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[ztatic]

To the developers:

As a JRiver customer, it's surprising to me that I can't find anything definitive as to whether JRiver (v18 or whatever) decodes HDCD at full resolution. Some nice people describe work-arounds on your forum, which are helpful if it turns out that JRiver doesn't do the decoding, but there's no answer as to whether it does or not.

That this is left a mystery implies that you folks don't  read your own forum, but I'm giving this a try, anyway. 

So, does it decode HDCD? Audiophiles want to know, including one of my company's customers and now also me.

Best regards,

David Janszen

[Matt]

Sorry, but we don't do HDCD decoding.

A little more here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=69105.0

[6233638]

If you have ripped to a lossless format though, you can batch-process these files in dBpoweramp which will extract the 20-bit data and encode it to a 24-bit file.
If it does not detect HDCD data, it will not damage the file in any way.

When these files are played back in Media Center, my DAC reports that the audio is 20-bit. (rather than 24-bit)

EDIT: Well that's interesting. I did a test by ripping another HDCD disc, and then processing the files in dBpoweramp.
dBpoweramp has the option of adding 6dB gain during the conversion - I'm assuming that this is part of the HDCD spec, because the disc I tried had peaks of -6.01dB.

Well if you add that 6dB, the file is 24-bit, but my DAC only reports 16-bit during playback.
It only reports 20-bit during playback if you don't add the 6dB during conversion. (the DAC actually analyzes what's being played, rather than simply displaying the format that the computer sends)

[ztatic]

Thank you, Matt! It is good to have that on record somewhere.

Are there plans to do so? Missing this format may seem trivial, but Reference Recordings issues nearly all its discs in HDCD, and in at least  some cases, the 4-bit truncation matters. Of course, discs are on their way out, and anyone producing 20 bit CD's should be selling 24 bit files also or instead, but it seems the format isn't dead just yet.

Sorry, but we don't do HDCD decoding.

A little more here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=69105.0

[ztatic]

That really is interesting. Seems there's an arithmetic problem somewhere. Anyone else notice this?

EDIT: Well that's interesting. I did a test by ripping another HDCD disc, and then processing the files in dBpoweramp.
dBpoweramp has the option of adding 6dB gain during the conversion - I'm assuming that this is part of the HDCD spec, because the disc I tried had peaks of -6.01dB.

Well if you add that 6dB, the file is 24-bit, but my DAC only reports 16-bit during playback.
It only reports 20-bit during playback if you don't add the 6dB during conversion. (the DAC actually analyzes what's being played, rather than simply displaying the format that the computer sends)