Hello!

I would like to announce the launch of my public, multiformat listening test @ 48 kbps.

The encoders featured are:

• iTunes AAC 7.0.2.16 (96 kbps High Anchor)
• Ogg Vorbis AoTuV 5 Beta
• WMA Professional 10
• Nero HE-AAC May 26 2006
• WMA Standard 9.2
• iTunes AAC 7.0.2.16 (48 kbps Low Anchor)

For further information on how to participate, please visit the test announcement page: http://www.maresweb.de/listening-tests/mf-48-1/

The test is scheduled to end on December 8th, 2006.

For those using BitTorrent, statistics are available here: http://www.rarewares.org/tracker/mystats.php
Please use BT whenever possible.
Thanks to Roberto for sharing.

Thank you!

Regards,
Sebastian Mares

Weeee, a new test! I didn't follow the pre-test discussion, but I'm definitely gonna take part.

Was way better than the one for my last test.

I am out to deliver newspapers (not regarding the listening-test, though ).

Haha

Damn, and I missed it!

Great...

But the last 3 links for Sample18/Sample19/Sample20 are the same on the ReadMe.html page...

Fixed, thanks!

I downloaded some samples (8,10,11,13), but there not any wma files at all?

Yes, the WMA files were decoded to WAV and then encoded to WavPack because there is no WMA Professional decoder for Linux and OS X.

Ahh, thanks.

Test announcement newsletter sent.

Those that are not yet in the newsletter: subscribe!

Thanks Roberto!

By the way, I already have results for 4 samples!

That was me

a little note about the .torrent files which are shown on readme.htm

whenever i try to download one of the .torrent files from there, for some reason, Opera renames the file to "SampleXX.zip.zip" instead of "SampleXX.zip.torrent". manually adding it from µTorrent worked though.

No idea why it happens. Works flawlessly with Firefox and µTorrent.

Looks like the server is delivering the wrong MIME type. Firefox keeps the correct extension, but tries to open the file with the ZIP file handler.

I don't think I can fix that without admin access to the server (which I don't have)

Yep, problems with Opera as well. I'm not really keen on installing some vague BitTorrent client, so I guess it's HTTP download for me

edit: somehow the Java ABC-HR does't work, everything is greyed out, no sound, no sign of anything playing. (I have the sample folders as they are described, and decodeall worked fine). I´m now doing the test with the w32 binary of ABC-HR 1.0 stable, should be acceptable, right?

<sarcasm>the HTTP downloads should be web-seeded</sarcasm>

When I tried fot the first time to run ABC/HR I didn't get a sound. Then I check a sound blaster as a playback device in settings of ABC/HR. There is sound with both : Sound Blaster and primary sound driver.
I suppose I should check Sound Blaster, right?

Interestingly enough, my Firefox handles it fine. It shows the ZIP icon, yet opens the torrent files with the proper program (µTorrent).

That's OK.



What version of the Java Runtime are you using?

I'm afraid the results from ABC-HR 1.0 won't be of much use. For instance, it doesn't account for delay. there must be some problem on your side, as it seems to be working for everyone else...

It didn't output any sound for me either, but when I changed the audio output to Primary Sound Driver it worked fine.

With a little luck schnofler is going to see this thread and come with a solution

Doing these tests makes me wonder how guruboolez can hear artifacts in some of this stuff.

For people without sound, simply change the playback device from the options. I don't know why ABC/HR does not default to the primary audio device like every other program.

Perhaps you can add that note to the readme, or at least to the first post/listening test page.
Also, I sent you my results.

i've saved the results from testing the first sample, but i can't get the program to show me which files are originals and which are encoded ones as the readme says it will. hmm... should the program be automatically showing me these results?

You won't find out the results until Sebastian posts the key so you can decrypt the results.

You're reading ABCHR's readme, which only says that for a normal, not encrypted test, not the encrypted ones that we're doing.

Check your mail, especially the second mail I sent.

Did so and replied.

ok, i get it now. thanks

What is real name of song from sample 11?

Thanks

You can see the sample name in ABC/HR. The sample is "Mysterious Times" by "Sash! feat. Tina Cousins".

You can even find it on YouTube.

Please consider offering a torrent with all samples next time

I told Roberto to create one (he's responsible for torrents), but then on the other hand, looking at the last statistics, a lot of people downloaded the whole package only for testing the first sample.

Problem in sample 10 !!! the offsets are erroneus for all but one sample! Please, fix the .ecf file.

What do you mean? The offsets were calculated by ABC/HR.

Just tested and I really don't see where the problem is. Are you sure you are not mixing up due to pre-echo or "Muting" because of the lowpass filter?

I am running all samples through the offset detector to see if I get different offsets for sample 10 (all encoders should have the same offset regardless of sample).

Edit: JAZ is right, I will update the ECF once I check the remaining 10 samples. Results should be still valid, though, since you can clearly differentiate between original and sample even when not relying on offset.

Fixed, thanks [JAZ]!

Learned something new for the next test: always check offsets and don't rely 100% on ABC/HR.

I had the same problem in the AAC48 test for one of the samples.

Java doesn't tell me anything about the audio devices besides their names and what they're supposed to be playing. From Java's viewpoint there is no "primary audio device". I just pick any one that appears to be able to play sound. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The only sure-fire way to pick a device that works is not to use native devices at all, but use Java's software mixer instead, which sucks.



Just had a look at this. With the sample 10 from this test it can be fixed by just doubling the window size (which also increases processing time). If you're interested, Sebastian, I've uploaded a version with this fix. Offset detection might still fail when there's not much going on in the first few seconds of the sample, though.

Thanks for the offer schnofler, but now that I fixed the problem myself, I guess I don't need it - except for a future test maybe. You could upload that version so that others can download, too (in case anyone wants to conduct a listening test, too).

BTW, maybe someone with Bash knowledge or so can create a script for OS X. Are there decoders for Intel Macs already?

When trying to open Sample15.ecf I get a "file is not a supported file type" error.
Also, while doing Sample 16 Save/Open Session menu items where gone. Restarting ABC/HR solved that one.

EDIT: Redownloaded Sample15.zip via http and it's ok now.
Last sample As always I'm going to go through all samples one more time tomorrow...

I haven't had any problem with sample15 nor 16. Seems you had a problem with the download (or who knows..)

I bet it was bibilolo which is my sample10. Did you notice the problem and edit the offsets manually?

Should we download sample 10 again? Is this sample the only one affected?

It has nothing to do with the sample itself - only the ECF file was affected. You can download the ABC/HR package again which contains Sample10.ecf.

Here's another download mirror for you guys... let's see how well i own my quota

http://plonkmedia.org/001users/hydrogenaudio/
http://plonkmedia.org/001users/hydrogenaudio/AllSamples.zip <--i think that's all of them "zip -0 Sam*.zip AllSamples.zip" from SSH command line gave me a 158mb Sample01.zip ... so i'm guessing it's all of the other ones in there...

Yes, I manually corrected the offsets very soon after the test start (a tester reported about the wrong offsets for this sample)

just sent you my results for 20 samples today. I hope they are useful.

Yep, received them, thanks! Some people on the IPS board also seem to be interested since I received some PMs and someone also replied to my thread.