Hi Johan,


Compared to which version ?


Sorry, I don't understand ...

Hey Russ, spoiling coffee is always better than a brandy (though more hot I guess), but I am still sorry it happened.

Both issues are solved in 0.9x-6a (up now).
Peter

Ok, solved in 0.9x-6a which is up now.

But, please be careful at testing "combinations", and please do so as long as you are not sure the combination has been tested before. Better keep the Checkbox "Allow Format Change" ticked so you are warned, and then can carefully try.
There are many more combinations than you might expect, and by now it may take days to test them all (this is near really true ).

Peter

PS: The Crack Detect should have fired, but because of the same bug it did not. When combinations don't work, that will probably be the same then ... 

Download is at the bottom !


The below is a copy of the release notes from 0.9x-6 which has been up for a short while, but which contained debug code which made it flaw completely for sound quality. The download of it was removed once this was known.
So keep in mind : below release notes are relative to 0.9x-5b.

• Much attention has been paid to the startup process and things which can go wrong there for the (new) user.
  Besides, a very annoying phenomenon of the screen staying away after certain (error) messages has been solved. Note though that this can go along with a message implying that the initialization failed and other things will go wrong, but at least now the possibility is there to change settings for the better.
  
  
• If all is right situations have been covered for where, say, corrupted files, incurred for not being able to startup anymore.
  Please report if such a thing still happens, with the only solution of deleting files yourself (don't mind the latter, it just shouldn't be the solution). Thanks.
  
  
• Finally the situation that the last track could play twice has been solved.
  
  
• As it now appeared, the switching of format changes (Engine#3) did not work anymore. Solved.
  
  
• The two services currently being stopped at the start of playback (and when such is denoted by the settings parameters concerned) now are started unconditionally. It is the idea that nobody wants his screen misformed during normal working, and the determination of you already had stopped them for other reasons was flakey.
  
  
• When the On Screen Display Running Time is set to show (Settings Area), it now will always disappear when the services are running (but, as controlled by XXHighEnd, and not by other means !).
  
  
• Checks have been built in to be unable to show the Running Time OSD when the services are not stopped.
  Similarly the OSD time is not allowed anymore at Attended Playback.
  
  
• The disappearance and reappearance of the Start Button is now OK if all is right (possibly this was contained already in the previous version).
  
  
• It was found that at using Alt-E  and Alt-P not exactly happend what is intended (Pause + continue Playback at Unattended). This is solved now.
  
  
• The OSD Running Time can now be stopped and restarted (by means of Alt-G (as with Remote Control of course). Note though, that the time just stops actualizing, and that the last actual time shown, freezes.
  Important : Withgoing XX.ahk file has been changed in order to support this for Unattended Playback ! Also, for WiFi commands the withgoing XXTCPSrv program must stopped (rightlick at the Taskbar Tray icon - Exit), be initialized (double click the program from explorer in the 0.9x-6 XX folder) and started (rightlick at the Taskbar Tray icon - Start).
  A new XXWifiRemote.cfg example file is obtained in the download.
  
  
• The selection of the Sound Device still did not work flawless for Engine#3 and some setups. If all is right it now works as intended.
  But if not, please report !
  
  
• A ToolTip text for Inverted appeared to never have been there. It is there now.
  
  
• It turned out that the slider for the Coverart picture size (for the rightmost pane) could turn to zero or 1 randomly. This has been solved.
  
  
• It appeared that Dos 8.3 Shor Names can be shutoff by means of a registry tweak. This, while XXHighEnd uses it for Unicode problems and the solutions to them. When shut off, errors could occur from the ChangeWP program (showing the Coverart Wallpaper), and this can also cause tracks not to play;
  A check has been built in at startup, telling Dos 8.3 Short Name support has been shut off when so indeed. It is just necessary ...
  Note that it can not harm at all to have it on, and perceived performance degradation really is a non issue.
  
  
• A situation has been found that answering "Yes" to the question "Do you want to restore your settings" occurring after a new install, would keep on coming up until it is answered with No. If all is right this is solved now.
  
  
• Quite some "error" messages could appear, for example about a thread being aborted. Most of these more technical messages have been eliminated now.
  
  
• The Favorites.txt file, containing the Favorites from chosen Galleries and normal folders, could easily loose its data at switching versions. It still can by appointing the wrong Data folder (or forget about that at all), but before it just happened too easily. So, this has been improved.
  
  
• It was found that when the volume changed from -0dB to any other value, or from another value to -0dB, XXEngine3 "stopped working" or could produce static. This has been solved now. However, this has been solved temporarily by means of just not allowing it, which a message at the attempt of it will show. If the volume needs to be changed from or to -0dB, Engine#3 is not allowed to run at that moment (hence, Stop - Change Volume - Play is allright).
  
  

Edit : Issue for people not using digital attennuation (hence volume is -0dB) and wanting to use the Next button during Playback (or Alt-N or Next via Remote Control) : Sound will stop, and after that (at Unattended Playback at least) the volume will be at -120dB. Those people can download a 0.9x-6b version of XXHighEnd.exe here. This is allowed to be installed over 0.9x-6a only. So, unzip 0.9x-6a to the folder of your choice, and unzip the 0.9x-6b over it.

Edit2 : In rare occasions it can happen that no sound comes from Engine#3. Those who experience this (and did not forget to slide up the volume slider which is at -120dB by default) can go here to obtain a version of XXEngine3.exe that works on this matter. It can be unzipped over above mentioned -6a and -6b versions.


A repeat of some importance from earlier release notes :

---

Very important : Only when AutoHotkey has been installed, and is at least working to the extend XXHighEnd can be startup with a hotkey (default is Alt-X), it is allowed to tick this checkbox. See AutoHotkey Install. When this is not done, hence XXHighEnd can not be brought up with a hotkey, at Unattended Payback - no desktop icons will be visible, no Taskbar will be there, no Startbutton will be around ... nothing. So, you will not be able to do anything, except for listening out the playlist concerned, and wait until that finishes and XXHighEnd will popup automatically, which by itself will bring back everything.
A reboot is a solution as well.

This all sounds more dangerously than it really is, and with the hotkeys available there is really nothing to fear.
And remember the objective : better Sound Quality.

---

Haha, but I don't know anything about iris scans. I do know that at 30 meters a person would just fit on the photo, and the eye is then a small part of that. I guess that that can't work ... I just tried ... such a lens will focus in normal mode at 6 meters, and then an eye will take approx. 20% of the width of the photo. This is 5 x 4 = 20 less then what I did with the CD. But then the resolution needed for an iris scan maybe is not so high ? I don't know.
Btw, in macro mode the lens will focus within a few cm only.

Unfortunately each lens suffers from CA, but what possibly few know is that this is so much emphasized by a. the anti aliasing and b. the means to find *that* which is sharpening again. You can just try it : oversharpen a random digital photo, and CA shows up everywhere.
So the importance is the combination of no AA filter and no *need* to sharpen and a most sharp picture is the result (with a good lens of course).

Before this wasn't really possible (I think) because it needs a full frame camera. Why ? because otherwise you'd suffer from defraction, which by itself is incurred by a smaller diaphragm opening needed, and *that* is needed because otherwise the sides of the picture blurr opposed to the middle (depth of field) ... which is incurred for by the close macro photography.

In raw format (this is not JPEG) 204MB times 4. So 816MB. This is times 4 because it can't be done with one photo becasuse the resolution is too low. Or better explained : the lens has to be too far away, and *then* the resolution is too low.
The alignment of the photos is super simple, but taking the photos is not at all (that is related to the alignment of course).

But this is not the literal file to examine (ok, maybe I just don't know how yet). What I do is what eyes also would do : put the picture on the screen, and blow it up until you can see with your eyes the squares of the pixels (if you keep on blowing it up one pixel shows as 2x2cm if you like). So, with this "remapping" to how my brain can deal with it, it is just a matter of reading the screen. This goes internally though, and the picture doesn't need to be on the screen.

If you'd look at the back of the coverart Wallpaper (when no back.jpg is there) you see the picture inverted. In order to do that just each of the pixels of the original picture have to be read and put on the other side.

To be even more close to how my brain (assuming I have any) wants to work (and to those who understand computer programming a little bit), on a 16 bit color scheme for a computer monitor, it is said that 16 even colors exist ("even" : all pixels are the exact same, opposed to colors which comprise of several colors). I wanted more, and what I did was putting a square of 1x1cm of each of the 16M colors on the screen, and read it back from the monitor's memory itself. When the whole square read the same values, it was an "even" color. And so I found 2 more. Hahaha. It's even a secret to Bill Gates. 18 even colors exist (in general color pickers only those 16 "known" are available).
Just be creative ...

Oh my ... and I have been thinking for 10 times at least to check the other way around as well, which I never did in the end ...


In that case, this must obviously be solved first. I mean, before putting up a new version. And I have the hunch it won't be easy (I *really* expected it to work the other way around just as well).

Hi all,

I have been wanting to shout about this for a week or so by now, but got stalled because of my nicely own created bugs in XXHighEnd from the latest version(s) (and yep, it happened right again, but now I want to say what I have to say first). Here goes :



What you probably don't know, is that I started this whole, well, career, merely because of video/pictures than with a root of sound. But, both are very very similar, and what you can see from video can be perceived from sound IMO. For example :

When digital SLR cameras were born (I don't know anymore, maybe 10 years back), one of the first there was Kodak with their Pro SLR/n (Nikon mount) and later SLR/c (Canon mount). The Kodac was recieved by most as completely flawed because ... well ... it did not have an Anti Alias filter.
Hehe, this is the very same as with NOS/Filterless DACs, and you know how I think about that ...

I was a "photo critiquer" for a year or so, and just from doing that I learned how to make digital photos, which is very much uncommon to analogue, but a breeze once you know what to NOT do.
And so I learned, by just looking at pictures from others who owned a Kodak, in what cases it just made the most outstanding pictures, and in what cases it would flaw because the aliasing was all over (think of this suit with squares (aha) on them, and the shivering colors all over when looking to it on an analogue TV). Photos of trees could flaw, and most certainly roofs with tiles would get into a mess when one is not careful about it (this is angle related). BUT, the Kodak camera would allow a kind of infinit digital zoom-in on pictures taken up to the 1:1 level (a monitor of a few meters wide would be able to show the picture in full and as sharp as can be), where any other respectable DSLR would get fuzzy on half of that zooming already. Actually DSLR cameras with AA filter are fuzzy out of the box, and photos need to be sharpened (which is a destroying process).

Now ...

It has been a while back people aksed whether XXHighEnd would contain a ripping feauture. And I said "well, I guess yes, because I think it can be better and faster". Can you guess already what I am heading for ?
Here it is :

I got myself one of the highest resolution photo cameras money can buy today, and asked an engineer to remove the Anti Alias filter. This is just software ...
With one of the finest long (400mm) lenses I own, I can make macro photos, and imagine it can photograph a fly and it will show up at the full size of your rather large monitor. However, the real merits of such a photo, when shown 1:1, is near 5 meters (15') wide at the resolution which can be used.
And now I started making such photos of a CD ...



And here is my good old NOS/Filterless principle : all remains as sharp as can be (when the photo is at the right angle), and as you may know, beyond the 1:1 is a nother infinit digital zooming of the individual pixels, and this just enables a photograph of the burned holes of the CD !!!
(not that you can see the holes, put the pixels show in a different color).

Tadaaaaaa

The first thing which occurs to me, and a microscope may show the same, is that not all burned holes look even. Ha !, that's what we thought, right ? But for dead sure I see the difference between a 1 and a 0. Btw, the not-holes *also* don't look even, and that could be a matter of the burning laser "after glowing" or so ?

Ok, it is not done and over with yet, because the interpretation of all is a kind of hustle, but I am 100% sure it can be done. Think of the circles all is in (it's just like an LP, but from the inside to the outsise and all is even-spaced), and it just needs the  following of those tracks by means of a program that examines that huge file. Trrrrrrrt ... Done !

Elsewhere I said I didn't like patents, but if one is prone to it ...


Peter

Wow Russ ... Thanks that you found this by harmless means ... Indeed I can tell right away that a change from -0 to any attenuation is not allowed, because the data is treated differently in both case (no attenuation vs attenuation). Never thought of that ...
Btw, I think that the solution has to be : going from 0 to lower is not allowed, and going to 0 is not allowed either. Will see.

I tried the Alt-G this morning, and with me it does't work either. Not anymore. It was probably killed in the process of getting those services thing right.

Thanks.
Peter

To people who already downloaded 0.9x-6 : please throw away that version and don't use it for anything.

After waking up this morning and cruising my car to the other job, I suddenly knew why for a first time I had the stalling of sound; From the release notes of 0.9x-6 :


... there is all kinds of debug code in there, working right in the middle of the playback engine, and I forgot to remove it. So the sound will be baaaad, and it's my guess some systems won't even be able to produce sound without glitches.

Right now I can't get to the system, but I will solve it as soon as I am back.
Sorry for the inconvenience and apologies to those who might have been looking and looking why their system behaved so badly.

Peter

Hehe ...

Glynn,

The main thing about the keyboard shortcuts is about controlling some things while playing Unattendedly. And, this gives the best sound quality, for sure when those services are stopped. So, nothing to do with the mouse then (the Taskbar isn't even there then ... nothing). So ...

So a most convenient thing to my own experience, with - or without Taskbar, is being able to start the GUI (XXHighEnd) by means of Alt-X. That alone at least may save me 30 minutes per day (just because it is more quick than shivering the mouse to the right place ).
But without Taskbar it is the (near) only thing to do (as others pointed out, you can always use the "Windows" key to bring up the Start Menu, but it's tedious).

Anyway ... when you do *not* tick "Stop Services" in the Settings Area, nothing changes, and you can still use the mouse as much as you want. But before not ticking that, I just would and have a beer or something. Because it really matters. Unattended of course, otherwise it doesn't work. Not anymore (0.9x-6).

Edit : With huge apologies ... there is a problem in this version, and the download has been removed ! A new one will be created later today.

• Much attention has been paid to the startup process and things which can go wrong there for the (new) user.
  Besides, a very annoying phenomenon of the screen staying away after certain (error) messages has been solved. Note though that this can go along with a message implying that the initialization failed and other things will go wrong, but at least now the possibility is there to change settings for the better.
  
  
• If all is right situations have been covered for where, say, corrupted files, incurred for not being able to startup anymore.
  Please report if such a thing still happens, with the only solution of deleting files yourself (don't mind the latter, it just shouldn't be the solution). Thanks.
  
  
• Finally the situation that the last track could play twice has been solved.
  
  
• As it now appeared, the switching of format changes (Engine#3) did not work anymore. Solved.
  
  
• The two services currently being stopped at the start of playback (and when such is denoted by the settings parameters concerned) now are started unconditionally. It is the idea that nobody wants his screen misformed during normal working, and the determination of you already had stopped them for other reasons was flakey.
  
  
• When the On Screen Display Running Time is set to show (Settings Area), it now will always disappear when the services are running (but, as controlled by XXHighEnd, and not by other means !).
  
  
• Checks have been built in to be unable to show the Running Time OSD when the services are not stopped.
  Similarly the OSD time is not allowed anymore at Attended Playback.
  
  
• The disappearance and reappearance of the Start Button is now OK if all is right (possibly this was contained already in the previous version).
  
  
• It was found that at using Alt-E  and Alt-P not exactly happend what is intended (Pause + continue Playback at Unattended). This is solved now.
  
  
• The OSD Running Time can now be stopped and restarted (by means of Alt-G (as with Remote Control of course). Note though, that the time just stops actualizing, and that the last actual time shown, freezes.
  Important : Withgoing XX.ahk file has been changed in order to support this for Unattended Playback ! Also, for WiFi commands the withgoing XXTCPSrv program must stopped (rightlick at the Taskbar Tray icon - Exit), be initialized (double click the program from explorer in the 0.9x-6 XX folder) and started (rightlick at the Taskbar Tray icon - Start).
  A new XXWifiRemote.cfg example file is obtained in the download.
  
  
• The selection of the Sound Device still did not work flawless for Engine#3 and some setups. If all is right it now works as intended.
  But if not, please report !
  
  
• A ToolTip text for Inverted appeared to never have been there. It is there now.
  
  
• It turned out that the slider for the Coverart picture size (for the rightmost pane) could turn to zero or 1 randomly. This has been solved.
  
  
• It appeared that Dos 8.3 Shor Names can be shutoff by means of a registry tweak. This, while XXHighEnd uses it for Unicode problems and the solutions to them. When shut off, errors could occur from the ChangeWP program (showing the Coverart Wallpaper), and this can also cause tracks not to play;
  A check has been built in at startup, telling Dos 8.3 Short Name support has been shut off when so indeed. It is just necessary ...
  Note that it can not harm at all to have it on, and perceived performance degradation really is a non issue.
  
  
• A situation has been found that answering "Yes" to the question "Do you want to restore your settings" occurring after a new install, would keep on coming up until it is answered with No. If all is right this is solved now.
  
  
• Quite some "error" messages could appear, for example about a thread being aborted. Most of these more technical messages have been eliminated now.
  
  
• The Favorites.txt file, containing the Favorites from chosen Galleries and normal folders, could easily loose its data at switching versions. It still can by appointing the wrong Data folder (or forget about that at all), but before it just happened too easily. So, this has been improved.
  
  

Issue left : When the services are told to stop, and at starting an album which has to be e.g. FLAC converted, sound may stall briefly a few times during that period. This is to be solved of course.
Note : this has been reported, and was a perceived cause due to the early OSD starting, but it just happened here once while the OSD now really starts only after such a conversion. YMMV ?


A repeat of some importance from earlier release notes :

---

Very important : Only when AutoHotkey has been installed, and is at least working to the extend XXHighEnd can be startup with a hotkey (default is Alt-X), it is allowed to tick this checkbox. See AutoHotkey Install. When this is not done, hence XXHighEnd can not be brought up with a hotkey, at Unattended Payback - no desktop icons will be visible, no Taskbar will be there, no Startbutton will be around ... nothing. So, you will not be able to do anything, except for listening out the playlist concerned, and wait until that finishes and XXHighEnd will popup automatically, which by itself will bring back everything.
A reboot is a solution as well.

This all sounds more dangerously than it really is, and with the hotkeys available there is really nothing to fear.
And remember the objective : better Sound Quality.

---

(there is NO download of this version; a new one will be created later today)

Well, as long as Kenny stays ali... err ... 

Andrew, Good !
The early night really did well, right ?