Gerard, please help me.

Unzip the latest XX to again a new folder, ans start XX. Answer No to "restore settings". Don't touch anything for dragging borders or anything. Don't even move the form. Now :

Is it wrong already with that slider ? please send a screencopy of that.

Is it okay ? please start dragging things, possibly as you did before (if you can remember), write down what you do, and watch closely for the slider getting wrong. When that happens, let me know what you did !
... Chances are high (I hope) that you will not be able to reproduce it.

If all stays right, next try to let the message "Engine 3 did not start ..." appear again. Probably it is unrelated to the slider thing, but maybe it just is related.

I don't get this ... (both things) ...

Hi Gerard,

I don't recall that question, but anyway it can be done allright. It would use the first track of an "album" (the "album" really being a folder) and show all the "albums" found matching the criteria in the Library Area. What you'd want next is physically delete those folders from there (the Library Area) which currently is not possible. But that can be done too.

In this case I would change the "D" going to the Date Search form into an "S", and that form would turn into a general Search form, where also the other things can be put which by now nobody knows about anymore (like searching for tracks shorter or longer than a given running time, search in track names and some more stuff).

Now I know it ...
Peter

If you drag the right side to the LEFT (so, make it smaller) doesn't the slider reset to such a size that it fits again ?

About #1 :

The screen you showed does not have the default size (of the panes) right after the first startup. So, you dragged it to that size, but since you must have dragged the panes wider as well, I just want to now the sequence of your dragging things, and exactly when the slider starts to be outside the boundaries of the form. With me this doesn't happen ... not by itself ...

Wow ...

For now about your #2 ... Can it be that only now you ticked "Copy to XX-Drive by standard" (similar) for the first time ? As you can see this is some rights problem ...

And about #1, can you tell me the sequence of dragging stuff when this starts to happen ?

The other things I should be able to copy myself.

Peter

Ok ... I guess I expected somewhat more responses. Did you all not try ? or didn't you perceive any differences ?
Anyway, this is what happened to me the day I tried it first (4,30,30,0,0) :

My piano, iow the one I was particularly listening to, sounded rather dry. Nothing wrong with it, and like with pulling bass strings harder or less hard, this can be a matter  of the room the piano was played in during recording, the distance of the mike, how many there are, and maybe more things.

In between the lines I must tell about an "experience" I had more often, and which may be a commonly known phenomenon (although I didn't really hear of it) :
At earlier stages of this "PC-player" development (it may have been Foobar times) it may once in a while (sure not often) happen that things sounded very spacious. "Spacious" should better be translated to hall. This by itself is dedicated to micro data that works out, and which very easily does not work out at all.
Once this is happening to you occasionally, it will be very profound, and when it occurs to you ("hey, what happened ?!") you will recall it for a next time at running the same album/track, and then you will be very surely noticing it again, but then because all the hall has gone again.
I myself dedicate this to properties of the mains, or maybe other influencing things (could be air temperature ... think of airspeed and the micro data just working out vs. just not working out).

I just referred to earlier days, because back then SQ was not much consistent, and today these kind of things don't happen to me anymore. It is always including that hall or it is not, I don't know, and satisfied with the SQ I am anyway.

Of course you have recognized that this "micro data" will be influenced by jitter just the same, although it may be jitter occurring in a special band of the audio spectrum. I don't know.

As said in the first post, for me it was no coincidence to move those two sliders to their 30 position. I recall a very important new and fresh definition my friend Carlos put forward about jitter, but which I like to keep a secret for now. It was about jitter treatment, and I suddenly thought that special treatment had never been implemented yet, but those two sliders at their 30 position would just do that.. So I did ...

On a side note I must tell that by now all may be moot because what I perceive is not what the two trying it out with "some result" did (thanks Leif and Dave !). Although you may afterall, reading my perceivements;

Back to the piano, I was shocked what happened to it; Suddenly it was in a way larger room, and suddenly it seemed that it was played with the sustain pedal pressed always. Also keep in mind my remark on how it sounded before, which I called "dry", which would just be about the damping pedal. The difference was so huge that you immediately start to think "can this be right ?".

After this first album I have played many more by now, and everything keeps on sounding the same : an enormous hall around everything.
Btw, while this could be described as "spacious" I think this is a wrong description, because I would dedicate that to "space in between instruments", "with air in between them". And this is exactly not what I mean. Rather the opposite ...

Assuming I am not making this up, and all really is sauced by all this hall, I my wonder whether this can be overdone somehow;
I am not sure, but it may be too much of it. Too much hall means less good separation (!). But then how to create hall which would not be there ?

Thinking about it, this must be about things just being better audible. Similar to : "the better SQ gets, the more you can hear oscillating amplifiers" (this really is true ... somehow). So, what about the one mike meant for the acousic guitar capturing the voice of the singer as well (unintended), and which now has become audible and will express as hall (because of the farther distance and possible reflections which will be profound because of the larger distance).

To make a long story short : this 4,30,30,0,0 setting has an enormous impact on my system. It is just sounds totally different because of it.
Dave, indeed I have the perception that Invert should be on. Tried that on one track yesterday, and the stage became so much more narrow because of it, that I switched it back to normal again. But :
a. Invert seemed to sound better;
b. I never perceived a difference in width because of Invert/Normal. Odd.

I never tried any other setting (like Leif's lower 17,17), but in case we find that 30,30 is the best, note that I can make it easily 100,100. This is not *that* easy, because at that levels it will start to conflict with Q4 and Q5 when used.

Leif, Dave, (anyone), if you can make some additional sense out of this, please spit it out.
And guys, keep in mind, this is not only about learning "what" influences, but also whether it may work out the same on everybody's system (like Q1 tends to do).

Peter


PS:


Hehe Leif ... On this matter, don't forget what I said about your Buffalo ... "never heard so much vinyl from digital in my life".
But may I ask, what re-generator do you use ?

This is not sufficient ! You must run XX "as Asministrator" (see rightclick on your XX icon). This is necessary for more things, including better sound (believe it or not). See Vista Users ... prepare yourselves ... . I have just made this a sticky now.

But as said, I will be working on those switching versions anomalies.

Oh, I am sorry about that dutch. Wanted to translate that before, but I forgot. For its main message it says "Requested registry access not allowed" and it is ablout the Environment Variable.

There is no reason why you would not be able to activate this version. And not to forget : this is a matter of copying your XXHighEnd1xx.dat file from your old folder to the new one ...

Mike, can you give the latter a try, and no matter if it works, tell me about *anything* you appreciate as "hard to start" then ?
I know there is a topic about this somewhere I started myself (about switching versions), and never got around doing something about these things. But I will now.

Peter

I don't think this is related to Alt-x ... You should have that always with 0.9x-1.
But it looks like you're not running XXHighEnd as Administrator ...

?

The 0.9x series are devoted to the usage of XXHighEnd via Hot Keys, and in the end Remote Control.
Note that the download zip is right at the bottom of this page.

The following changes apply to this version :

• The Q1 slider has been moved back to its original position in the main area.
  Reason : Currently Q1 is the only Q slider of which we know what it does and how it influences. About the others we still have to learn.
  Note that the others, Q2, Q3, Q4 and Q5 are under in the QControl Area (QControl tab).
  
  
• When the left pane was dragged really large (width and height) the area at the bottom (with the Unattended checkbox etc.) disappeared under the Coverart picture. This has now been solved.
  
  
• Since 0.9w-9 the time cursor would show the wrong time at bringing up XXHighEnd after Unattended Playback. Restarting from there (e.g. after changing the volume) would not restart at the point you left off. Solved now.
  
  
• A flicker at startup has been eliminated.
  
  
• It was found that writing a Favorites entry with certain Unicode characters would imply a loop and expand the Favorites.txt files enourmously (to several hundres of MB). An Out of memory exception would be the result.
  If all is right, this is solved now.
  
  
• A base has been created for the useage of Hot Keys, for Attended as well as Unattended playback.
  Generally, the available Hot Keys show at pressing the Alt key (when XXHighEnd is on screen), though a few more exist.
  Each Hot Key is the same in Attended as it is in Unattended Playback.
  
  Important : For Attended Playback the Hot Keys just work as they are after you upgraded to the 0.9x-1 version. However, for Unattended Playback more has to be done. The attempt has been made to make it all as "automated" and convenient as possible for the less experienced user, but some install stuff cannot be avoided. Please read here what to do for Hot Keys at Unattended Playback : AutoHotkey Install.
  Note that questions and remarks can be added freely to that topic.
  
  
• The means of WallPaper visualization has been changed;
  
  First thing of importance : The number in the Settings Area before indicating the Height of the WallPaper to maintain, now has been changed to the Width. Internally the same means is used to determine this, implying that when you before used a setting of e.g. 590 for the Height, now the Width will become 590.
  
  As you can see from the picture below from now on the front as well as "the back" of the CD is shown. Along with that, the back shows the tracks on the album. Note that this is not related to the current Playlist ... it is just drawn from the album, no matter only one track of that album has been selected.
  
  The area for the album title at the top as well as the area for the trackname at the bottom, are longer now, hence longer titles and track names can be shown in full. Not though that when longer than the left half, they wil go right through the middle of the "tray".
  The same accounts for the track names shown; when they are too long they will not be cut, but will extend to the right part, hence the coverart.
  
  Note that the currently playing track is underlined (like "Moonglow" in the picture below).
  
  Issue left : Unlike within XXHighEnd itself, lacking track numbers are not shown. This is for later to solve.
  Similarly, the running track times are not shown. Also for later.
  
  

Have fun !

The below is applicable when you

a. Use Unattended Playback and want to use Hot Keys (like Alt-n for next track);
b. Use Unattended Playback and ticked "Stop Services" (Settings Area) -> Alt-x will bring up XXHighEnd and restores everything;
c. Want to get started with Remote Control.

---

WATCH OUT : From of XXHighEnd v0.9z-6 this procedure goes automatically; reading all of the below is therefore not necessary. It may be good to absorb it as background information though.

---

Important : While Alt-x will be your test whether AutoHotkey is properly installed (XXHighEnd should come forward), many of the other shortcuts will not work when Explorer is open. For example Alt-P (Play) will *not* work in that case. Keep this in mind at further testing !


How to install the AutoHotkey software in order to work with XXHighEnd ? (from off version 0.9x-1)

---

Edit August 20, 2010 : I simplified the procedure for first time users; the text has just been changed regarding that without further notice.

---

In the general XXHighEnd.xx.zip 2 related files are contained :

1. AutoHotkey.exe
2. XX.ahk

Steps to follow :

A. Create a folder c:\AutoHK (you may change this later but at this moment name it exactly like this !);
B. Copy the above mentioned files in that folder;
C. Send the AutoHotkey.exe file to the Desktop, so an shortcut icon will be there; This can be done from explorer. For XP this looks like this :


On the Desktop a green icon with an "H" will have appeared; Rightclick that and head for modifying its properties :


Fill the Target line with the location of AutoHotkey.exe (but that should be readily there) but also incorporate the parameter (second part of the line)
c:\AutoHK\XX.ahk :


Remember, this assumes the c:\AutoHK folder to be used; You can use another folder, but changes the name in the shortcut accordingly.

Finish this part with also filling in the "Start in" as shown, click Apply and OK.

(do not start / doubleclick the icon anything of this yet !)

Next, prepare your new XX folder as usual after an upgrade.
(when you're new, just create a folder for XX, and stuff the contents of the zip into it, as you would have done by intuition. But also see Installation guide for Dummies).

Start your new XXHighEnd version as usual (XXHighEnd.exe).

After the latter has been done at least once, now doubleclick the desktop icon from AutoHotkey (the green H).
This shoud show similar to below picture with emphasis on the "c:\PSPlayer5" part, which should show the path to your current XX install.


This tells me that my current XXHighEnd version is contained in the c:\PSPlayer4\XPTest folder.
The message confirms me that AutoHotkey will be using the XXHighEnd.exe (at remote commands) contained in *that* folder. Because remember, you can be having several XXHighEnd versions hanging around, but only one can be controlled by AutoHotkey. So, how do you tell AUtoHotkey to use which XXHighEnd version ?

- Start the version of XXHighEnd you want to be controlled by AutoHotkey;
- Start AutoHotkey by means of the Desktop Icon.
(and check whether the proper XXHighEnd version is shown in the message).

If the correct path is not shown (or nothing to the left of the <<== for that matter) several things can be wrong.
- You did not send the "H" destop icon to the desktop;
- You did not start XXHighEnd first;
- You started an older XXHighEnd version than 0.9x-1.

What if the message doesn't show after starting AutoHotkey ?

Actually one reason applies : You didn't denote the "parameter" right. This is about the c:\AutoHK\XX.ahk part we talked about before. Or, the parameter is correct allright, but the XX.ahk file is not in the denoted folder.

But we can check that ...
In the Taskbar Tray also a green "H" Icon will have appeared after starting AutoHotkey;
If you hoover that with the mouse, it may tell you by means of a ToolTip already which "script file" is in use. The ToolTip should show "XX.ahk".
But you can also rightclick the small Iocn, and choose "Edit this script".


Now. *if* something is wrong with the script used - hence it is the wrong one which will be the default one when XX.ahk could not be found, you will NOT see this after 35 lines or so from the top :


So, there's a clear indication this is about XXHighEnd, which wouldn't be there when the default script is coincidentally run.

Do *not* change anything in there. Or at least not now. You may do that later, when you want to change your HotKeys.

---

For those who understand anyway : This first startup of XXHighEnd sets an Environment Variable (machine wide) and AutoHotkey picks it up.
This Environment Variable is called XXStartUpDir, and it should show with a newly started (Dos) command prompt, which again must be done after XXHighEnd was started a first time, and the SET command shows all the Environment Variables.

---

Assumed that everything runs fine (and notice that AutoHotkey must be started each time again after a reboot), you can now try to start XXHighEnd by means of the Alt-X shortcut command. So, be sure XXHighEnd doesn't run, and next press Alt-X. XXHighEnd should come up now.

The available shorcuts are listed here : AutoHotKeys listing.

Now we are this far, it is good to remember what we are doing this for : Control Playback in Unattended Playback mode. What does this mean ?
It means that XXHighEnd as the controlling user interface won't be there during playback. This way sound quality is better *and* the GUI can't interfere with the sound quality. This latter is important for the development, so the development of the GUI and all can be done without thinking about the SQ influence (which *really* is there !). Notice how to run XXHighEnd in Unattended mode :


It's the button at the mouse pointer which should be active (click it once and it will be active (see red led); click another time and it's inactive);
If you now click Play -which is the button above it- (or use Alt-P), the interface and whole program will disappear before playback starts. Notice though that this can take some time, depending on several factors, the first being the length of the Playlist Area (number of tracks in there, but also how long they are for play time).
Keep in mind : XXHighEnd is a 100% "Memory Player" which means that *all* has to go to memory first, and *all* -whatever it is- conversions need to be done ahead of that.


Important : The means provided by XXHighEnd are *not* able to perform remote control as such, which needs hardware like an infrared (IR) receiver, and software that passes through remote control button presses to the PC as were you just typing on the keyboard. In the end this comes down to the remote control e.g. passing "Play", while the remote control software will allow you to make a "p" of it, which subsequently will be captured by AutoHotkey hence the script.
More ways are possible, and for instance the script may contain a "hot key" named "Play::" which can pass through to the existing !p:: (don't try to understand this right at this moment !!).
This is all for later, or for those who can find their ways in this right now.

What has been provided is only a small subset of AutoHotkey, and for example the help file of 1MB and everything can be downloaded from http://www.autohotkey.com/
But, do NOT do this, unless yo are very confident in what to do with e.g. the install which will be over the "instal" you just performed, and all is lost.
However, you might want to look in the help file, which for your convenience is attached below. But notice : For any normal XXHighEnd operation you don't need it at all.


How to test whether the Hot Keys work as intended ?

- Quit XXHighEnd;
- Use Alt-x.

XXHighEnd should come up now.


Feel free to add remarks or questions to this topic.

Strangely enough it does, and you can just read them back with e.g. Notepad as originally put in. However, indeed it is true that the Favorites.txt file was not indicated as Unicode encoded, because the construction/syntax seemed not to allow for it, *and* it didn't seem necessary, as said.

A little testing showed that things went wrong at reading back. So, you can see it going wrong in that Favorites form already, after stop-start XX. Thus, unlike Notepad, the "something" that reads back from the file doesn't take Unicode for default, or whatever it is.

After finding a way afterall to tell the system to officially make a Unicode file of this, all is right now.
It will be in the next version.

What a stupid thing this is !

If you know about more examples (or just can create them), please let me know. If not, I can check for this sequence to happen based on that name (the sequence itself is not really repetetive as it seems).

"Adding of Nils Petter Molvaer to Favorites is not allowed - press enter to continue"

Computers ...

prrrrt

Hi Johan,

It looks like that this might go wrong as soon as you add a Favorites entry that has a "unicode" charachter in it (and then quit XXHighEnd). Please look below.
That A from Nils Petter etc. (from your file from a while ago) might be really there in your file, or it is not and is something else. Can you please look ?

The rubbish you see beyond it, repeats for 365 MegaByte or so ...

Hi,

I have too few listening hours to try out many things, but yesteray I thought of something which is related to an anti-jitter theory and that it could be applied with the new sliders. So I did, and I perceived an enormous difference.
Now, I don't want to placebo anyone with this, but those interested, could you try as follows :

- Leave Q1 as how you are used to it. Set Q2, 3, 4, 5 to 0.
- Find a piano (wing) recording. Classical is better than Jazz. Jazz is allowed, but it should be late night piano.
- Listen to it and try to concentrate on all the aspects of the piano/wing.
- After listening, set Q2 and Q3 to 30 (maximum). Let Q4 and Q5 be at 0 !!
- Listen again. Apply this A-B only one time !

Please tell what you heard for a difference. Possibly you don't hear a difference, but usually listening to something a second time in a row brings some difference in perceivement anyhow. So if you are not sure, please express it anyway (if anything, then ...).

So, the only thing I suggest is that there is a difference. I don't say what;
The first who comes up with something, may placebo the others, although you guys are bad in letting yourselves placebo. But still.
If the first one expresses the same as what I found, we have an application.
If more people express different things, it's probably nothing.

If you read this for the first time and want to join this experiment open mindedly, don't read the newer posts yet ! IOW, don't let mr. Placebo come in. Do the test, set your mind, and reply. After that you can of course read what others found. I've added some space below this post, helping you at being strong in not reading other's responses yet.

Peter