Transcoding with Minimserver

[simoncn]

(14-06-2013 12:23)Cebolla Wrote:  Oh that's a shame about the all or nothing approach! I don't understand why there's a lack of choice in selecting which types to transcode to WAV (other than the obvious advantage of a quicker implementaion solution, of course).

The benefit of having transcoding to WAV switched on may be outweighed by not allowing the choice of file types supported by the renderer to be handled by it in their original format, IMHO. This may especially so for LOSSY types, which most (if not all) should be able to be transcoded to WAV (eg at least Ogg Vorbis, WMA, AAC & MP3) and where the renderer is able to be set up to handle them with its own favoured file type specific profiles/sound enhancements.

This problem can possibly be avoided by running two Minimservers on the system, one set to transcode to WAV, the other not. However, the problem will remain in the case of mixed format playlists.

Would you consider adding this choice at a later date, if not to the next update with the enhanced transcoding?

MinimServer doesn't support Ogg Vorbis or WMA, and I don't currently have any plans to add support for these formats.

For AAC and MP3, I would consider providing an option to disable transcoding for these types. This enhancement would need to be considered along with any other issues or requests that may come up when the first release of enhanced transcoding support is available.

[winxi]

(14-06-2013 14:33)simoncn Wrote:  MinimServer doesn't support Ogg Vorbis or WMA, and I don't currently have any plans to add support for these formats.

For AAC and MP3, I would consider providing an option to disable transcoding for these types. This enhancement would need to be considered along with any other issues or requests that may come up when the first release of enhanced transcoding support is available.

Hi Simon,

in my library, I've FLAC files and most of them doubled as MP3. Currently, I'm using MinimServer to transcode FLAC->WAV because my Sony renderer at home is not able to play FLAC files, but WAV files. I also stream from MinimServer over a mobile connection (using BubbleUPnP Server), where I do just stream MP3 files to save bandwidth.
A single global setting for transcoding both FLAC and MP3 to WAV would break either streaming MP3 over a mobile connection (transcoding enabled) or playing FLAC files at my Sony renderer (transcoding disabled).

[simoncn]

(14-06-2013 15:39)winxi Wrote:  Hi Simon,

in my library, I've FLAC files and most of them doubled as MP3. Currently, I'm using MinimServer to transcode FLAC->WAV because my Sony renderer at home is not able to play FLAC files, but WAV files. I also stream from MinimServer over a mobile connection (using BubbleUPnP Server), where I do just stream MP3 files to save bandwidth.
A single global setting for transcoding both FLAC and MP3 to WAV would break either streaming MP3 over a mobile connection (transcoding enabled) or playing FLAC files at my Sony renderer (transcoding disabled).

The code for enhanced transcoding currently doesn't include support for transcoding MP3 files. If and when this support is added, I'll bear in mind this scenario.

[Cebolla]

(14-06-2013 14:33)simoncn Wrote:  For AAC and MP3, I would consider providing an option to disable transcoding for these types. This enhancement would need to be considered along with any other issues or requests that may come up when the first release of enhanced transcoding support is available.

That's fair enough - many thanks for your consideration.

[bbrip]

What sense does it make to transcode mp3 to Wav? I'd say very little.

bbrip

[simoncn]

(14-06-2013 19:27)bbrip Wrote:  What sense does it make to transcode mp3 to Wav? I'd say very little.

bbrip

I haven't tried it yet, and at the moment I'm inclined to agree. However, I would have said the same about AAC until I heard the difference. Listening to the BBC Radio 3 320 kbps AAC stream transcoded to wav24 is a revelation! For a high-quality MP3 file (or internet radio stream), WAV transcoding might provide some benefit in sound quality.

[bbrip]

Thats interesting. Unfortunatly being an "Alien" I am not entitled to enjoy high qual BBC streaming but I'll certainly try this out on Linn radio once the feature is avail.

bbrip

[simoncn]

(15-06-2013 11:19)bbrip Wrote:  Thats interesting. Unfortunatly being an "Alien" I am not entitled to enjoy high qual BBC streaming but I'll certainly try this out on Linn radio once the feature is avail.

bbrip

I've just tried this with Linn radio, and the results are quite disappointing. The sound quality of the Linn Classical 320k MP3 stream is inferior to the BBC Radio 3 320k AAC stream, and transcoding the Linn 320k MP3 stream to WAV24 doesn't make any significant difference to sound quality.

Given this, I'm not convinced that supporting MP3 to WAV transcoding in MinimServer would be useful. With Linn radio, the transcoded WAV stream doesn't contain the "now playing" metadata, so the overall listener experience is diminished rather than enhanced.

[Alekz]

Speaking of transcoding: any plans to implement a possibility to use an external transcoder, for example, sox or ffmpeg?

[simoncn]

(17-07-2013 21:53)Alekz Wrote:  Speaking of transcoding: any plans to implement a possibility to use an external transcoder, for example, sox or ffmpeg?

Yes, there is some work in progress to enable this.