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Topic: Building MPC support (Read 41069 times) previous topic - next topic
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Building MPC support

I had never really heard of MPC before I came to these forums. After reading about it and then listening to it I was VERY impressed. It seems to be exactly what Im looking for in a codec except that its not supported by any portable hardware players. I know the author has not had time to work on it due to real life, but maybe if there was broader interest he could actually make some money from it and spend a little time on it.

Here is a list of some places you can go to help build support for MPC. Make posts, contact companies and request that their players support MPC, let other music fans know that if they care about the quality of their music they should care about MPC.


http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@...090397@.eedee82

Ipod Feedback:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?lin...90401@.3bbae6e5

iTunes:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@...h08.0@.599abd39

Creative:
http://us.creative.com/support/custsup/

RCA (makers of the forthcoming lyra jukebox )


Any other suggestion welcome

Building MPC support

Reply #1 –
and here:








http://www.neurosaudio.com/community/forum...SearchTerms=mpc

http://www.samsung.com/ContactUs/yepp.htm

http://products.sel.sony.com/SEL/service/c...dbackform.shtml



Here is a form letter you can use to send to the companies:
Quote
Codec (audio format ) choice is a very import to many consumers when deciding on a Digital Audio Player ("mp3 player").

I recently began looking for the best audio codec to store my large music collection. Nothing quite fit the bill. The thing that came closest was MPC, its ONLY problem was lack of hardware support.  I dont know if you are familiar with this codec but it has many strongpoints that beat MP3, WMA, MP4/AAC.

MPC is an audio codec similiar to MP3. The main difference is that MPC is optimized for quality (and is the choice of audiophiles), while the other new codecs are optimized to give acceptable (but not good) performance at low bit rates. For anyone here that cares about the quality of their digital music I would suggest you investigate MPC. It is nearly transparent (indistinquishable from CD) at 140-170. It supports gapless playback and has advanced meta tagging support. It compresses music very efficiently and encodes and decodes amazingly fast. In fact decoding it is so easy on the CPU that if MP3 players offered support for the codec they could greatly extend battery life.

You can read more about MPC here:

http://www.audiocoding.com/wiki/index.php?page=MPC
http://www.musepack-source.de/english/

Please consider adding MPC playback support to your digital audio players.

Thank you

Building MPC support

Reply #3 –
heres another:

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/email/feedback.j...ubject=feedback


Had quite a few more but the site was down. Ill get them up soon. Please post here if you are helping or let me know if Im just wasting my time with this thread. I know there are alot of ppl that love the codec. Without your help and feedback to these companies you can never expect to see hardware support for your portable players.

Building MPC support

Reply #4 –
One problem is that SV8 will be incompatible with the current SV7, so building support for SV7, while cool, would be counter-productive as far as MPC development goes.

Building MPC support

Reply #5 –
Quote
One problem is that SV8 will be incompatible with the current SV7, so building support for SV7, while cool, would be counter-productive as far as MPC development goes.

Right. IIRC, Frank was once very enfatic about not wanting MPC to get hardware support while in SV7, because it should soon be replaced with SV8, and SV7 decoders wouldn't be forward compatible.

Of course, that can be a moot point since SV8 seems more dead than alive these days.

Building MPC support

Reply #6 –
Quote
Quote
One problem is that SV8 will be incompatible with the current SV7, so building support for SV7, while cool, would be counter-productive as far as MPC development goes.

Right. IIRC, Frank was once very enfatic about not wanting MPC to get hardware support while in SV7, because it should soon be replaced with SV8, and SV7 decoders wouldn't be forward compatible.

Of course, that can be a moot point since SV8 seems more dead than alive these days.

Well, whats the last time he was heard from? The digital audio player (DAP) market is maturing and MPC needs support now or it will probably never get support.

I guess no one else is able / willing to finish SV8? Is Frank no longer interested in development or is it just his time commitment with his job? If so, how long would SV8 take to finish and I wonder how much money would be needed to entice Frank to do it? Is there anything in it that would be patentable? Would someone like Nero or Creative be willing to hire him to finish it?

Building MPC support

Reply #8 –
If I Remember Correctly.

I don't much like using abbreviations myself, in forums like this for example. There's always some folks that don't know what they mean.

Building MPC support

Reply #9 –
MPC hardware support seems unimportant to be. 

MPC is easily transcoded to lower bitrate AAC or wma for use on portable players.  Even if the ipod did support MPC I probably wouldn't use it; higher bitrate files seem to kill the battery.  Not to mention they use a lot of space. 

Thats just me though

Building MPC support

Reply #10 –
...and let's think about the quality of hardware players.
I might be wrong, but got feeling most portables aren't enough to call it hifi. It would be great to have portable with similar quality to Envy24 and Envy24ht based soundcards.
And other thing is if quality portables exist, how much those cost ?

So low bitrate stuff is even more important for portables IMHO.

Musepack support would be great idea, but I don't think any manufacturer are intrested of such.
MPC is unfortunately so rarely known, it's a pity.
Where's my Plextor ?! > Exact Audio Copy > foobar2000  > RME HDSP 9632 > Denon PMA-725R > Dynaudio Audience 42 (or Beyerdynamic DT 531)

Building MPC support

Reply #11 –
Mpc support for some non-portables like DVD-players/-drives or car stereos could actually be more feasible. I'd imagine some manufacturers would like advertising their players by being able to play several different formats. Portables have some issues with higher bitrates it seems.

Building MPC support

Reply #12 –
Quote
Portables have some issues with higher bitrates it seems.

Whats the issue w/ higher bitrates? I know I could transcode or re-encode or bitstrip (w/ ogg) but with the size of the players iPod, Zen, ect, I really dont care to much about size (lossless is to big). But what is the problem with high bitrates?

Building MPC support

Reply #13 –
You seem to have a short memory . I didn't bring up any issues myself, because I was pointing at the ones already mentioned by others (namely MiChael and Mike Giacomelli).

Building MPC support

Reply #15 –
If the developer of the codec doesn't even care about a thread such as this, than what's the f***'n  point. It's not gonna happen. I wish that it would, but at some point you have to accept reality.

Edit: Sorry, didn't mean for that to sound harsh. I just think it's a waste of time, unfortunately.
flac > schiit modi > schiit magni > hd650

Building MPC support

Reply #16 –
Quote
If the developer of the codec doesn't even care about a thread such as this, than what's the f***'n  point. It's not gonna happen. I wish that it would, but at some point you have to accept reality.

Actually, I think it's been a fair amount of time since Frank last visited HA, let alone read threads talking about MPC.

Now, what is the message sent to hardware developers, if the developer of the format isn't showing up to discuss it, or even to show that he's alive?

Building MPC support

Reply #17 –
Quote
Now, what is the message sent to hardware developers, if the developer of the format isn't showing up to discuss it, or even to show that he's alive?

That pretty much sums it up. I think we all wish for MPC to continue, but I have given up on it. I deleted my 10GB+ of MPC files (for disc space), and moved on to other formats.
flac > schiit modi > schiit magni > hd650

Building MPC support

Reply #18 –
@rjamorim

Off topic question: Have you heard Rush in Rio? If you're a Rush fan at all, you should. I only mention it because it was recorded in Rio. The crowd there was incredible.
flac > schiit modi > schiit magni > hd650

Building MPC support

Reply #19 –
Quote
@rjamorim

Off topic question: Have you heard Rush in Rio? If you're a Rush fan at all, you should. I only mention it because it was recorded in Rio. The crowd there was incredible.

Nope.

I like Rush a lot, but Rio is not a good place to be. At all. Crime there got completely out of hand (what the news show is only a fraction of what really happens), and these shows attract lots of pickpocketers (sometimes even flash-kidnappers) that are usually waiting for you at the exit.

The only time I traveled away from my town to watch a show was to watch Roger Waters. It wasn't in Rio, but even if it was, I would go anyway.

Building MPC support

Reply #20 –
Quote
I deleted my 10GB+ of MPC files (for disc space), and moved on to other formats.


Huh? Now, that's silly. Even if mpc wasn't going to be developed anywhere ever, it's still the best lossy codec available. I'll happily use mpc for a long time now.

Building MPC support

Reply #21 –
It's not silly if you need the disc space. I'd rather use it for a format that has a chance of hardware support.
flac > schiit modi > schiit magni > hd650

Building MPC support

Reply #22 –
Ok, you've got a point. But I believe mpc still has a chance of hardware support as long as there are people who want it. I personally don't even need that, though, since I only play music at my comp, but it'd be nice.

Building MPC support

Reply #23 –
Quote
Ok, you've got a point. But I believe mpc still has a chance of hardware support as long as there are people who want it.

as long as there are lots of people who want it.

Face it, the few hundreds of HA users that know about MPC and actively use it aren't enough to convince the hardware manufacturers. Even Vorbis and it's thousands of open source advocates aren't enough in some cases.

Building MPC support

Reply #24 –
Quote
Quote
Now, what is the message sent to hardware developers, if the developer of the format isn't showing up to discuss it, or even to show that he's alive?

That pretty much sums it up. I think we all wish for MPC to continue, but I have given up on it. I deleted my 10GB+ of MPC files (for disc space), and moved on to other formats.

I've had this very thought in my head for a few weeks now too (like many other MPC users, I suppose), especially since the launch of the Rio Karma and the release of the iRiver Vorbis firmware. I'm not going as far as deleting all my stuff yet, but at least I'm not ripping to MPC anymore (gradually re-ripping my CDs to lossless). Sad but true...

What bugs me is that nobody could have anticipated this [lack of] development a year or so ago. Many users have invested weeks/months in ripping their collection to MPC, only to find out now that development is pretty much over and that the files *will* remain useless outside a PC. People like guruboolez have also spent hours finding problem clips which could have been used for encoder tuning - for nothing, so it seems now. Even a year ago Frank Klemm's presence in "the scene" was already diminishing, so he might as well have told the community back then that he was losing interest.