No more HDCD with iTunes

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I wasn't aware that Apple lossless was compatible with HDCD, but I do encode hdcd material to flac and play it back in JRiver media center and my dac recognizes that it is hdcd encoded. (Asio only)

JRiver Media Center plays Apple DRM (m4p) and I believe Apple Lossless as well. Media Center is currently free to try for 30 days - I'd try it and see whether or not you can play hdcd encoded material this way provided you have a PC. (You didn't specify, but I suspect you might be using a mac, hence Apple Lossless?)

Current versions of winamp also seem to have this problem incidentally. One of the reasons why I now have media center.

I'd email Apple tech support about this, perhaps they can help, if they are anything like M Audio though you may be sol...

Hope any of this helps..:D
 
Hi and thanks for your help.

Yes, until now, I had no problem with Apple lossless files encoded from HDCD CD's. They played very well with iTunes and the HDCD light was on on the DAC when playing those files. Something's wrong now and I believe it's iTunes as it still works perfectly under Linux (yes I'm using a PC) with another player. I'd like to stay with iTunes under Windows for now. Seems like another bug in iTunes 7.0.

My brother just told me he has the same problem and that it works again when he goes back to using iTunes 6.0.5.20. In short, Apple screwed up iTunes !
 
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That's an interesting revelation, it probably means that iTunes now uses only direct sound or the native windoz dll by default - neither of which seem to be compatible with dts or hdcd. The implication is that some resampling is taking place somewhere in the processing chain. (Volume control active in iTunes??)

Have you checked to see what resources iTunes configured when it installed - it might be as simple as selecting another audio driver.

It's a common problem with asio as most apps will install and configure for native windoz sound, and need to be reconfigured after installation. Application restart or even sometimes a reboot are required to make the change.
 
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Do you have an HDCD capable dac connected at the other end of your usb to spdif adaptor? The direct sound driver does not seem compatible with HDCD subcoding in 20 bit format in my system, but the disk obviously plays fine as regular non HDCD pcm - if you don't have an HDCD dac you'd never know.

I use an HDCD dac in my system and the only way I have found to get actual 20 bit HDCD playback (not standard redbook 16 bit pcm) with WinAmp, QCD or J RIver Media Center is using ASIO..
 
kevinkr said:
Do you have an HDCD capable dac connected at the other end of your usb to spdif adaptor?

Yup. Cary 303/200. On HD tracks, the HDCD LED turns on. The DAC will also show the sampling rate, etc, and when the card is first plugged in, it says 48:48, but as soon as winamp starts playing, it switches to 44:44. So, without trying, I have gotten something right :)
 
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