23 May 2007

How to play 24 bit WAV files in Windows Media Player & Media Encoder

I do a bit of recording and usually bounce my tracks to 16bit WAVs because Windows Media Player doesn't support 24bit WAV out of the box and I couldn't find the right codecs.  I also use Windows Media Encoder to convert my WAVs to WMAs for my streaming server and have only been able to use 16bit WAVs for that as well.  FFDSHOW allows me to bounce to 24bit and play them in WMP and WME!

Alex Zambelli (an SDET on Codes) helped out with this:

It might be overkill, but Ffdshow Audio Decoder can handle playback of 24-bit and floating point WAVs in DirectShow (and thus WMP).

 

http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/ has the latest beta 2 build.

 

To minimize its footprint, disable all video and audio codecs it handles by default during install. Once it’s installed, launch the audio decoder configuration pane and under “Codecs” select “Uncompressed” à 24-bit integer.

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# TK said:

This was very helpful! This problem has annoyed me for ages and I already had FFDshow installed for video so it was simple to sort out WMP to play 24bit this way. Many thanks!

07 August 07 at 1:02 PM
# Steve said:

Ta very much bra. It's bugged me too, I don't know why it took me this  long to sort it out. Hope i can get it to work ok.

29 August 07 at 8:25 PM
# Gordon Currie said:

There is an easier way to do this:

http://www.chrisnet.net/samples

Here is the DirectShow filter (.ax) that enables 24 bit audio from a legacy WAVE container:

http://www.chrisnet.net/samples/AudioTypeConvertSource.zip

09 September 07 at 1:53 PM
# McSound said:

The better way is setting "all supported " instead of "24-bit integer", cause 32 bit and 64 bit could be played also.

16 October 07 at 10:33 AM
# Avinash said:

Guys,

This has been a great thread; thanks to you, I solved a persistent and annoying problem.

Cheers, and may the sun shine on your efforts.

08 November 07 at 1:26 PM
# Brent said:

The K-Lite Codec pack will also allow you to play 24-bit files through WMP. It uses the aforementioned ffdshow audio decoders...

07 December 07 at 4:31 PM
# Chris Parsons said:

As Gordon Currie already pointed out the problem is not Windows Media Player but the WAV container, more specificly the format block stored in the WAV container.

Windows Media Player *does* support multi-channel, 24/32-bit WAV files out of the box, but the format block must use the WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE header.  Why Microsoft decided to force this I'm not sure, I understand giving the option but it creates a lot of headaches by not supporting the legacy format.

That is why I wrote a DirectShow filter that gets inserted automatically when needed to translate from the WAVEFORMATEX format to the WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE format.  Don't worry, not a single bit of data is changed in any way, what comes in is what goes out.  Whether your sound card actually supports greater than 16-bits is a different issue but at least the files will play.

Get it here:

http://chrisnet.net/code.htm

Scroll down to Legacy HD Audio Filter

09 January 08 at 5:22 PM
# Watto said:

Thanks, mate - beautiful!

:)

24 February 08 at 8:10 PM
# Brendan Power said:

Hmmm... I tried both the downloads offered above, but still can't play 24bit 44.1 wave files that are on a DVD sent to me by a friend in America. Is there possibly another issue here?

If you could reply also to my email address I'd be grateful: bren@brendan-power.com

Cheers,

Brendan

09 March 08 at 5:10 PM
# brian marshall said:

Just spent two hours upgrading WMP and searching thru M'soft crap help and all I got was a headache. This is amazing! Why can't Microsoft work this one out - it's their problem after all and the fact that millions of musicians now use 24bit as standard, (or higher) and probably use WMP for auditioning sounds, they should wake up and see what the world is really doing!

BIG THANKS, my headache is going already!!!

What clever guys at ffdshow - thanks to you guy too.

PS - if this fix doesn't work try DROPSOUND - here's one link, there's many - http://www.cdxtract.com/dropsound.php

this little prog (less than 100k) will play everything with no settings or adjustments - brill!

04 May 08 at 2:32 PM
# E.SAD 3G said:

Thanks B. Marshall

Man it's been tough as a producer and WMP not able to hook a brotha up.  I've just ran into this problem though late in the game, Lol, as I've been more or less an MP3 type of guy.  Now errrbody wants that 24bit Wave Yo.  

  That little program is tight.  It audition the sounds and then it's out.  A&R's probably would love this program rather than having to listen to a clients entire song. Ha! haa!

 Thanks for all that gave of their time and efforts to help us all.  I appreciate it!

ESAD 3G  

16 November 08 at 7:02 AM
# Rasmus Fris said:

Great!!

very usefull info!!

Rasmus

27 December 08 at 5:39 AM
# Romeo said:

Great thanks..

very useful..

thanks again

05 March 09 at 7:52 AM
# Lola said:

Hi thanks a lot! Now I can get NIN's new album to play in glorius HD :)

31 March 09 at 9:44 AM
# James said:

Will the above tips allow 24 bit FLAC to play? My players (Foobar2000, VLC Media Player) play them at half speed...

04 May 09 at 6:13 AM
# Etracks said:

Thanks, very helpful been looking for something like this for the longest...

Peace, Etracks....

22 July 09 at 11:07 AM

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