FLAC 1.1.4, smaller, faster, better Options

[DJ-Egg]

@ ZnOOZer

Can you please confirm that you're using Nullsoft FLAC Decoder v2.0 (as included with Winamp 5.34 Beta Full), and not the in_flac included with the FLAC 1.1.4 package.

If you are definitely using the latest Nullsoft in_flac, then could you possibly upload a sample flac file somewhere (zip it up first) to eg. sendspace.com and post the link here.

[ZnOOZer]

Yep, I'm using the Nullsoft FLAC decoder.
Just found out that the problem doesn't show up when using classic skins, just for the modern ones.

[Junon]

Yep, I'm using the Nullsoft FLAC decoder.
Just found out that the problem doesn't show up when using classic skins, just for the modern ones.

The only modern skin-related problem I've ever experienced resulted out of Desktop Alpha Blending being enabled. It can heavily drain CPU performance, possibly causing Winamp to suffer stability issues while using the FLAC input plug-in. Make sure Alpha Blending is disabled.

[TBeck]

I recorded a video so it should be a bit easier to see the problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp0CK6wO1t8

As you can see it's slow and a bit strange acting overall. One thing you should take a look at is that when I play a file twice in a row it runs perfect the second time. My guess is that there's some king of buffering problem, what do you think?
I also went back to 1.1.2 again to remember what that was like and I saw no signs of delays with the seek bar there.

Yep, I'm using the Nullsoft FLAC decoder.
Just found out that the problem doesn't show up when using classic skins, just for the modern ones.

Hm, all this reminds me of the behaviour of my TAK plugin if used with Winamp 5.x: Delays of the seekbar (but not of the playback itself), which vanish, if you switch to the classic skin....

[DJ-Egg]

The plot thickens....

Alas, we still can't reproduce it


@ TBeck
TAK plugin?

[TBeck]

@ TBeck
TAK plugin?

I was talking about the playback plugin i wrote for my lossless audio compressor TAK: TAK Winamp plugin

I wrote it for Winamp 2.x, possibly there are some compatibility issues if used for 5.3x?

[DJ-Egg]

There is now a newer Nullsoft in_flac v2.0 available via:
Winamp 5.34 Beta, Build 1178.

in_flac-specific changes
* Fixed: FLAC files showing full path in playlist when ATF is disabled
* Fixed: in_flac trying to play non-existent .flac entries instead of skipping over them
* Fixed: Crash with .flac and .wav files when using CuePlayer plugin


Full changelog

[blip]

Can someone give tell me the proper way to upgrade from 1.1.3 to 1.1.4, as 1.1.4 doesn't have the installer yet? I've downloaded flac-1.1.4-win.zip, but I'm not sure what to do with the files, and don't want to totally screw up things.
Thanks!!

[Synthetic Soul]

Simply replace (overwrite) the old executables with the new.

You may want to do a find in Explorer for FLAC.EXE and METAFLAC.EXE if you don't know where the current executables are. If you previously used the installer I would assume "Program Files\FLAC" though.

This post has been edited by Synthetic Soul: Mar 17 2007, 20:48

[funkyblue]

Still no updated installer. Is there an ETA?
Thanks

[blip]

Simply replace (overwrite) the old executables with the new.

Thanks for the help. Do I need to do anything with the COPYING.GPL files? (and I'm assuming the files in the Doc folder are just for documentation)

[ZnOOZer]

The Nullsoft in_flac v2.0 is updated again and is included in the new build:
Winamp 5.34 Beta, Build 1195.

in_flac-specific changes
* Fixed: Winamp freezes when seeking paused flac files


Full changelog


Thanks to benski, DJ-Egg and the rest in the Winamp team!

This post has been edited by ZnOOZer: Mar 20 2007, 22:18

[jcoalson]

Still no updated installer. Is there an ETA?

sorry, I've had no word from mike lately.

I'm thinking I need to commission a windows installer from some volunteer. I would like to have it be open source and in CVS so I can build it also. if anyone has the NSI (or other suitable) skills and wants to contribute, let me know.

Josh

[RunawayTrane]

Still no updated installer. Is there an ETA?
Thanks

I think I will stay with 1.1.3 until that installer is updated

[Synthetic Soul]

If you already have FLAC then there is no point. Just download the updated executables and replace the old ones. It's not difficult.

[user]

Could we or Josh or somebody who assembles a package for Josh, offer a 1.1.4 package for download instead of the windows1.1.3.installer ?
So, instead of the outdated 1.1.3installer, we offer 1.1.4 with a help text file all included in a zip, where which specified files should be copied into, like into windows-system32 directory or what/whereever.
At least, until we have a real 1.1.4installer, this package is a better solution than offering 1.1.3installer.

This post has been edited by user: Mar 29 2007, 11:32

[jcoalson]

that's already there, if you follow the (tools only) link on the download page to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ackage_id=12675

edit: ah, maybe you meant that includes all the extra stuff that is in the installer...

This post has been edited by jcoalson: Mar 29 2007, 16:29

[user]

of course, if I write "replace the 1.1.3 installer" with 1.1.4 , then I mean it that way,
as of today, 3rd April, there is still the 1.1.3b installer.
Please, remove this 1.1.3 thing, and replace either with link to normal 1.1.4 download, or zip a small package with txt file, which explains howto "install" flac114.

[Q-W-Y]

Links are broken here http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

[jcoalson]

windows installer ready for testing: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=54439

[=]ston3y[=]

Thanks for all the great work and also the new installer!
Especially the new feature (since 1.1.3) of embedding pictures is great.

But unfortunately if you want to embed many or very large pictures you'll have a problem:
Since every time you embed a larger image the whole file has to be re-written (unfortunately the metadata are at the beginning of the file) it can take quite a while to embed all images in a large FLAC file. To avoid this you have two choices: either embed all images at one using a very long command line or add sufficient padding.

But either way you may run into problems: When a command line gets longer than 2047 or 8191 characters (depending on your version of windows) it won't work. And as far as I know neither flac.exe nor metaflac.exe accept parameters from a text file (which would solve this problem). For embedding many images (especially with long file names and maybe descriptions) this could get problematic. So I figured that providing for enough padding seems the way to go. But metaflac.exe only allows padding up to < 2^24 bytes (16MB). That may seem a lot - but when you're adding hi-res scans to a complete CD image it often is not enough.

flac.exe doesn't seem to have this limitation, but even with lots of padding metaflac.exe still re-writes the file for (almost) every embedded image...

Any suggestions?

[jcoalson]

are you saying that if you metaflac --import-picture-from several large pictures, that it will rewrite the file for each picture addition? it's written to only rewrite the file once after all ops have been processed.

I can see the problem with commandline-length limitations. I don't know why the windows limit is so small. on practically every other modern OS this is not a problem.

[=]ston3y[=]

are you saying that if you metaflac --import-picture-from several large pictures, that it will rewrite the file for each picture addition? it's written to only rewrite the file once after all ops have been processed.

No, I meant that to avoid such long command lines I would like to add every image separately (in a batch file) - after adding sufficient padding first. But even with several times the amount of padding needed (e.g. after adding it while encoding with flac.exe - which seems to allow bigger paddings) metaflac still rewrites the file even when there is more than enough padding left.

It seems to me that not only metaflac can't add such large paddings but either that flac.exe also has a problem with them (without saying so) or that metaflac can't even utilize pre-existing large paddings.

I can see the problem with commandline-length limitations. I don't know why the windows limit is so small. on practically every other modern OS this is not a problem.

Microsoft commented on this problem here. Don't know about Vista but I doubt that this has changed. What else would you expect from the "640 Kilobyte ought to be enough for anybody"-company. I think it would be great if an option could be added to (meta)flac which allows to read other parameters from a text file:

CODE

flac.exe --parameter-from-file=<FILE> <INPUTFILE>

This would certainly solve my problem by eliminating the need for huge paddings (although if those would work it would be cool, too ).

This post has been edited by =]ston3y[=: May 5 2007, 13:11

[agentk7]

Hi Josh,

The new installer seemed to work fine on my XP install. I had the older 1.1.2a installed and it prompted to uninstall it and seemed to work fine. (Nitpick: On the uninstall text from your installer it mentions "Winamp now comes with Flac support, maybe mention a specific version number like "Winamp 5.34 and higher")

Anyway, it looks like the FLAC Frontend tagger component does not have the updated code that was mentioned in this thread to not overwrite the FLAC version string. (With your current installer tagger.exe program overwrites the FLAC version string with 1.1.2 if you tag the file with FLAC Frontend.)

On a different note, the author of the Windows FLAC Tester program, would he allow that program to be included with the Windows installer? I have found that to be a great tool to test my flacs after I back them up to a different drive, etc.

[=]ston3y[=]

Can anybody confirm that metaflac can't handle such large paddings (even if they were created without error by flac)?