Hdcd Boot

[Brian Scarano]

Mymusic library (around 1,000 albums - around 90% CD ripped) of AIFF files. My understanding is the dbpoweramp can decode/translate HDCD encoded tracks (whether they are WAV, flac AIFF etc), so I am looking at buying a copy of it.

Does it have the ability to scan a library (music directly, folders of albums and tracks) and generate a list of what it sees as HDCD encoded files? Or I am required batch process and translate/convert the whole library?

My music playback computers are Mac based here, so a PC based music player is not going to be of much help. I do have the ability to connect my music library HD to a Mac that I have boot camp/Win7 Pro running on to use dbpoweramp to analyze and decode the HDCD albums I have. I can then import those encodes discs back into the library DB.

All the DACs I have in house at present (from Rega, iFi Audio, and Wavelength Audio) do not have HDCD capability (only way I can think that someone could do HDCD a decoding in a DAC these days would be via SW as HDCD decoding chips/DACs have not been made for years and they are only 20bit tech. I have not heard of anyone doing this... Current rage is that add DSD capabilities to all current DACs these days . . . which you probably all well know). Thinking that since I probably have several dozen ripped CDs in my music collection/library (which include some favorite albums of mine) that it would be nice to have them decoded for me playback (for myself and for customer demos). I currently use iTunes with Audirvanna (mostly) or Pure Music on Mac mini (last of the ext PS versions...2009 or 210 mini) I have set up as the main music playback machine right now.

To echo what Chris posted, my Wyred 4 Sound Dac2 DSDse supports HDCD and Amarra Symphony with iRC 3.0.3/4599 renders HDCD converted to AIFF, for example, Bill Evans' The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, Discs 1-3 beautifully. Those particular recordings are my go-to when I assess a beta build of Amarra Symphony, and when I just want to appreciate Evans, LaFaro and Motian ;>} which is all the time.

Good to know! I think I have a license for Amarra from a couple years back. Need to see for what version it is and get it updated (have been meaning to give Amarra Symphony a try since it has been a couple years since my last listen to Amarra SW). I'm assume you are using a plug-in (that's what I'm guessing iRC 3.03 is) with it to do HDCD decoding with it, right?

iRC is a integrated program from Dirac SE who licensed the program to Sonic Studio. iRC stands for impulse room correction program that helps one deal with impulse correction for rooms that have various influences on the SQ. iRC is NOT necessary to playback HDCD. That is a function of both the my Dac and Amarra Symphony. As you know Bill Evans' The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, is HDCD 20Bit. Amarra Symphony has come along way but so has many other sw players presently. I am merely mentioning what I prefer to use. Although I enjoy the others; and I own almost all of them. (No sense to go into the reasons for or against).

I've been through this not too long ago, and ended up deciding to install dbpoweramp on an old Windows laptop I had around here. Made a copy of my library and batch converted all my CD rips using dbpoweramp's HDCD option (+6db disabled). Then I filtered the resulting files manually on windows explorer (the HDCD ones had changed to 24bit, while the non-HDCD remained as 16bit), copied the (very few) HDCD-decoded files and added them back to my library with with an "HDCD" tag added to the album names in order to keep the original 16/44 rips where they were.

The funny thing is that, when you compare the dynamic ranges of the decoded and non-decoded versions of the same files (as analysed on JRiver), most are exactly the same, suggesting (to me) that although the HDCD desk was used in the process, none of its features were actually enabled (or at least the peak extension one). So in such cases it's probably worthless keeping the converted files -- the original 16bit ones would probably be just as good...

I think I may wind up doing something similar in getting dbpoweramp running on the Win7 pro partition of my MBP and doing a batch conversion. It will be interesting to see what DNR differences on some of the discs I have... I would think if any, I think Reference Recordings (I have a bunch of their CDs.. many HDCD IIRC)was big into HDCD and used their HW for recordings/mastering and the audihpile type recording house they are would take advantage of the addtional DNR capabilities of the pacific micrconsonics decoder back in that era.

I used the list to try and determine which of my ripped CD's might be a candidate to re-rip using dbpoweramp. Certainly not a fool proof method but got me a good way there without having to re-rip all of my CD's.

Because so little/few software/DACs will decode this dying/dead format on the fly, it is my opinion that converting the files to 20 bit is the best and most future proof solution. It was also my opinion that dbPoweramp is the best/easiest converter and so I've done the process of which asked about.

You can use the dbPoweramp batch converter to automatically go through your entire library looking for HDCD encoded files. It will not take long if you don't make any other file changes because it will only convert the encoded files.

You can also select the location to create the new files, including a folder hierarchy. So, in my case for example, I let it scan for HDCD files, tell it to output to a new folder called HDCD and to create subfolders with folder and filenames matching the original file. When complete you have all the new 20 bit files in your HDCD folder, with subfolders that match the originals so that, if you wish, you can easily locate and delete or replace the originals with the new files.

It looks like this feature (converting HDCD files to 20-bit files) is not available in the Mac version, or am I missing something? HDCD is not listed as one of the DSP functions and it is not listed as a filter.

I am a long term user of Hiren's Boot CD, but the CD does not support booting on UEFI/EFI/SecureBoot hardware, is there some kind of update/patch to apply to the cd image to be able to boot without BIOS? Can I make this myself? (By putting some files in the iso image?)

There are many suggestion to use tools which make an ISO bootable with UEFI on a flash disk, however it's not that easy as you can only do that with UEFI-enabled ISO's. By UEFI enabled ISO's I mean that the ISO files contain a BOOT\EFI directory with a EFI bootloader. Hiren does not have this so the tools will not work. This is why I am asking the question - is there any way to make ourselves / copy another bootloader into HIREN and make it work?

Have you tried via USB with rufus?Try Rufus USB. Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc. Handles UEFI as well as legacy booting

It boots on my new system and works on all the computers I get in for repairs.If you are looking for a read only copy (CD/DVD), there are tools that can make a EUFI bootable CD and then copy the files over... but that probably won't work for you...

because, what I usually find (and why I use the USB) is that many systems come with the boot-to-optical drive disabled. Especially if this is an OEM computer. some Toshiba's dont' even give the option to change that in the bios. The OEM Windows has to be booted, and the drive order enabled and changed from there! That presents a mess of catch-22.

The systems are designed to be reverse compatible with old boot disks, which makes "converting the Cd to EUFI" irrelevant. Its that "legacy optical boot" being automatically disabled is what is probably causing your problems.

One fallback/test option is to remove all the other drives from the system, and see if the bios/boot falls back to a optical drive boot when no other devices are found. That will tell you if its the CD or BIOS.

It's very similar to HBCD - something like HBCD upgrade. I have made bootable HDD with small partition for DLCD and other partition with ghost images and other software tools... I was using 2014 without UEFI but this new 2015 is described to support UEFI.

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