The Smiley Smile Message Board

To my fellow fans, could someone with technical know how please provide some guidance? I'd really like to be able to listen to the BB remasters at HDCD quality straight off the disc. I have read that this can be done through windows media player, if you choose the setting "use 24 bit audio for audio cds". I did that, and my sound card is indeed capable of 24 bit output. However, when I play the first Smile Sessions CD, I'm given no indication that the disc is being recognized as HDCD. I've read other posts on the net that state that an HDCD logo should appear somewhere in WMP when such a disc is played, but there is no logo to be found when I play the disc. Does this mean it is not being recognized as HDCD, and I am doing something wrong? Is there another way I can verify the bitrate output when I play these tracks? Could someone check whether the Smile Sessions 1 disc or any other BB discs produce an HDCD logo for them? Is the HDCD verification logo even included in more recent versions of WMP (my version is 12)? Sorry for all the questions but I'm a little frustrated right now with this format, although my hope is to unlock its potential without having to create high def backup files of all the CDs. Thanks for your help...

MB

HDCD logo appears in bottom left corner of Windows Media Player.

Thanks Bubba. Which screen mode are you in when you see the logo? Are there any other changes I need to make to WMP (codecs, other settings I should check off)?

Otherwise, what could I be doing wrong?

OK, I think I figured it out. This is bizarre.

If you choose the setting "use 24 bit audio for audio cds", as I had earlier, the logo never appears, even when you insert an HDCD compatible disc.

If you disable that option, the logo does appear with HDCD discs!

The question then is, which is the proper way to listen to HDCD? I'm not hooked up to my home theater system at the moment so it's hard to differentiate. Is anyone able to investigate this, or A/B these two methods?

MB

Just FYI, the 24 bit option is found under tools / options / devices / speakers / properties...

Thanks for the heads up. I know exactly nothing about the HDCD format, nice to know it's simply a matter of opening a default Windows program (which is usually a bit yuck, but I can deal with it for this) if my sound card can do 24 bit (not sure if it can).

So is there a noticeable difference in the sound quality?

I too have wondered about this since I bought both twofer sets, or most of them.  I haven't bothered to experiment with this.  I will try this on my computer and follow the thread for further comments.

I tried it with mine and I did manage to notice an improvement in terms of audio.

Yeah, it's not easy to find, but checking off the 24 bit option in WMP did make a difference for me. The 2001 "Friends" remaster in particular sounded amazing!

Was 50 Big Ones encoded with HDCD?  There isn't any mention of it anywhere on the album.