New 5.1 WMA Download Format??

[omega4]

I saw this article on the High Fidelity Review website. It seems to me to be fantastic and worrying in equal amounts.

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=13074758

Firstly, if even 10% of these artists (click link at the bottom of the HFR page) are released in 5.1, then the format will be well and truly established. However, what equipment, other than a PC, will it play on?

Comments please.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

What new format? "MusicGiants’ Windows Media Audio Lossless downloads reproduce music at up to 1100 kbps, delivering the true sound quality of the original CD. In addition, MusicGiants uses Windows Media Digital Rights Management (Windows Media DRM)..."

Only on a PC and only on the one on which you downloaded it.

Kal

 

[neil wilkes]

Not necessarily only on the machine downloaded on.
I guess it all depends on whether or not you can extract from WMA Lossless.
I know I can, and so can a lot of others too.

It's as good as MLP, to be honest. WMA Pro is genuinely lossless, and it can be done right off a Nuendo timeline.
Additionally, there are free encoders for WMA from Microsoft. I will check and find out if there are also decoders, and if the free one will encode to WMA Pro Lossless.

To be blunt, why worry - with Music Servers rapidly gaining ground - I am waiting for my new Cambridge Audio 640H file server, it seems to me that as long as Multichannel is being released, it's a good thing. DRM is something we have to live with, and with both BRD and HD-DVD (always assuming the precious bandwidth is not squandered on pointless video and even more pointless "interactive" bollocks, which will leave no room at all for HR MC Audio) internet connections will be mandatory, as any attempts to hack the player or play a hacked or ripped disc will cause the player to become inoperative until it gets reset by a service centre.

So, to my mind, I have no problems with WMA lossless.
I will not be on my own here, but then again I can forsee a lot of problems too - for one thing, it limits to PC or File Servers like the Cambridge unit only. This is not right as I am the first to complain about releases on SACD only. It limits choice. I won't buy SACD at all, and a lot won't go near WMA for much the same reasons I suspect.
If a format is to gain widespread success it needs to be accessible and limiting this to PC users only is a bit insulting to our fruit loving friends.

 

[Dylan Berichon]

For what it's worth, I'm able to open up multichannel WMA files in Adobe Audition (including lossless tracks). It opens the tracks as 6 mono files. The down side is that it numbers them and doesn't label which channel is which. So if the file was, say, "Demo.wma" you'll end up with 6 files listed as follows:

"Demo.wma (1)"
"Demo.wma (2)"
etc...

I think that there is a Windows Media Player available for Macs as well.

 

[Kazaam]

....new Cambridge Audio 640H file server....

Hey, Neil... Thanks for mentioning this unit. I didn't know it existed, but I'll have to research it. I've been trying to get into something more like that unit rather than relying on a Wi-Fi stream from a computer. A while back I tried an Olive Musica (a rebadged Hifidelio Pro, I think) and it sounded pretty decent, but had some quirks which, sadly, forced me to return the unit---and at a pretty hefty re-stocking fee. Nonetheless, I'm still on the lookout for new technology in this area of hard-drive based music servers.

And in a last-ditch effort to try adding to the discussion in a way that isn't a complete thread hi-jack... I'll add that I'd be open to buying multi-channel music downloads if I am able to: (1) Eventually get more players like this---and also have them capable of WMA9 Surround, etc; and (2) make a backup copy of some sort. However, it would be my preference to just stick with a physical medium for my surround music. Or better yet... I'd like to be able to have both---a phycial disc and a hard-drive based music file. Not quite yet sure how WMA 5.1 audio will fit into that, but I guess time will tell.

 

[neil wilkes]

The Cambridge Audio unit will do both discs and files. It has a 160Gb HDD, and a CD Rewriter included in it. Wait for the new software revision though, as the current version is buggy when hooked up to a PC. I'll post here when it is ready.

 

[Kazaam]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Neil.