MinimServer, MinimStreamer, and HQPlayer Desktop

[simoncn]

(11-05-2019 20:16)Cebolla Wrote:  Getting MinimServer/MinimStreamer to transcode to a raw LPCM L16 or L24 stream may work better than WAV, as according to its developer Jussi Laako (aka Miska), HQPlayer is particularly picky about WAV file streams - see this post on the Audiophile Style forums:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic...ent=808470

MinimServer calculates WAV header sizes correctly and precisely when transcoding a local file from disk. This is the OP's use case.

When transcoding AAC streams, I have found that wav24 sounds better than wav16. Unllike flac:wav24 where the low-order 8 bits are always zero if the FLAC file has 16-bit samples, aac:wav24 does a floating-point calculation that produces a result with 24-bit precision.

A 24-bit result would also be produced when transcoding to L24 but many players don't support L24—I'm not sure about HQPlayer. Another factor that could be significant is that L24 has a strange sample format which requires more processing overhead by MinimStramer and probably also by the player. For best sound quality, such overheads are best avoided.

I have updated the section of the MinimStreamer user guide that you referenced in the other thread to make it clear that a WAV stream length of zero is not part of the WAV specification but a nonstandard extension supported by some players.

Quote:Also, given that support for internet radio streams are handled by MinimServer/MinimStreamer via .m3u playlist files using the special format mentioned in the user guide, wouldn't a more appropriate example of what a URL would look like be one for a transcoded stream produced specifically from an (internet radio stream) entry from one such formatted .m3u playlist file?

The URL a transcode a local file must be of the format that I posted. The URL for a player to access a transcoded internet radio stream has a different format.