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Is Amazon Ultra HD up-sampled?

WillVT

WillVT

Super Member
I just discovered that an album that was just released seems to be up-sampled/re-sampled by Amazon from the original they were given.
My brother's band just released a collaboration album with another band. He also produced and engineered it. According to him, the files he gave to Amazon were 24bit/48kHz wav files. But, what I see on Amazon unlimited are 24bit/192kHz "Ultra HD."

What's going on here? I realize this is splitting hairs, but this seems like false marketing, and kind of makes me question what exactly Amazon is doing with any of their HD/Ultra HD stuff.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about this stuff, but I'd love to hear what y'all think.
 
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WillVT said:
I just discovered that an album that was just released seems to be up-sampled/re-sampled by Amazon from the original they were given.
My brother's band just released a collaboration album with another band. He also produced and engineered it. According to him, the files he gave to Amazon were 24bit/48kHz wav files. But, what I see on Amazon unlimited are 24bit/192kHz "Ultra HD."

What's going on here? I realize this is splitting hairs, but this seems like false marketing, and kind of makes me question what exactly Amazon is doing with any of their HD/Ultra HD stuff.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about this stuff, but I'd love to hear what y'all think.
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Your brother, or whoever did the placement, might be able to get an answer from Amazon. If he does follow up, I'd like to know what he finds out.
 
Actually, it's worse. I misunderstood what he told me. The highest res version they have, (24/48) is on their Bandcamp page. He gives the files to an aggregator who distributes to the streaming companies. Supposedly they only accept 16/44.1 files. So at least in this particular case, Amazon is up-sampling them to 24/192.
 
WillVT said:
Actually, it's worse. I misunderstood what he told me. The highest res version they have, (24/48) is on their Bandcamp page. He gives the files to an aggregator who distributes to the streaming companies. Supposedly they only accept 16/44.1 files. So at least in this particular case, Amazon is up-sampling them to 24/192.
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Seems to me if this was the industry norm, someone would have "gone public" with this info a long time ago.
 
I really don't know a whole lot about this topic. I was just talking to my brother about his new album, and how it sounded great in HD. He was surprised that it was at that format on Amazon, thus the discussion.
I guess Big labels don't use these aggregators so they may be are able to give HD files? It's mostly indie labels that use aggregators.
The album in question is Greybird, by Greyhounds and T-bird and the Breaks.
 
GChief said:
So, it sounds bad, better, different compared to the original?
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It sounds great. I'm just curious how Amazon is streaming 24/192 files, when what they received was 16/44.1.
It kind of makes me wonder about all of their Ultra HD content. How much of it is BS?
I'm fine with Redbook CD quality files, and I can't hear a difference. It just seems fishy that they are either lying about what they are actually streaming, or they up-sampled it. Which is also kind of lying.
 
WillVT said:
I just discovered that an album that was just released seems to be up-sampled/re-sampled by Amazon from the original they were given.
My brother's band just released a collaboration album with another band. He also produced and engineered it. According to him, the files he gave to Amazon were 24bit/48kHz wav files. But, what I see on Amazon unlimited are 24bit/192kHz "Ultra HD."

What's going on here? I realize this is splitting hairs, but this seems like false marketing, and kind of makes me question what exactly Amazon is doing with any of their HD/Ultra HD stuff.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about this stuff, but I'd love to hear what y'all think.
Click to expand...
BUSTED.
 
spark1 said:
Can you refer me to a source for this claim of widespread misrepresentation? Thanks.
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High Res content likely is High Res. Content which is not, is what it is, and upsampled likely. Provenance of the content. Lots of digital which is not Amazon HD or anybody's HD. Case by case basis. They get what the labels supply them.
 
How does up sampling work anyway? I don't get bow you can get more from something that just doesn't have it to give.
 
Lavane said:
I bought an upsacaling DVD player and that was a joke. It was a bit of misleading advertising by Sony. Right on the box it stated 4K Ultra. After buying it I found the fine print on the box.
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Yep... but I have seen people on here recommending old ass up sampling CDPs when someone asks, "what old CDP should I get".
 
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