Wi-Fi Limitations and Sample rates...16/44.1

Mapman,

Windows win95, win98 and WinXP do not down sample network packets on a wireless network.

Windows XP kmixer does re-sample audio to 44.1 or 48k.

Your confusing digital to analog conversion in a soundboard with streaming packets of data over a network.

Prpixel,

I do know the difference between the two but not the details of which MS software does what when, so that is helpful.

I only recall reading that it was an issue with the older versions of Windows in general but not XP.

Since it is very difficult often to determine what OS bundled software is actually doing what when something does not sound right, I recommend Vista in general as a more robust and less problematic platform for digital audio over older versions of Windows, that's all.

Think about it. If older versions of Windows were re-sampling data packets traveling over a network, then all data would be adulterated or corrupted whether it be a picture, music, excel spreadsheet etc. Because Windows, or any operating system, does not have the ability to distinguish the contents of a data packet, how would it be able to single out audio packets and re-sample them? The only thing that windows looks at in a data packet is the header information to determine where a packet came from, where it's going and the checksum to determine if it was corrupted during it's journey.

Now, you can get third party software that will do deep packet inspection, but even the best versions have very low levels of accuracy. The RIAA, and ISP's, have been doing trials with deep packet inspection software with poor results. In order to get high accuracy rates, they really need to capture the whole file being transferred, determine the type of file and if it's legitimate or illegal, and then either allow or stop the transfer.

PR,

I recall the issue was with certain core programs/components bundled into Windows that dealt specifically with sound, not windows IO functionality in general. It had to do with maintaining throughput with older, slower computers not necessarily designed for high performance A/V.

Don't recall the details nor can I confirm that the problem truly exists, but it makes sense to me that newer OS versions have more refined software components for A/V since that is now a core application area that people buy the computers for.

MP,

Yes, you keep saying it was to do with sound processing and I'm agreeing with you. Networking, and streaming of audio files, has nothing to do with sound processing: apples and oranges.

Any computer can have problems playing audio files if it's trying to run too many processes at once, especially Vista because of the high overhead of the Aero interface and the increased number of security threads. However, I agree with you about recommending Vista for audio playback because MS replaced kmixer with core audio which sounds a lot better. To summarize, If I had to choose an operating system to listen to music on the computer, I'd choose Vista. If I had to choose an operating system to stream music, I'd choose XP or Linux.

I have an 1.6Ghz Atom based nettop computer, running XP, that I use as a music server. I've had it streaming lossless files to six different devices and it doesn't even break a sweat. However, I know it couldn't decode and play five audio files at a time.

You see, were saying the same thing. You say potato and I say potato.......