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[Matt]

A coming build of Media Center will add HDCD detection to the audio analyzer.

Just run the tool on any files you think might be HDCD and it will check the box (for decoding) on any matches.

Earlier in MC25 we added HDCD decoding to playback the 16-bit HDCD files as 24-bit.

This was a fun one for us to add

[dtc]

Very nice 

[dtc]

If you have already run the analyzer on the file, will it just do the HDCD detection?

[Hendrik]

If you have already run the analyzer on the file, will it just do the HDCD detection?

No, it'll always run the full process. There are various reasons to want to re-analyze, so differentiating that would be annoying.

[Scobie]

Great addition, well done to all involved.

[dtc]

Hendrik - Actually, have 2 check boxes - one for volume leveling and one for HDCD - would seem pretty simple. And it would avoid the time consuming process of doing the R128 calculation each time. If you want to do both, just keep both boxes checked. Flexibility for the user is a good thing.

[Hendrik]

The way I see it, this "flexibility" is not very useful in the long-run, its a one-time checkbox you would use now, and never again. As such, I don't see the value in it. Flexibility is only good to a point, after which you produce feature creep, which overloads interfaces, confuses users, and increases maintenance burdens.

Also, Audio Analysis does more then just volume measurements. How many checkboxes are acceptable?

[dtc]

For somebody with a large library it can a long time to run auto analyze.  It seems like it makes sense to exclude analyzing items that have already been done. Maybe just 1 check box option  - Do Not Repeat Analysis That Has Already Been Done.

I understand not providing an option for everything. But it seems appropriate to allow users to avoid an action that they do not want so they can do another action they do want. Some linkages are appropriate, some are not. This seems like one where an option to unlink some actions would be appropriate.

Matt and I have also discussed another such linkage - automatically looking up lyrics for tracks with no lyrics when you display lyrics. Again, this seems like actions that should not be linked without an option to unlink them. Having to do one in order to do the other forces users to do actions they do not want to do.

Just my thoughts.

[dtc]

Just checked - Analyze Audio already has a check box to skip files that have already been analyzed. Shouldn't that apply to files that already have R128 values in the library? I think that is the default.

EDIT : The answer is NO. If a previous analysis has been done, the analysis will not run with the Skip box checked. You have to rerun the  previous analysis if you want to do HDCD detection. Sorry, but that just does not make sense.  The two types of analysis are simply not related.

[dtc]

What else does it do other than the R128 calculations? That is what I am referring to.

[dtc]

Note by R128/volume level calculations I am referring to the current calculation. There may be a more appropriate term that find. Just want to be clear what I am referring to.

To summarize:

HDCD and the current R128/volume level calculations are completely independent of one another.

There are only two options involved here - the existing analysis and HDCD. There are not multiple analyses to be consider, just the two.

Two check boxes - one for the existing analysis and one for HDCD check is all that is needed.

Or you can maintain the one existing check box by changing the wording to -  Skip R128/volume level calculations and HDCD check when there is existing data.  That would skip the existing calculations (R128/volume leveling and HDCD check) if there is data that shows the analysis has already been done.  Same number of check boxes - but more functional given the addition of the HDCD check.

If you want to make the HDCD check more efficient, a -1 in the HDCD tag could show that the analysis has been done and no HDCD was found.

Sorry to be so persistent. But, to me, obviously, doing hours of repetitive calculations that produce nothing new seems unnecessary.  I think there are ways to make this more efficient without unduly complicating the interface.

If you do not want to do the two box solution, at least consider change the existing check box to be more functional given the addition of the HDCD option.

[JimH]

Does anybody else care much?

[dtc]

I am just trying to point out the potential problems. The current implementation is flawed. 

Honestly, I would think you would care about these problems. It is a quick fix to deal with now. Down the road it will never get dealt with.

[jmone]

Does anybody else care much?

So I scanned my 10K ish audio files and was surprised to find about 2% were HDCD (which is nice).  It took abit over an hour to do this which was (for me) OK.  What I liked less was that every single file was updated (which I'm now pushing to my backup).  I doubt that 100% of the files did actually need to be updated, but maybe I'm wrong.  I would suggest that tags are only updated if they are actually different. 

[Matt]

I am just trying to point out the potential problems. The current implementation is flawed. 

Honestly, I would think you would care about these problems. It is a quick fix to deal with now. Down the road it will never get dealt with.

Next build will have this change:
Changed: Made the HDCD field a string that defaults to -1 to mean not analyzed.  It can be set to 0 or 1 after analysis.

[dtc]

Matt - With that, if the check for previous analysis is applied separately to the existing r128/volume leveling calculation and the HDCD detection, that eliminates the issue of having to re-analyze files that have already been analyzed. Hope that is the plan.

Does the default get applied to existing files if the field is blank?

Thanks.

[dtc]

Seems to work as expected. Thanks for the change 

[Craig]

Out of curiosity I re analysed my library and it found nine albums but it only flagged up two tracks from Keb' Mo's album Slow Down as HDCD, is this possible or is it an error?

Craig