Is there a way to show bit-depth of files in Winamp?

[draganmi]

You have an "allow 24bit" bit-depth playback settings option, but Winamp main window only shows the bit-rate and sample-rate for the files played.
Is it possible for Winamp to show the bit-depth of files also? (I know that for lossy encoded files it depends on the decoder output settings)
Bit-depth exists in lossless formats *and for some wma files?* though.
If it is not possible in the main window, could it be somehow shown in the Media Library ?
Also, I'm interested in which Winamp native input plug-ins support 24-bit decoded output?

[Benski]

Originally posted by draganmi
Also, I'm interested in which Winamp native input plug-ins support 24-bit decoded output?

Support 24bit:
in_mp3 (MP3, ADTS AAC)
in_mp4
in_vorbis
in_dshow (but only for decoding filters that output as floating point)

in_flac, in_wave and in_wm will "upconvert" to 24bit if Replay Gain is enabled (to retain that small bit of precision that would otherwise be lost due to volume reduction). Internally, WMA appears to be a fixed point decoder, so even the lossy versions output as PCM (we use the Windows Media Format SDK to decode, but ffmpeg's implementation of WMA uses floating point, I believe)

[Rocker]

you really need to have 24bit input to get anything out of 24bit output. most of the time trained ears can't hear the difference anyway so I don't believe its anything special.

using up additional resources for 24bit output from a 16bit source is pointless and will probably make it sound bad.

most soundcards can't do 24bit properly anyway and just use it for marketing speak(creative labs are guilty of this)

[Benski]

Originally posted by Rocker
using up additional resources for 24bit output from a 16bit source is pointless and will probably make it sound bad.

most soundcards can't do 24bit properly anyway and just use it for marketing speak(creative labs are guilty of this)

But if your soundcard properly supports 24bit, it's actually less resources to just output as 24bit :)

Either way, there's not enough of a performance difference to care. Our decoders are outputting 32bit float, not much difference converting to 16bit PCM versus 24bit PCM

[draganmi]

When you say "MP4" does it mean that Winamp does not support m4a and aac in 24 bit or it does not?
Since my souncard properly supports 24 bit playback, I can hear a slight difference (improvement) in sound quality, when using 24 bit compared to 16 bit output of lossy formats when using Kernel Streaming output.
If it just "doesn't matter" it puzzles me why have you included 24 bit output possibility in native Winamp input plug-ins then?

And will you include bit depth data in Winamp (for instance, some other players like Apollo do that).

[Rocker]

well... i got corrected. i'm just a lowly forum mod anyway.:)

m4a and aac are the same thing. (m4a is aac inside a mp4 container)

yes it supports 24bit output(if the file has a adts header i'm guessing this replaced the mpeg header like in mp3 files)

whether you can encode aac in 24bit is something I don't know. with vorbis you definitly can and I think it sounds better anyway at any bitrate.