?
So , am I right, that speex encoding is supported in Android? May I ask for advice how to use it?
I looked for speex... I think it is not supported in Android.
Speex encoding would not be natively supported by Android, neither is FLAC or MP3. The reason I suggested Speex is because it is open-source and royalty free, it also has a smaller footprint and might be less cpu intensive. Either option will require libraries to be ported in order to provide the encoding/decoding function. Speex would also be easier than MP3 because the native Vorbis libraries might be easily adopted to allow Speex playback.
We all know that Windows Mobile has as an audio equilizer and it works well, the name is WinamPAQ.
Does anybody know why Android unfortunately lack of a video tuning to correct brightness, color and contrast and an equilizer to correct the quality of the sound. What is reason behind the scenes?. Am I the only ony unhappy of video and sound quality especially on the Desire?
I just added an album in flac format on my z3. and if i look in walkman there is a HR behind the album and behind some songs. What does this mean? I thought it stands for high ress audio or something.
Yes it does. AFAIK it means either the bit rate is above 16 or the sampling rate is above 48kHz.
rwesten,
It means the file you're playing is not only a FLAC, but a Hi-Res FLAC. It's like this:
You got your lossy files......mp3s, AACs, which are at the lower end of music quality (but take up the least space b/c they're the most compressed). Then you got CD-Quality files and Hi-Res tracks, usually in the FLAC format (or related like ALAC). Lower quality FLAC tracks are CD-Quality. They are better than mp3s, but not AS good as Hi-Res FLACS. They are rated at 16-bit/44.1KHz (sometimes 24-bit, but not often). THEN you got your Hi-Res FLAC tracks. Like the CD-Quality FLACs, Hi-Res FLACs are lossless, which means NO data is lost or taken out (think blu-ray vs DVD). These are rated at 24-bit/96KHz, though they are definitely known to go as high as 192KHz (and in some very rare cases, up to the 300-400KHz category).
All the FLAC files are compressed, but somehow they still retain all the original music data information. They do have uncompressed lossless files like WAV files, but they take up more room, so I think FLACs are better b/c they take up less room (compressed) but still have the same sound quality (lossless). If you are a TV guy, then think of mp3s as 480p, CD-Quality FLACs as 720p, Hi-Res FLACs as 24-bit/96KHz as 1080p, and like 24-bit/192KHz+ as 4K. lol The Z3's built-in DAC (digital audio converter) can play Hi-Res but only up to 24-bit/96KHz, which is still amazing and better than most other phones. If you want higher, you can buy a separate DAC and hook it up b/t the phone and your headphones or speakers. My thinking is down the road, the DACs will get better, so you can wait and buy them later, or get them now. Maybe they will get cheaper over time, so maybe just stick with 24/96 for now.
"HR" DOES in fact mean Hi-Res. It means you're playing the highest quality of music that's available today. I just started getting into all that recently and have learned a lot in only 4-5 weeks (as you can see above). lol Some say it's all BS, but I've compared songs I have on mp3 to Hi-Res FLACs like 24-bit/96KHz, and I definitely DO notice a difference. Hi-Res doesn't sound so "closed in"........ you can hear each instrument distinctly where on the mp3 version it sounds like more condensed, or like you're listening through a small hole in the wall. lol I compared my mp3 of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin and then the Hi-Res FLAC version I got from www.hdtracks.com, and yeah, the HR version sounded bigger, better, more clearer, louder at the same volume....... I could hear little guitar fills much more clearly on the FLAC version too. So if you want more, go there. Not many options right now, but that's a great one with an ever growing library. Or to Pono Music (Neil Young's push for Hi-Res), though you can only look up what they have for now. The music will be available for download in the next couple months I read somewhere.
Hope that helped!
RockStar2005
I've been trying to find out what the DAC is in the Shield Tablet and if it will support high resolution audio but there is nothing on Nvidia's site and any audio related search just goes on about the speakers.
I'm going to load up some 192KHz/24bit FLAC files and see how it goes. Looks like it supports most formats but there is no mention anywhere of high resolution audio support. I hope if does not down sample.
Anyone have any experience?
Denonite said:
I've been trying to find out what the DAC is in the Shield Tablet and if it will support high resolution audio but there is nothing on Nvidia's site and any audio related search just goes on about the speakers.
I'm going to load up some 192KHz/24bit FLAC files and see how it goes. Looks like it supports most formats but there is no mention anywhere of high resolution audio support. I hope if does not down sample.
Anyone have any experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In same position, not much info to find about the DAC. My main usage plan is as car dashboard tablet, so i don't want to go all audiophile and guess i have to see how it will play out. Else i will probably just end up investing in a proper HDMI de-embedder.
It would however be nice to know just a little about the DAC.
It won't support high-res audio because Android doesn't, it'll resample everything to 48Khz, regardless of the capability of the DAC. The only exceptions are devices where the manufacturer has added support for it, from memory only LG and Samsung to date. If you want HD audio get a USB DAC and use USB Audio Player PRO (UAPP). I use my Dragonfly 1.2 with my Note 4 and Shield Tablet, it'll do high-res via UAPP (or Hiby or Onkyo music players, I prefer UAPP). Personally I have no need for HD audio, but the external DAC and amp runs rings around the audio quality and amplifier grunt in tablets and phones.