Ah ... an older version of the SCRIPT is running ! ... but that just indicates you already ran the AutoHotkey once (for XX) ... I assume.

Answering that with Yes should be allright, as would be No. That is, if the script running, is the script for XX. But Yes would be more safe.

When it does not work (the Alt-X) this should indicate that your XX version is not in the location which is denoted after the script starts running.

Ok, let's try to keep it simple ... Just do this :

1. Doubleclick the desktop Icon (green H). Answer Yes to the question. It can never harm.
2. There must be a screen "H" icon in the taskbar tray now. Rightclick that. See first picture below.
3. Click Reload the Script.

After #1 and/or after #3 the second picture below should pop up. In this case this tells me that my current XX version (the one I want to control with hotkeys) resides in c:\psplayer4\
In my case this is correct, so no problem. If it would be wrong though, it (if all is right) is solved by starting that XX version I want to control, and then again double click the desktop icon (green H). Again the second picture below should pop up, and now the inidicated folder should be the correct one.

If one of these steps do not workout as intended, and assumed the green icon sits in the taskbar tray indeed, rightclick it, click Edit, and check whether the first part of the contents looks like the third picture below. If not, another application will use AutoHotkey on your PC. From there we can proceed, in a next round ...

Expectations on changed SQ : High.

(the download is at the very bottom)

The following has been changed :

• In the Settings Area a parameter "Stop Services" has been added.
  When ticked, when playback starts (Engine#3), the services creating the screen looks of Windows Vista will be stopped.
  These services consume a bunch of CPU, and it will influence sound. Notice that without these services being stopped, the display of the Running Time (see below) actually would not be allowed.
  
  To finish all off, the Windows Taskbar will disappear with it.
  
  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.
  
  Edit : As it turns out, not for everybody the Start Button disappears. This is unintentional though.
  
  
• Next to beforementioned checkbox is a new button "Services". This is an emergency button for when - for whatever reason - the services did not start and the Taskbar stays away. Clicking this button and all will come back.
  
  Note : We are talking about the exact same services Vista shuts down automatically as we often experience. This, due to the lack of resources because audio playback (via XX) tries to take it all. This means : when you just don't want to shut down those services via the "Stop Services" checkbox, this still might or will happen as usual. However, now there is this button, and all will be restored in a whimp, and without the necessary reboot from before.
  
  This and before topic concluded : All 'n all you now can just use your Aero and everything, because at playback all is dynamically shut down, and when needed all will be running again and you won't even visually notice things changed. One thing : it works for Unattended Playback only.
  
  Kind of important : When all is restored, it may appear that the Taskbar Tray shows empty (this is the rightmost part of the Taskbar). Now, when you click aroujnd a bit in that area, it will restore ...
  
  Last thing, though rather important : The real merits for SQ can only be obtained when the Q2/Q3/Q4/Q5 sliders are all set to 0 ! (Q1 is unrelated)
  
  
• Above the "Stop Services" checkbox, there's a new checkbox "Running Time OSD". When ticked, the running time will be "OSD" (On Screen Display) shown (Engine#3 only).
  
  As many of you early adopters will know, a running time was never allowed because it influences sound. Now, much, much effort was put into letting this not be so. And, jusified, as was found out. That is :
  Assuming that all activities in the PC influence sound (and I think by now we all know that is true), is was found that if the running time was showed "as such", it takes 30-60 times more CPU as how it has been applied now. And, this is even avoiding all "Windows" activities (hence the "OSD" principle) ! This is the exact reason why the services as mentioned above just *has* to be shut down. If not, you're stuck with that 30-60 times more resources used, and SQ will just degrade. Besides, the time it takes to show a next second of the Running Time takes place in complete idle time (and occupies 1/10000 of a cpu second on a 2.4GHz cpu).
  Note that for convenience reasons it *is* allowed to tick the Running Time checkbox without ticking the Stop Services checkbox, but for SQ it realy is no good.
  And on a side note : that SQ just improves by stopping those services, just comes handy. Never mind it is a necessity for the Running Time.
  
  Note : The running time should display in the area just above the Taskbar, might that be there. However, currently the hight of the Taskbar is a kind of "hard programmed". Might you encounter anomalies to this respect, or might you see a running time which is not on a transparent background (hence a background which is the same as the remainder of the screen), please report ! See below for how it should look like.
  
  
• Changeing the digital volume or Absolute Phase could result in playback continueing at another track. Especially when the last track of the Playlist was playing, this happened. This is solved now.
  
  
• Generally, applying Remote Control Commands - or keyboard shortcuts for that matter - which result in continues playback, could error when just at track (part) boundaries. A protection has been build in for that now.
  When this protection is active, the Running Time, normally showing in red figures, will turn green. This can last for 21 seconds maximum, but is very coincidental anyway.
  Note these green figures will relate to the green bar at the left top of XXHighEnd when playback is Attended; both go along.
  
  
• When a Playlist has finished playing, the selected track shown (when XXHighEnd came up after Unattended Playback) was the one before last (since 0.9x-4). Now it will be the first which started playing from the Playlist. BUT :
  At whichever track a change of volume was applied or other command that allows for continues playback, the last track subject to that will show selected. Nothing can be done about that.
  
  
• It appeared that the small buttons for notch-up and -down the volume, as well as the Q2/Q3/Q4/Q5 sliders were enabled when Engine#3 was not in order. They are disabled now in that case.
  
  
• Watch out : From now on, the selected sound device as shown (and selectable) in the Settings Area - is respected for Engine#3.
  This means that you may have selected a device there (from efore) that does not play sound via Engine#3, but which before was not important because the Primary Device was used. Not so anymore !
  Of course this means that now the Sound Device just can be selected for Engine#3 (not for Engine#2 ... it never will).
  
  Edit : Well, as it appears this is not working for everybody, and something is wrong. Please keep on using the Primary Sound Device BUT select that as the sound device as well (this is the first entry in the list of devices in the Settings Area). -> Not even sure whether that helps.
  
  
• It appeared that at maximum and minimum digital volume, and a 16 bit DAC or 24 bit material, the left notch volume buttons showed red. This is wrong, and they just should show black in that case. This is solved now, with excuses for the confusement !
  
  
• It was found that the checkbox "Copy to XX-drive by standard" did not perform its intended job (play from the OS disk only by means of copying the tracks to play in advance to it) in quite some occasions. If all is right this is all solved.
  
  
• The Album Compare functionality (rightclick on a selection of items in the Library Area - Compare Albums) has been enhanced with the choice of finding Present Albums (before only the not-present could be found).
  Although it goes beyond the context of these release notes, and is therefore too longish to explain in here, in effect this is about having a pile of MP3's, and comparing them to all the other albums you have, and preserve those MP3 albums you don't have in WAV, FLAC or AIF(F) version. Please ask via the forum when you want to know !
  
  

But did you / do you see such a green icon in the taskbar tray ?

Anyway, this is a kind of unexpected for me. Now I don't know, that is, assuming that you may not know just everything about PC's.
Do you have a backup of the OS (disk) ? if so, go for it. If not ...

Do you recognize that you use something like hotkeys on the PC ? If not, go for it. It probably came with some other software you installed sometime.

Don't blame me ...

No, not necesssary I think. But you can do this :

Create another "music root" somewhere, and copy one or to almums in there. NOT those you are dealing with now.
Set the Music Root to that, and try. I am kind of confident that works.
Now copy in the albums you *are* dealing with at this moment. I don't say it will stop working, but it may, and this way you can find out which album is causing this.

And oh, please look in your current Music Root itself, because there too might be some "illegal" picture, causing it.
This is not a general error, and I didn't even have it a one single time.

Peter

Make that tomorrow ...

Eric, this happens for 09.x-4, right ?

I don't understand ...

Hi Eric,

Can you please determine which picture this is about ? And when you did, can you see when something is the matter with it ? For example, it could be a non-.jpg (or .jpeg). But if you don't see something strange, can you post it as an attachment here ? then I can look at it ...

Thanks,
Peter

Hi Leo,

Do you mean that you don't see something like the below ?
(this is XP, the right pane of Explorer)

Those using Vista/Engine#3 : Please prepare some things;

When you did not install AutoHotkey yet, please do so now (AutoHotkey Install).

Note that AutoHotkey allows for shortcuts to XX commands for the most used functions, especially convenient with Unattended Playback.

The today upcoming version, 0.9x-5, contains a feature which requires Unattended Playback to be accessible by hotkeys. So, assuming you like to use that new feature (and it's my guess you sure do !), better take some time in advance to install AutoHotkey, instead of doing it under a kind of stress conditions and even skip it because you want to use that feature, that by itself resulting in misery.

Peter

PS: It is SQ related.

True. The only thing the demo version does not is Core Appointment and it won't output more than 100 items in the Library Area. Further differences are from XP/Vista (or better : not Engine#3 vs. Engine#3).

Day before yesterday  (at testing for you) I found that indeed those Q2,3,4,5 sliders can be moved in XP. Wrong ! They do nothing there. Btw, they may hence can technically, but I didn't create it so.


And thanks Jon !
Peter

Arrrgghh, this is just wrong as I see now ! Happens at -144 as well.
Sorry for the confusement !

Will be solved in the upcoming version.

I have been looking into this somewhat more now, and a few additional other things seem to be going on.

First of all, when Engine#2 has been used, it cannot free its memory other than by itself. I don't know why, but it looks it won't go otherwise. This means that once Engine#2 has been playing, quitting XXHighEnd and restart it would be the best thing to do.
When it's Engine#2 all the time there is no problem, although you'll see the used memory rise until it's at the limit, and then the OS will free it.

Engine#1 can run the 24/192 just the same, but first there has to be enough memory (see above).
Under XP it will be a no-go because of the very limited "bytes" which can be loaded (I think I said 2 minutes or so yesterday already for 24/96).
It does play though ...
Note : When it doesn't play because of that 64MB limit, you will see the used memory rise, and then drop again ... silence ... (the cursor won't move either).

Next what I found, is that for Vista there's a memory limit for Engine#1 just the same. I'm not sure how much it is, but it looks like something of 512MB. A 4 minute or so 24/192 track will run in that. But keep in mind, this is Vista, and no good to you Jon.

Lastly, when having 1GB of memory only, you're about to fail for that reason on Engine#2 as well. Thus, where a 5 minute track will use over 512MB of memory (24/192 that is), you will have consumed about all the memory, because the OS needs as well.
24/96 uses half of that, so a 9 minute track may fit into that 512MB, if only the OS uses less than the left 512 in your case.

Summarized : 24/96 must be able to play around 9 minute tracks in your case, and you'd have to use Engine#2 which is not the most friendly (no Pause, no time dragging). But don't forget to make your sound device the default for the OS, because Engine#2 cannot select the Sound Device ! (Engine#1 can, Engine#3 currently can't either).

So far, HTH a bit,
Peter

Jon, a brief response for now :

I have 2GB of internal memory.
Just tried Engine#1 ... it won't play for either 24/96 or 24/192. At this moment I don't know why, other that that it was never "designed" to do that. Engine#3 (Vista) is (which at this moment won't help you of course).
Also note that Engine#1 has an internal 64MB file limit for XP (which I cannot do anything about). That is 2 minutes or so for 24/96.

Engine#2 plays all, but already runs out of memory on 24/192 at a 5 minute track.

Might you run into Vista one day ... please try it. It is so much better for SQ to begin with ...

Sorry Jon,
Peter

Solved for the next version (0.9x-5).

If all is right this is solved in the next version (0.9x-5).