Bit perfect with Windows 7 Media Centre

[zkeller]

Newbie here, so treat kindly ;-)

 

I would really like to use Windows Media Centre because of all the other features - i.e. TV, photographs, etc.

I would also like to use it for audiophile sound through my DAC/hifi.

 

So is bit perfect sound impossible with Windows 7 Media Centre? I know I can struggle with MediaMonkey and get bit perfect, but would prefer to use the simple WMC interface.

 

Thanks

 

Zane

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Zane - Windows Media Player/Center is an uphill battle. I highly recommend J River Media Center. You can do everything and more including bit perfect playback. Theater mode has a very nice interface as well.

 

[sastusbulbas]

J. River costs money does it not?

 

What about a free MediaPlayer which has all the tactile feel and appearance of iTunes or WMP12?

 

What are the current free options for W7 64bit and bit perfect playback?

 

[Audio_ELF]

The free (not open source though IIRC) option is Foobar. This is very versatile but out of the box is a very plain looking program. There are lots of options for changing the appearence and can look like iTunes or WMP12. There are also plugins to allow you to use the iPod Touch remote control app.

 

J.River has (or at least had) a free version which plays back audio (but not video I think).

MediaMonkey has a free and a paid for version.

 

Eloise

 

[JR_Audio]

I am willing to pay every month for getting some new CDs or some new High Res download, because I love to listen to music. I am willing to pay for good speakers, amps, dacs, cables, etc, because I enjoy to have good sound, and I have absolutely no problem to pay for a software, that I like because it plays 100 % Bit Perfect on a windows system and sounds good, and does everything I need, because I want to respect the work on this software.

 

Sure with everything, and with everyone, we have to watch the balance for price and performance, but with a cost of software, that is about 3 CDs, I have no difficulties with.

 

But please don’t get me wrong with my comment. Everyone can do it in his own way.

 

Juergen

 

 

[timztunz]

I really don't mean to start up a frenzy here and I apologize if my perceptions are inaccurate, but are J. River and MediaMonkey bit perfect? It's my understanding that of the three (foobar200, J. River and MediaMonkey) only foobar2000 is bit perfect in a Windows 7 environment running WASAPI. In a way I wish this were not the case. Don't get me wrong, I think foobar2000 is a very powerful program and HUGELY configurable, and I use it. Especially going to their forum and seeing what some users have been able to accomplish with their GUI's. But to be honest, my level of expertise has only allowed me to come up with a very basic "iTunes looking" configuration. I try to look at how they are doing some of what they are doing and I pretty quickly get bamboozled with all of the scripting voo-doo.

 

I look at programs like J. River and MediaMonkey and there are things about those interfaces that I would much prefer, but not at the expense of bit perfect playback.

 

Thanks for any help or clarification.

 

[JR_Audio]

I have explained in some other post here at this site, that J.River and Foobar are, when using the exclusive WASAPI mode, both 100 % Bit True and J.River MC14 has the feature, that it first reads from HDD into RAM and then playing from RAM. So give it a try, it sound great. No comparison for the former version MC13 and by far no comparison to the free version Media Jukebox 12.

 

One point concerning Media Monkey: This software is natively only Bit True, when using the “tricky” Japanese ASIO interface. Some are lucky with it, some not. So it’s up to you.

 

And one last point: I am not related in any way with J.River, but I like this software a lot.

 

Juergen

 

 

[timztunz]

Thank you Juergen.