Good question. Most AVRs seem to ignore surround channels for quad files. Hence me adding the MMH tool to add a silent centre. However, some need the full 6 channels with both silent C and LFE.
Media Players 102: Kodi for Multichannel Music Playback (features and hardware)
- Thread starter HomerJAU
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Good question. Most AVRs seem to ignore surround channels for quad files. Hence me adding the MMH tool to add a silent centre. However, some need the full 6 channels with both silent C and LFE.
Tagscanner (free) can also do bulk editing af all selected tracks for those who don’t have JRiver. It also has some smart processing where you can concatinate tags and add text. E.g select all your files and change the title to: %TITLE% (Quad). That would just add ‘(Quad)’ to the existing track name. You could add it to ALBUM etc instead.
Homer, after using it for the last few days, I noticed a few things about the operation of the MMH remix utility. I thought you might like the feedback.
1. When it brings up a list of folders, the names aren't alphabetical. Is there a switch I need to set to change that? I'm not even sure what the ordering is in the list that does come up.
2. Overwriting the source files with the remixed files removes any imbedded album art that was initially attached to the tracks. So it would be best to remix prior to tagging, at least for the current edition of MMH.
1. When it brings up a list of folders, the names aren't alphabetical. Is there a switch I need to set to change that? I'm not even sure what the ordering is in the list that does come up.
2. Overwriting the source files with the remixed files removes any imbedded album art that was initially attached to the tracks. So it would be best to remix prior to tagging, at least for the current edition of MMH.
All the AF SACD conversions I've remixed thus far seem to have a silent LFE channel. I say that because when I remix them to add a silent center channel, the resulting files have two empty channels is the 3rd and 4th positions.
You would think the sentence above in bold would be true, but not necessarily so. My rip of ELP's Brain Salad Surgery DVD-A seems to be an exception to the rule. Overall the album is 5.1 with live CC and LFE channels. However, three tracks: Still You Turn Me On, Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression, and Benny the Bouncer have no LFE channel but include a non-blank center. I noticed this when it loaded into MMH to remix but only three of the tracks showed up as 5 CH. Go figure? I will have to dig the disk out again and make sure that it was ripped properly. This disk is also one of a handful I've run into that does not include a dedicated stereo layer.
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This is an issue with the 3rd Party UI controls used. I thought it was mostly fixed. It only occurs if the media file system is Linux (I guess you have a NAS). You can click on the folder name header to sort I think. I’ll take a look.
If there is an album cover image named either folder.jpg or cover.jpg in the media file’s folder it is re-embedded back into to remixed file. I should probably first save any embedded file then re-embedd the original.
So after re-doing the channel assignments using MMH, I've started processing everything to create the ReplayGain tags. I thought I'd recap what I've learned so far.
I'm using Foobar for this. Its a pretty data intensive process especially for hi res files. I use the library viewer selection option. The library comes up sorted by artist/album/track. I high lite off the chunk I want to do (ie: A through D, etc.). The selection process is really easy thanks to the excellent scrolling behavior built into Foobar. When ready, I select replay gain from the context menu. I choose the scan albums by tags option. From reading other posts on the forum, this is supposed to create a RG value for the individual tracks as well as the album overall.
Then its a good long wait for the analysis to complete. Which it always has, with no issues. Foobar provides a summary of all the number crunching. It computes a track value, album value, and peak value, all representing a +/- dB adjustment based on a target (89dB apparently). It seems to be able to process tracks two at a time, like how Homers MMH does channel remixes. You then instruct it to update the tags with the computed values. This, thankfully, takes much less time than the analysis. For most of my stereo albums, there must be enough room in the tag header to write the RG tags because it does not seem to need to recopy the whole data file like when you embed or change album art. Occasionally though, the time it takes to get through an album leads me to believe it does need to re-write the tracks.
For sure, a lot of the processing time is due to doing this over a network. So it may well be much faster with an internal or USB connected drive. Also if you are adding new music an album at a time and you analyze and create the RG tags during the tagging process, its only a minute or two. For that type of use you are better off using the load folder option.
Don't underestimate how long this can take. We are talking 10 hours for my stereo library alone. The "T" section becomes extra long because, since it sorts by tag values "Beatles" is sorted as "The Beatles", as is every other artist name that starts with The... The Stones, The Guess Who. The New Christie Minstrals (just kidding)....
I'm getting ready to do the Surround library next. More channels and generally higher resolutions, but less tracks by far.
I'm using Foobar for this. Its a pretty data intensive process especially for hi res files. I use the library viewer selection option. The library comes up sorted by artist/album/track. I high lite off the chunk I want to do (ie: A through D, etc.). The selection process is really easy thanks to the excellent scrolling behavior built into Foobar. When ready, I select replay gain from the context menu. I choose the scan albums by tags option. From reading other posts on the forum, this is supposed to create a RG value for the individual tracks as well as the album overall.
Then its a good long wait for the analysis to complete. Which it always has, with no issues. Foobar provides a summary of all the number crunching. It computes a track value, album value, and peak value, all representing a +/- dB adjustment based on a target (89dB apparently). It seems to be able to process tracks two at a time, like how Homers MMH does channel remixes. You then instruct it to update the tags with the computed values. This, thankfully, takes much less time than the analysis. For most of my stereo albums, there must be enough room in the tag header to write the RG tags because it does not seem to need to recopy the whole data file like when you embed or change album art. Occasionally though, the time it takes to get through an album leads me to believe it does need to re-write the tracks.
For sure, a lot of the processing time is due to doing this over a network. So it may well be much faster with an internal or USB connected drive. Also if you are adding new music an album at a time and you analyze and create the RG tags during the tagging process, its only a minute or two. For that type of use you are better off using the load folder option.
Don't underestimate how long this can take. We are talking 10 hours for my stereo library alone. The "T" section becomes extra long because, since it sorts by tag values "Beatles" is sorted as "The Beatles", as is every other artist name that starts with The... The Stones, The Guess Who. The New Christie Minstrals (just kidding)....
I'm getting ready to do the Surround library next. More channels and generally higher resolutions, but less tracks by far.
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ParkerJon
New member
* Stupid discovery of the day *
Preface: My wife isn't sold on Kodi for music playback as she likes and is familiar with the Windows Media Center in Windows 7 (and Emby add-on for movies). We use Plex for TV shows and movies (via Shield).
To simplify things I thought I'd have a look again to see if Plex app on the Shield had addressed the lack of support for surround FLACs. The answer is no. However, and why I've listed it in this thread, the Plex add-in for Kodi (via the Shield TV) will play surround FLACs on the same hardware! You can also auto-launch the Plex add-in at Kodi startup. In both scenarios; Plex app and Plex add-in, the Plex server says it is not transcoding. Anyway the Kodi interface, in my opinion, is cleaner and quicker than using Plex for music so Kodi it is on the two Shields in the house.
Preface: My wife isn't sold on Kodi for music playback as she likes and is familiar with the Windows Media Center in Windows 7 (and Emby add-on for movies). We use Plex for TV shows and movies (via Shield).
To simplify things I thought I'd have a look again to see if Plex app on the Shield had addressed the lack of support for surround FLACs. The answer is no. However, and why I've listed it in this thread, the Plex add-in for Kodi (via the Shield TV) will play surround FLACs on the same hardware! You can also auto-launch the Plex add-in at Kodi startup. In both scenarios; Plex app and Plex add-in, the Plex server says it is not transcoding. Anyway the Kodi interface, in my opinion, is cleaner and quicker than using Plex for music so Kodi it is on the two Shields in the house.
Thanks PJ.
There’s quite a few skins to change the Kodi user interface. I prefer Aeon Nox Silvo which is now included in the Kodi 18 (Leia) repository. You can install the ArtistSlideShow add-on from the AE Silvo skin help once skin is installed and running installed.
The other option is to install a Kodi remote app for your phone or tablet and play music from there. You can also play pre-made m3u playlists from those apps. I least the iOS ones can.
Another option would be to setup a ‘Wife Name’ music menu node that brings up a list of your wife’s favourite artists/albums (using a smart playlist) so its easier for her to play stuff she likes if you are like me and have hundreds of albums. Aeon Nox Silvo has a fully Kodi customisable menu. Add new/remove. Add sub-menu nodes etc too.
There’s quite a few skins to change the Kodi user interface. I prefer Aeon Nox Silvo which is now included in the Kodi 18 (Leia) repository. You can install the ArtistSlideShow add-on from the AE Silvo skin help once skin is installed and running installed.
The other option is to install a Kodi remote app for your phone or tablet and play music from there. You can also play pre-made m3u playlists from those apps. I least the iOS ones can.
Another option would be to setup a ‘Wife Name’ music menu node that brings up a list of your wife’s favourite artists/albums (using a smart playlist) so its easier for her to play stuff she likes if you are like me and have hundreds of albums. Aeon Nox Silvo has a fully Kodi customisable menu. Add new/remove. Add sub-menu nodes etc too.
Hi PJ. Can you check whether the Shiekd TV outputs 24 bit 96 kHz? In the passed I’ve seen posts on the Kodi forum a couple years ago stating the Shield outputs MCH FLAC at 16bit 48kHz only. Just wondering if this has been resolved.
Thanks.
Take a look at your AVRs Info screen while playing. My Denon’s Information menu has an Audio section that shows bit rate and depth.
I’ll look into that, I’m using a Yamaha rxv 1073
That wasn’t easy - all my mch files are WAV and saved as FLAC. No matter how I play around with DSP settings, all I get out is this. Even when I play a bluray disc from my bluray player and switch between DSP (ie DTS HD MA and PCM) I still can't get any bitrate finds. I suppose there is no option in Kodi to spot the bits from there?
Thanks for checking it out. Maybe a bug in the AVR?
I just picked up one of these for my son to use as a media player.
i5, fanless, SSD, with Windows 10 Pro. All at a great price, especially considering new ones like this similar model go for a lot more.
i5, fanless, SSD, with Windows 10 Pro. All at a great price, especially considering new ones like this similar model go for a lot more.
bluelightning
701 Club - QQ All-Star
- Yamaha receivers support 24 bits, but the audio info display section rarely shows a bit rate, if ever. This is the case with my 8 year old RX-A3000 receiver.
- Shield might not support 24 bits or 44.1 kHz rates, since it is based on Android. It will support 24 bits as part of DTS -HD or Dolby True HD though.
bluelightning
701 Club - QQ All-Star
Seems like a great idea for a media player !
That is my understabding as well, the bits part is not really about the Yamaha, but the android based Shield. Shield even converts 44.1 khz to 48. So it is definitely not bit perfect but I don’t have a problem with that.
But since the 7.2 update fixed so mch flac now can be 96 khz via passthrough in Kodi then I was hoping that the update fixed the bits too - I have e mailed Nvidia but no answer.
bluelightning
701 Club - QQ All-Star
Android converts 44.1 to 48. Also from what I understand 96 KHz passthrough will work, but only with upper 16 bits, discarding lower 8 bits. This is something is (or at least was) part of the OS. Kodi has to go through the OS. May be Android 7.2 fixes it, but somehow I doubt it.
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