Wilkes old man and anyone who would care to listen...theres a check button on wmpplayer that mentions a standalone WMA Pro decoder...never seen or heard of one..you? if so then it might be nice to get around Dolbys strangehold on the industry..and, sinve some players play WMV format it would nice to have its companion wma pro 6 channel muxed with it...i wa stold by pro's that it beats the pants off Dolby..atm what i do is mixed the original ac3 with the DivX...yoy can get up to 8 dvd quality moveies on one dvd 5 blank..but one is rather limited to the size of the ac3 file..and using wma pro does get that audio down in size..
WMA Pro is not necessarily a lossless stream, although it certainly can be. I definitely think it sounds better than MP3 - but that really is not hard to achieve. It also - to me - sounds superior to the ghastly Dobly Dirgital as well. Just had a quick look at WMP on my system, and cannot see where this button is. Can you point me in the right direction please? Decoders will almost certainly be available for download on the MS website somewhere. I will give it a poke & see what falls out later today.
the check button appears on wm player 9 or 10--not the shiny black new one..also one that page is another check button for HDCD of which i found out is a format invented by microsoft..how clever of them. i found this reference on HDCD in a store and in tiny print it had the words 'microsoft' on it..I think the WMA pro out refers to a SP DIF output to Clever box of tricks ie separate unit (not software) that decodes WMA multichannel audio..its a shame that this is not incorpareted into mainstream dvd /video/audio players as it opens up a whole new area. videos with surround thats not Dolby.(ac3/dts).also a sort of DVD Audio thats not Dolby (mlp)and can be lossy ans well as lossless.(mind you i have wma lossless 6 channel files..er 4gb! -one album)-regarding your comments about Dolby -I watched a TV program about censorship in USA and the people who vet movies...curiously enough when it showed the building where all this stuff took place -the building had the Dolby logo on !?? do you think they are related?..odd...
WMA Pro is nothing at all to do with DVD-Audio. It is also nothing to do with DVD-Video either. AC3/DTS are completely unrelated. WMA Pro/WMA and WMA Pro Lossless are also different types. WMA Pro can be lossy or lossless, but WMA is a Microsoft version of MP3. Nothing new there. Have you any idea what you are actually talking about at all???
well , we are in funny mood arent we..i hadnt bargained for a put down this early in the day....perhaps something had been lost in translation. therefore of being a chap of goodwill i will make it as clear as i can ok?...(1) i didnt say that WMA has anything to do with DVD Audio..unless as a source file by some DVD Audio author tools. The point one was making was that since microsoft had hinted that a standalone device utilising SPDIF i believe would be capable of playing from disc -a multi channel wma file in surround, one could place on said disc a wma pro multichannel file and play it in surround 'like' a DVD Audio ie play great big 96/24 6 channel lossless file from a disc in a standalone device which plays wma pro files....ok ya? wma pro is nothing to with dvd video?..hmm so that app i have doesnt convert wma pro multichannel files in dolby ac3 5.1 files that i have (20 -30 ive created)..doesnt..dvd video use dolby ac3 audio..think so....and i made them myself...my audio that i did myself saved as wma pro mc which got converted to ac3....hmmm...also a standalone deck that decodes and plays wma pro could ..er well play wmv video that had wma pro audio in it could it not?- so wma is a microsoft version of mp3..that would be that 5.1 surround mp3 would it? yep nothing new... i cordially return your parting shot back to you.and hope you get well soon
Oh dear me - there is no feeling like knowing full well that whatever you say is not being read properly. But I will try - again - to tell you what the situation is with DVD-Video. DVD-Video plays back in the following audio types. 1 - LPCM (stereo only) 2 - Dolby Digital (up to 5.1) 3 - DTS (up to 5.1) 4 - MPEG (up to 7.1) Only stream types 1 & 2 are mandatory support i players, meaning that one of these must be present on the disc. NOWHERE in the DVD-Video spec books does it make ANY mention of WMA, WMA Pro or WMA Pro Lossless (all 3 of which are different codecs, BTW). I do not personally give a short, sharp one about what applications you may have that will transcode an AC3 stream to a WMA stream. This does not mean it is anything to do with the format known as DVD-Video. Neither is it mandatory for any DVD players to play any WMA streams - be they WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless or WMV, WMV-HD (AKA VC-1) or whatever. If this functionality is oincluded in any set top DVD player, it is included as a bonus, much like CD-Audio playback, or VCD/SVCD - none of these are DVD-Video either, yet you can still play them on *some* players. Including them on any DVD disc would make it a DVD-ROM disc, not a DVD-Video disc, and as such playback is far from a guaranteed deal. So it matters not one iota - WMA/WMV is not now, never has been & never will be anything at all to do with DVD-Video. When I tell you that WMA is a microsoft version of MP3, I am referring to the means the algo uses to achieve data reduction - perceptual encoding by use of Psychoacoustical principles as well as auditory masking. Exactly as Fraunhofer do with MP3.
i think even ulead convert wma to ac3 and vice versa..in fact maybe nero too.. a transcoder that takes wma pro to ac3 in one hit would help..and vice versa even dts for that matter..at no oint did i say that wma had owt to do with dvd video i think i know the audio specs the dvd video by now of by heart..my main question was that on a previous incranation of wmplayer there was a reference to wma pro output via a sp dif device which suggested a standalone box of tricks..in fact i ve had yet another reference to such a device..and if such a device existed what its implications would be..after all there such things as dvd players that play wmv video...but the presumption is the the accompanying audio is wma stereo.ie it doesnt not detect that the audio is 6 channel...quite why i do not know..all i am suggesting is that if such a device existed then apart from just playing divX video that has an ac3 six channel track one skip that hassle and go for wmv/wma pro playback where the audio part could ne smaller in data size instead of 300mb plus..thus reducing in size the total file.also to have a lossy/lossless wma pro playback would be like playing 'like' a dvd audio albeit a dvd rom now if joe bloggs out there said that xyz company make and sell such a device that that would quite interesting...as we neednt bother with dolby who seem to have a stranglehold on the mulitichannel audio industry..also since minnetonka support dolby and charge a fortune to us the unhappy customer a suitable rival would not go amiss..and for all those menu lovers out there divx can have menus now..pity the audio is stuck at mp3 stereo but still its a start...what is needed i feel is a decent and affordable m/c audio format ogg/flac/wav/wma that is recognised by the mainstream player makers..then us hi res audio and dvd video-like buffs can make our stuff without breaking arms and legs to do it.....
Right, here we go...just to prove I wasn't talking out of my rear end...I chanced upon an article on a website called stereophile' in which a microsoft person was talking about the possibilities of having the wma pro mulichannel format on the chipset of amplifierss and dvd decoder player thingies...also the likelihood of having wma pro multichannel 96/24 downloads with well know artists albums as an better alternative to the dreaded mp3 scourge... http://stereophile.com/news/010904ces/index.html I knew I hadn't imagined it....if it ever happened it would give dolby a run for its money...how absolutely spiffing..what ho!
