Hello.
Maybe this has been discussed elsewhere but the search engine doesn't like quiries with short words. If so, I apologize...
Would it be possible to add a feature that allows Kodi to convert PCM (music/audio) to DSD on the fly? With DSD output as the end result regardless of how the source music is encoded on the hdd?
Personally all my music is stored as flac files and it would be a huge undertaking to convert everything to dsf manually.
If something like this already exist I'd appreciate if someone could point me in right direction so I can read more about it.
I doubt that's ever coming to Kodi. Such "non-standards" as DoP and DSD native (that requires supported vid/pid hardcoded in the kernel) will never ever fly with the devs.
You can take a look at HQPlayer and Jriver MC, they support that.
Also if you haven't already read it, then this is a good read:
http://archimago.blogspot.no/2013/09/mea...pling.html
No soundcard available in a PC or mobile device can handle DSD. You need a dedicated DAC for that.
What would be the point of such a thing?
You won't have any audio quality gain in the process...
As dumb as those who create flac from mp3
I don't understand the point... PCM to DSD would still yield a result no better than the original PCM.
I didn't want to go all technical in my initial post, but ok. From what I've seen this far, most reports seem to indicate that dsd doesn't sound any worse than pcm. They both have benefits and drawbacks. DSD DACs are emerging on the market but one can actually do quite well with just a LP filter from what I've read. So, implementing dsd would make the dac redundant if done properly.
So, same or improved audio vs pcm and no dac needed, would that be enough benefits to make it interesting?
I'm currently looking into a hardware solution but figured it would be cool if it could be done at the source already.
(2017-04-04, 11:35)markusA Wrote: [ -> ]I didn't want to go all technical in my initial post, but ok. From what I've seen this far, most reports seem to indicate that dsd doesn't sound any worse than pcm. They both have benefits and drawbacks. DSD DACs are emerging on the market but one can actually do quite well with just a LP filter from what I've read. So, implementing dsd would make the dac redundant if done properly.
So, same or improved audio vs pcm and no dac needed, would that be enough benefits to make it interesting?
Pcm and Dsd are both digital and so will both need to be converted to analogic at some point
You will need a DAC in both case
I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Or rather, I build all my hifi equipment myself anyway. I know people who are already a couple of steps ahead of me in implementing the very thing I was talking about.
And yes, my old dac can most likely handle dsd regardless. I've seen the dac chip mentioned in conjunction with dsd discussions.
DSD is PWM, roughly the same as a class D amplifier but at a higher sample rate. PCM has a different form of quantization naturally. I can't give all the details since I'm only just starting out with this project but from what I've read thus far it seems pretty straight forward.
And I do realize that any native implementation in Kodi would take a long time. I will complete my project using hardware transcoding. I made the feature request because it seemed like a nice feature to include in some future release.
My own project is just for fun...
Sorry but this makes zero sense to me.
Unless you have access to the original master recording then there's no way transcoding to DSD is going to do anything to improve the audio.
Pretty much everything dsd music has been transcoded from pcm to dsd at some point. From a software perspective I understand your criticism. Yet this being a software forum, I'm not sure this is the proper place to dig into the hardware side of things. The only reason I'm interested in dsd is because it might make d/a conversion much easier. And I won't know for sure until I've tried it.
(2017-04-05, 14:05)markusA Wrote: [ -> ]Pretty much everything dsd music has been transcoded from pcm to dsd at some point.
Yes from the high quality studio made master recordings, and if anything what you are seeking to do is complicate things and will most certainly not make D/A conversion easier since there many more high quality DAC's that will support PCM D/A conversion, and the selection of DoP DAC's will likely be much more limited.
Only just trying to point out that I feel you'll be wasting your time/resources if you want some perceptible audible difference for the better as the end result, however if all you want is the challenge of the project to see for yourself, then fair enough that maybe rewarding enough in itself and the end result maybe immaterial.
I'm building the dac myself mostly for fun. I already have a high quality dac but I love a good challenge. Building a discrete dac from scratch is tricky. With a conventional R2R dac you can reach 16 bit resolution if you're careful. If you want more you'll have to look into more exotic solutions.
With a dsd solution you don't have the same restraints and the tricky part becomes obtaining correctly encoded source material. So, if I can transcode pcm to dsd on the fly without noticeable loss, the actual d/a conversion becomes the easy part. You only need a LP filter... Now, I won't know how good the end result is until I've tried it.
Unless the results are spectacular it'll just be a fun experiment.
If I were into purchasing commercial units, I wouldn't choose this route. Being a DIY'er, I can make different choices.
Sounds like the most important thing is the journey and rather than the destination, in which case I wish you good luck with your project