There is some new build out, dated 15th July, and it seems to have a WMA Pro Lossless codec.

US3 - Cantaloop:


Original: 47.588.148 bytes
Sonic Foundry PCA: 32.262.524 bytes (67,7%)
WMA Pro VBR 100: 31.495.178 bytes (66,1%)
Monkey's Audio Extra High: 30.339.836 bytes (63,7%)


Buckfunk 3000 - High Volume (some electronica)


Original: 38.330.676 bytes
Sonic Foundry PCA: 24.387.802 bytes (63.6%)
WMA Pro VBR 100: 23.625.744 bytes (61.6%)
Monkeys Audio Extra High: 23.229.080 bytes (60,6%)


Looks pretty nice.

--edit--
Put results from other thread into this one.

This sounds really interesting. What about the encoding times?

lol, where did this thread come from? I thought it had been lost??

Encoding time? No idea, only app allowing lossless is WMP9, and it's not pretty informative about encoding times. But I'd say a tad slower than Monkey, but then again, WMP rips from CD, Monkey from harddisk.

I'm also interested in encoding times, and how it performs against Monkey's "Normal" and "High" modes. Decoding speed could be of some importance, too.

Has anyone tested if this lossless mode is backwards compatible with WMAv8?

if i can't rip from the cd using EAC and be sure the wav is quality 100%, i don't give a damn about lossless encoding. I use EAC->Monkey audio myself and speaking about lossless monkey is still faster, more well known and better compression, so i also dont give a damn about a lossless M$ codec

But keep in mind this lossless M$ codec will probably get hardware support (if it's not supported yet. Waiting for someone to reply if it's backward compatible or not).

I find it highly unlikely that Monkey ever gets hardware support.

WMAv9 isn't even backwards compatible to WMAv8, even less the lossless I guess, unlike WMA8 + WMA7.

I noticed when I did a fresh install and couldn't play some files with WMP8.

And lossless is supplied apparently by the Pro variant of WMA.

Lossless won't work with WMA8. I just did a test. (Thank-you, Trelane)

But all the WMA9 files I sent to other people for testing played fine. Dibrom did some tests BTW, and he had only WMA8 AFAIK.

Hmmmm, it could be that it were some WMA Pro files then, I encoded a lot of files into 192kbit WMA Pro (Windows Media Encoder lets you do so). It could be I picked these files then. WMA Pro is definitively not backwards compatible. But I don't know if it's just a file format issue or if it's really a different codec.

--edit--
Looks like Pro differs a bit in signal masking issues. At least regarding the spectrum analyzer (the curve behind peak frequencies is a bit steeper and drops a little deeper). Using the old bullsh*t Original-Encoded delta method, the difference noise drops from -24dB (WMA) to -36db (WMA Pro), both at 192kbit (song Cantaloop again I love that one).

I wish MS would at least disclose a bit about the workings of WMA.

Hurrray!!!! I'll be able to listen to 1.5 albums from 1 CD... YEAH!

Don't be closed minded, please.

There are other kinds of Hardware player besides CD players. Nomad Jukebox is a good example. And it plays WMA, BTW.

Maximizing the play time without compromising quality. I don't see what's wrong to that? I'd be happy for being able to play 2hrs (or a bit more) from one CD.

Very true. For example, the Kenwood PhatBox has supported the FLAC format for quite some time now.

rjamorim, did you also try WMA9 VBR files on WMP8?

where can i download the latest build of wma v9? the link supplied by rjamorim doesn't work.

Yes. C-Prompt tested it for me, and it worked fine.

Weird... why didn't they implement it into WMA8 already? Your player didn't try to download codecs or anything on test?

Btw, anyone with WMP8 try to play this one:

http://www.tomservo.cc/temp/cantapro.wma (WMA Pro 128kbit)

My WMP8 can't play your file, what's more it can't even download a codec from MS website
Is it possible just install needed DLLs into the system, like it was possible to install
WMP8 into W2K instead of WXP?

Well, there was a leak of a 15th july build of WMP9. Not sure if I should hand it out. I heard some news sites had some trouble with MS.

I've got the player, but I don't want to install it yet until I know that it doesn't ruin
the system like early WMP7 builds.

If you got build 2773, it runs stable. I have no quirks at all.

Could someone give a link for downloading the software?
hope to test it!

thanks.

Except that WMP9 always forgets the selected skin and crashes when opening a file.
I got rid of it within 3 minutes.

I use it at least 6 hrs a day now, and it didn't crash at all. And forgetting the skin, is something you should expect, esp since it's still a beta.