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Trouble with 20-bit HDCD

Greetings,

I purchased a CD that turned out, on delivery, to be a 20-bit HDCD published in 2002 (although the disk itself brand new). The music on it is very rarely recorded (Girolamo Kapsberger’s “Jesuit Opera”) and only available in this format.
My Project transport (Box RS) doesn’t recognize the disk, however. I presume that there is no solution to this problem (apart from buying a different transport) but I’m still interested in what kind of compatibility issue may cause the problem.

Thank you,

Csaba

128x128malacka
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Some HDCD sound fine on regular players, some don't. Like anything, the devil is in the details.

@erik_squires - Did you actually DECODE the HDCD or just take the 16 bits to 24?

Interesting article on HDCD and Pacific Microsonics
https://www.stereophile.com/content/hdcd-keith-johnson-pflash-pflaumer-michael-ritter
erik_squires
16,058 posts
 
Did you actually DECODE the HDCD or just take the 16 bits to 24?

I wrote a Perl script to scan all my FLAC files for evidence of HDCD encoding, and those that appeared to be encoded I decoded using open source tools. All this was on a Linux/Ubuntu box. I believe I used ffmpeg to actually locate and convert.

It is important to note that due to the widespread use of the Pacific Microsonics ADC, and the engineers not caring about settings, a lot of CD’s may be digitally watermarked as HDCD, without any of the HDCD features, such as 20 bit dynamic range expansion, being used.


Best,
E
djohnson54
396 posts
 
@engineears - If you operate in the Windows world, the DBpoweramp ripping software has an option that allows HDCD discs to be ripped at 24 bits.  It's been a while but, if I remember, it's a plugin that has to be added or activated.  Dick
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