regarding gapless playback on new players

[p0rkch0p2007]

well.... will a firmware update for the new players be able to allow gapless playback, or would it need to be done in another way? if it is only a firmware update why not put a petition on here like the other guy did for the older players?

[Guest Stuge]

Yes,If new player doesn't support gapless ,then firmware update is required .

[metal]

well.... will a firmware update for the new players be able to allow gapless playback, or would it need to be done in another way? if it is only a firmware update why not put a petition on here like the other guy did for the older players?

Unfortunately, there appears only a very few of us really care gapless, or not?

[GusG]

Sorry for the ignorance but what is exactly the gapless playback? no breaks between tracks?

Edited September 5, 2007 by GusG

[willykyu]

Exactly!

Gapless is the main reason I always used Atrac (then battery life and sound quality!). I have a lots of concerts and house megamix CDs, and it's always been a pleasure not to have any unpleasant interruptions.

Now I'm pretty worried about that! I read somewhere that WMA used gapless, and last generation Ipods have gapless enabled (that you can specify into Itunes).

I tried Windows media player as a music manager, and I'm sorry to say it's far from perfect, not so easy to use, and has a "not so good" tag management. And of course no gapless options to be found...

[Zizone_]

As for me, I only appreciate gapless for live albums. But for regular album tracks, I prefer having gap of 1 to 2 seconds; I feel like each song has its own sacred realm that can't be in direct contact with other songs, even those songs may be from same album/CD. Well, that's just me though.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Zizone

[pata2001]

Now I'm pretty worried about that! I read somewhere that WMA used gapless, and last generation Ipods have gapless enabled (that you can specify into Itunes).

I tried Windows media player as a music manager, and I'm sorry to say it's far from perfect, not so easy to use, and has a "not so good" tag management. And of course no gapless options to be found...

WMA is only gapless when played within Windows Media Player. So far, there is no hardware DAP that can play WMA gaplessly.

I believe Winamp now also support gapless transfer to iPods, so you don't have to use iTunes.

[pata2001]

But for regular album tracks, I prefer having gap of 1 to 2 seconds;

Well, that is obvious isn't it? There is no point playing non-gapless tracks gaplessly (it's not even possible unless you edit the tracks manually to delete the lead-in/out). The point is when you need gapless playback on albums that is intended to be played gaplessly by the artist, the audio player shall obey that.

[Zizone_]

Well, that is obvious isn't it? There is no point playing non-gapless tracks gaplessly (it's not even possible unless you edit the tracks manually to delete the lead-in/out). The point is when you need gapless playback on albums that is intended to be played gaplessly by the artist, the audio player shall obey that.

haha yeah. I never tried to play album songs gaplessly and didn't even know it was not possible. Yeah, and I agree with on your comment that DAP should follow artist's intention.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Zizone

[Akai Kenshi]

From what I understand, LAME encoded MP3s and iTunes and Nero AAC files are capable of being played back gaplessly. Its just a matter of the player pre-caching the next track and keeping the audio stream open during the transition, instead of closing the stream to load the next track then opening it back up again, causing a gap. This would be contingent on the firmware programing.

[pata2001]

From what I understand, LAME encoded MP3s and iTunes and Nero AAC files are capable of being played back gaplessly. Its just a matter of the player pre-caching the next track and keeping the audio stream open during the transition, instead of closing the stream to load the next track then opening it back up again, causing a gap. This would be contingent on the firmware programing.

Nope. That was the method used by the Rio Karma. Recent Lame encoder and iTunes chose the much easier method, using tags. Lame MP3 put a tag indicating the exact length of the music, and hardware/software that can read that (foobar, rockbox) will be able to play the tracks gaplessly. iTunes' is the same way, but using its own tags that are compatible only with iPods on the hardware side (I think newer versions of foobar and winamp can read those tags too).

[Akai Kenshi]

Nope. That was the method used by the Rio Karma. Recent Lame encoder and iTunes chose the much easier method, using tags. Lame MP3 put a tag indicating the exact length of the music, and hardware/software that can read that (foobar, rockbox) will be able to play the tracks gaplessly. iTunes' is the same way, but using its own tags that are compatible only with iPods on the hardware side (I think newer versions of foobar and winamp can read those tags too).

Does that somehow not involve pre-caching and keeping a constant audio stream?

I know that gaps are inherent in some formats, non-LAME mp3's for example would be encoded with a bit of silence at the beginning.

EDIT: Okay, I see what you're saying, the player also has to be able to read those tags that specify the exact length of the track in order to be able to cough up the next one immediately. So, why can the S7** series play only SonicStage-encoded AAC files (the quality of which I wasn't particularly impressed by, ATRAC sounded better at the same bitrate) gaplessly, but not others? Something to do with some database that SS creates for them?

Edited September 6, 2007 by Akai Kenshi

[pata2001]

So, why can the S7** series play only SonicStage-encoded AAC files (the quality of which I wasn't particularly impressed by, ATRAC sounded better at the same bitrate) gaplessly, but not others? Something to do with some database that SS creates for them?

Well, you have to ask Sony about that. IMO simple stupidity and oversight of Sony, the usual. Even Sonicstage cannot play the .3gp files gaplessly, albeit the S70x can. How silly is that?