HDCD CDs and transcoding

[simoncn]

You are correct that HDCD tracks are best ripped as standard 16-bit, 44.1k files containing the encoded HDCD audio. To use MinimServer to decode these files correctly for optimal sound quality, you should do the following:

1) Install MinimStreamer 0.7.13 and FFmpeg on the machine running MinimServer.

2) Use the stream.transcode property to transcode your HDCD files to wav24. If these files are encoded as FLAC, the transcoding setting must be followed by a semicolon (flac:wav24; instead of flac:wav24) to ensure that FFmpeg is used for transcoding.

3) In the stream.options property, add the option convOut=-af hdcd to enable the FFmpeg hdcd filter. This filter recognises HDCD-encoded audio and decodes it correctly for playback.

I have tried this on a sample HDCD file and the improvement is very noticeable.