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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 18 for Windows => Topic started by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 03, 2012, 10:42:10 pm

Title: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options (images fixed)
Post by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 03, 2012, 10:42:10 pm
Okay, here is what happens currently with SACD ISOs (and yes I own the disk as well):
(http://s14.postimage.org/k6vw73mgv/Clipboard01.jpg)

Note that MC will play SACDs twice in most cases.

Here is the same SACD being played by the other program:

(http://s7.postimage.org/hpvrl7a7e/Other_SACD.jpg)

Here is the very simple selection GUI of the other program done by some guy in his spare time (none, stereo, multichannel):

(http://s12.postimage.org/qdlx6lhi3/Selector.jpg)

And this is the On-Screen Menu of the Oppo physical disk player that plays SACDs:

(http://0.tqn.com/d/hometheater/1/0/k/h/1/oppobdp93playbackmenu.jpg)

Thanks for your attention to this matter.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options
Post by: Matt on December 04, 2012, 07:32:33 am
Both tracks are part of the disc, so it's reasonable that Media Center shows both (there's not even a rule that there'll be a 1:1 relationship -- there could be a bonus 5 channel track, etc.).

Regardless, I can think of a few ways to handle this today:

1) Manually change the 'Album' field to split the tracks into two albums

or

2) Use View > Access Control to hide unsupported [Channels]=>2 content

or

3) Remove files from the library you don't want (more permanent)
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options
Post by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 04, 2012, 10:51:55 am
Both tracks are part of the disc, so it's reasonable that Media Center shows both...
Shows both - yes, but not plays both.

Maybe this example will make sense:

When you insert a DVD, it can have an English audio track, a French audio track, and a German audio track.

It can show you that all three are available, but it should not play the movie in English, and then play the entire movie over again in French, and then play the movie over again in German.

Most DVD players have a language preference, just as the Oppo player has an SACD Priority.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options
Post by: eddyshere on December 04, 2012, 06:23:28 pm
I do extract all my sacd.iso to dsf. This allows to organise my library ie. select the artist, and then I choose to listen to the album (where available) in multitrack or stereo. as the iso of a multichannel disk will hold both versions of each song...that was my best workaround. Just an idea...
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options
Post by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 04, 2012, 09:14:37 pm
I do extract all my sacd.iso to dsf. This allows to organise my library ie. select the artist, and then I choose to listen to the album (where available) in multitrack or stereo. as the iso of a multichannel disk will hold both versions of each song...that was my best workaround. Just an idea...
One should not have to set the language preference to English individually for every DVD you own, rather than just setting it once in the player.

And in fact, Options->Video->Default Audio Language allows MC users to set a language preference, rather than sequentially playing the movie several times for each language present.

So, Options->Audio->Default SACD Priority (to borrow Oppo's terminology) would allow MC users to set a format preference, rather than sequentially playing the SACD several times for each format present - which is what it actually does now.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options
Post by: sla on December 05, 2012, 06:31:53 am
For most SACD players one can choose preference for the disk: Stereo or MC.

I agree I would like to see this option in JRiver... right now I am simply removing MC the files from the Library but it is a time consuming operation...
So any automatic operation that would achieve that would be great,

I will try " Use View > Access Control to hide unsupported [Channels]=>2 content" and report on that.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options
Post by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 05, 2012, 11:22:54 am
I found an image hosting site and put the images in-line, since only 10% of readers were clicking on the attachments, and the whole point of the new thread for this one issue, was the images of what is actually happening.

Since SACD is the best sounding audio format in existence, and Media Center is currently the best sounding way to play SACDs, it seems worthwhile to perfect the GUI as well.

Especially since SACD (actually "DSD") is slow getting more buzz as a download format as well.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options (images fixed)
Post by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 19, 2012, 06:34:14 pm
Since the images did not come out correctly, when I first started the thread on SACD ISO format selection, I just wanted to check whether you (the developers) understood the two points. I was trying to communicate about the SACD ISO:

- That " Stereo, Multichannel, Neither " default preference setting is just like default language preference setting for DVD.   The parallel also extends to the current MC18 behavior which is to play the stereo version of all the tracks, and then play the multichannel version of all the same tracks.   This is equivalent to playing a movie with English audio, and then playing the entire movie again with French audio (as opposed to choosing one or the other).

- That hardware SACD players all have this preference setting - some in firmware and OSD, and some as a hardware switch on the front or back.  It may actually be required by the SACD specification.  The other software player plugins for SACD ISO both have the preference setting as well.

I totally understand that you need to set priorities based on all the various components of the software, and it is not that big of a problem to manually use workarounds, but I just wanted to clarify these points.

It's also worth noting that SACD ISO and DSD file playback is one area where JRiver is ahead of all the other players (as far as I know), so from a marketing standpoint,  it would make sense to get it working as well as possible.

Thanks for your time.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options (images fixed)
Post by: Matt on December 20, 2012, 08:38:52 am
Since the images did not come out correctly, when I first started the thread on SACD ISO format selection, I just wanted to check whether you (the developers) understood the two points. I was trying to communicate about the SACD ISO:

I believe I understand.

The Media Center model is to show all playable tracks as library records.

I can see arguments for doing it the way you've described, but I'm not sure it's clearly better than the view-filtering approaches listed above.  You sacrifice the ability to easily get to either copy by making it something buried in settings.

So expect no change for now.  We can revisit this at a later date if you continue to feel strongly about it.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options (images fixed)
Post by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 20, 2012, 11:33:55 am
Aha, I think I see where the difference in viewpoint is coming from.

What you are describing is exactly true for library tracks.

But since this is an ISO, it is a disk image - that is why I am saying it is like playing a DVD (in fact, DVDs can be found as ISO files, of course).   So, since it is a disk, it plays as a disk, with things like language preference, apply to the disk as a whole.

In fact, so far, I have yet to import an SACD ISO.   

So, it is the same as playing a disk that has not been "ripped" into tracks yet.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options (images fixed)
Post by: Matt on December 20, 2012, 11:39:54 am
In fact, so far, I have yet to import an SACD ISO.

I think you're going to have to embrace importing into the library to get the most from Media Center.
Title: Re: SACD ISO needs basic format selection options (images fixed)
Post by: Ancient_Audiophile on December 20, 2012, 11:49:08 am
I think you're going to have to embrace importing into the library to get the most from Media Center.
Definitely understood - and in fact, I have yet to do so - only because I have many albums that I ripped back in the early day, and the tags came out wrong and I have to allocate time to go over them album by album.

I used to be in the record retailing business, so I have a lot of CDs.   ;D

But having said that, even when I have imported everything, I will still play some things outside of the library, in order to audition it before I am sure I want to make it a part of my library.