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[Doof]

Anybody done and comparison tests converting APE to WMA Lossless?

And how does WMP handle gapless playback of WMA? Good or bad?

My entire CD collection is in APE + CUE format. I'm using MC's Theater View on my HTPC and it works great.

I'd kind of like to give Windows MCE a whirl, though. I have no desire to use WMP as my day to day media player, but for the HTPC end of things, MCE's interface looks really nice.

So, I'm wondering about converting all of my APE files to WMA-L. Theoretically there shouldn't be any problem or loss of quality doing this, but what if I want to go back? I really don't want a bunch of seperate APE files. I really can't say why, but I don't. Can I take a bunch of WMA-L files, stick them all back together into one big WAV file and compress it back with APE? Will that resulting APE still work with the original CUE? Maybe I'll give this a try tonight and see what happens.

I'm guessing WMP doesn't support WMA + CUE.
 
I feel like an enemy sympathizer all of a sudden.

[shortie]

This reply doesn't have anything to do with conversion, it has to do with MCE and what you want to use on your HTPC.

Up until recently I would've suggested you give Meedio a try instead of or as a comparison against MCE.  Nowadays, I'd suggest Beyond Media (http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondmedia/).  I've got a Firefly remote which comes with Beyond Media Basic (or some such name) and the Beyond Media package is really pretty nice.  They've got an evaluation period.

My biggest issue with MCE is that you can't use just any old hardware with it.  Some drivers are different and some cards don't have the right drivers.  Now, at its heart, it's Windows XP so I'm sure with some hacking you could get anything to work but the idea is that MCE drivers support all of the MCE features.

[Mr ChriZ]

I downloaded a codec from somewhere which allows me to play APE
in WMP.  The only funny thing is WMP won't import the files.
I don't know how MCE would take to it?
It was a long time ago I downloaded it, it's still installed
but i've no idea where it came from.

[Doof]

This reply doesn't have anything to do with conversion, it has to do with MCE and what you want to use on your HTPC.

Up until recently I would've suggested you give Meedio a try instead of or as a comparison against MCE.  Nowadays, I'd suggest Beyond Media (http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondmedia/).  I've got a Firefly remote which comes with Beyond Media Basic (or some such name) and the Beyond Media package is really pretty nice.  They've got an evaluation period.

My biggest issue with MCE is that you can't use just any old hardware with it.  Some drivers are different and some cards don't have the right drivers.  Now, at its heart, it's Windows XP so I'm sure with some hacking you could get anything to work but the idea is that MCE drivers support all of the MCE features.

Well, I kind of have a copy of MCE that I got from my TechNet supcription, so I really was only going to give it a try because it's free.
 
And I'm not using it as a PVR. It's strictly going to just play music, videos, and images. As long as it recognizes the TV out on the video card I'm using (which XP currently does), I figure I should be all set. I'm using Girder and IRMan to actually control it. So I'm not sure drivers are a concern in this case. The performance of the machine I'm using definitely might be, though.

I downloaded a codec from somewhere which allows me to play APE
in WMP. The only funny thing is WMP won't import the files.
I don't know how MCE would take to it?
It was a long time ago I downloaded it, it's still installed
but i've no idea where it came from.

I found a DirectShow filter that does it, but ( I believe it's due to its nature as a filter) gapless playback was impossible. Hence my wondering if converting to WMA-L would be a viable option in this case.

[sonicbox]

I downloaded a codec from somewhere which allows me to play APE
in WMP.  The only funny thing is WMP won't import the files.
I don't know how MCE would take to it?

To use other format tags (beyond MP3, WMA, WMAL) with Windows Media Center Edition and Windows Media Player, you'll need to use something like WMPTSE (WMP Tag Support Extender): http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/index.html

[Alex B]

Back to the topic...

Anybody done and comparison tests converting APE to WMA Lossless?

WMA lossless compresses about the same amount as Monkey's Audio Fast, but MA Fast is over 2x faster (compression and decompression). MA High and Normal compresses clearly more than WMA Lossless and are still faster than WMA lossless (about 1.3-1.7 faster). This is based on my own experience and some tests that are published at Hydrogen Audio.

And how does WMP handle gapless playback of WMA? Good or bad?

WMP 10 cannot play any audio file format gaplessly, not even uncompressed wave. The WMA Lossless format itself is naturally gapless since the decoded output is bit perfect. MC can play WMA Lossless gaplessly. I have not tested WMP11 beta.

My entire CD collection is in APE + CUE format. I'm using MC's Theater View on my HTPC and it works great.

I'd kind of like to give Windows MCE a whirl, though. I have no desire to use WMP as my day to day media player, but for the HTPC end of things, MCE's interface looks really nice.

So, I'm wondering about converting all of my APE files to WMA-L. Theoretically there shouldn't be any problem or loss of quality doing this, but what if I want to go back? I really don't want a bunch of seperate APE files. I really can't say why, but I don't. Can I take a bunch of WMA-L files, stick them all back together into one big WAV file and compress it back with APE? Will that resulting APE still work with the original CUE? Maybe I'll give this a try tonight and see what happens.

It depends on how your APE & CUE files are made. If they include possible pregaps before the track #1 (EAC made files only) then the disc image files that are converted to separate track files and then combined back would be different and the CUE files would not be correct anymore.

In any case, why the hassle? Just keep your fine APE & CUE files in your offline backup archive and convert track files for day-to-day use. A good format would actually be high bitrate MP3 because it is universally supported and with correct settings practically transparent for listening purposes. *

I'm guessing WMP doesn't support WMA + CUE.

You are right, WMP10 doesn't support CUE.


* EDIT: I have explained my "lossless disc images" vs "lossy track files" strategy here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=31438.msg216174#msg216174

[sonicbox]

WMP 10 cannot play any audio file format gaplessly, not even uncompressed wave. The WMA Lossless format itself is naturally gapless since the decoded output is bit perfect. MC can play WMA Lossless gaplessly. I have not tested WMP11 beta.

WMP 10 and WMP 11 is gapless for me with WMA Lossless.  And I stream it to Roku SoundBridge, too.  But, I have heard of some people not experiencing perfect gapless playback (at least with 10)... driver differences?  Who knows...

[Alex B]

WMP 10 and WMP 11 is gapless for me with WMA Lossless. And I stream it to Roku SoundBridge, too. But, I have heard of some people not experiencing perfect gapless playback (at least with 10)... driver differences? Who knows...

I actually retested it just before posting (with some gapless WMA Lossless and wave files).

Here is a package that contains a few small test clips in WMA Lossless format. My WMP10 cannot play them gaplessly, MC can. Remember to disable crossfading if you try these clips.

wmall.zip (1.71 MB)