96khz 24-bit support on the ipod?

[dewdude]

I've got some 96/24 FLAC files..and just to see what would happen, i copied them to my rockpod and loaded it up, and, ok, it skips on really high bitrate files...the higher the worse...naturally..stuff over 2500kbps is almost unbearable..pausing the unit for a bit helps...however, that's not my issue.

while searching for something similar..i picked up a recording question stating (well, it was a quote from something else) that the hardware should be capeable of 96/24. now, i know that's recording, but, obviously if they're going to slap a 96/24 ADC in there...then it wouldn't be hard to believe they'd slap a 96/24 DAC in there too. now, i could probably ask stuff like, is there any truth behind this..however, all i want to know is what is the 5.5 30g capeable of doing...and if so, does rockbox still resample or send as is?

[saratoga]

If it skips, I'm guessing you're resampling.  Flac playback is very quick normally.

[linuxstb]

The Rockbox playback engine currently resamples everything to 16-bit/44.1KHz Stereo - because it was written for the iriver H1x0/H3x0 which can only handle that samplerate.

The DACs in the ipod should be capable of a range of samplerates up to 96KHz, as well as 24-bit output.  But the playback engine needs adapting to use it.

[dewdude]

alrighty. thanks. i shall wait in hope that someone fixes that one day.

[aarongoltz]

Is adapting the code to allow the playback of 96k 24-bit files on an Ipod very complex?  I've never actually worked with coding in Rockbox but I'm wondering if its a matter of changing some variables or writing all new code.

Thanks, Aaron

[saratoga]

Is adapting the code to allow the playback of 96k 24-bit files on an Ipod very complex?  I've never actually worked with coding in Rockbox but I'm wondering if its a matter of changing some variables or writing all new code.

Thanks, Aaron

Dealing with the playback code is never fun.  I don't know what will be involved, but I can't imagine any one is looking forward to doing it.  Probably more efficient to just resample everything to 44.1k before encoding anyway since it's more compact.

[aarongoltz]

I could do that, but I was just thinking that it would be cool to be able to listen to some vinyl albums I have that are ripped to 96k 24bit.

[saratoga]

I could do that, but I was just thinking that it would be cool to be able to listen to some vinyl albums I have that are ripped to 96k 24bit.

Vinyl generally has less resolution then 44.1khz/16 bit, so all 96k/24bit would get you is greatly reduced battery life.  This is definitely one of those times you should resample.

[markun]

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=FAQs_(Vinyl)

[Toxikator]

It's true that vinyl doesn't go higher than 44.1/16... but be real, there is no way to hear anything outside of that range.

The reason for this support is because the FLACs in question (and of course the theoretical other files) are ALREADY in 24/96 format, not because they need to be.

[saratoga]

You're welcome to implement support for 96k files on the Ipod.  I'm sure the patch would be accepted, assuming it was well written.  However, I think it would be much easier to just convert the files.  They're FLAC, so there is no quality loss involved.