FLAC 1.0.3 Released Options

[jcoalson]

Yes, it's finally here. See the homepage for details, but here's a summary:

- 10-15% decoder speedup
- 24-bit input support restored
- more robust plugins
- new metadata block for Vorbis-style tags
- vastly improved metadata editor
- fixed bug with pipes and Windows
- new libFLAC++, a C++ object wrapper around libFLAC
- new metadata editing interface in libFLAC and libFLAC++
- and more...

http://flac.sourceforge.net/
http://flac.sourceforge.net/news.html#20020703

The new metadata interface and/or metaflac should be especially useful to frontends as they make tagging with Vorbis tags very simple.

Josh

[Garf]

Does it work on non-x86 systems now?

--
GCP

[Sachankara]

Very cool... I've been waiting for this some time now... All that is missing now is a powerful tag support that can rename files on extraction in whatever way you want using the tag data...

[Ardax]

Woo!

Congrats Josh!

/me wanders off to play with the new release...

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by Garf
Does it work on non-x86 systems now?

-- 
GCP

Not sure what you mean... FLAC has had solaris-sparc binary releases from the beginning and darwin-ppc since 1.0.1. It should build almost anywhere you'd expect it to. Somebody mentioned a problem on 64-bit Alpha's but someone else said it worked fine. Hell, it even runs on an ARM 10 in the PhatBox.

Originally posted by Sachankara
Very cool... I've been waiting for this some time now... All that is missing now is a powerful tag support that can rename files on extraction in whatever way you want using the tag data...

There's EasyTAG or Tag; hopefully they'll add support for Vorbis tags in FLAC.

Josh

[Garf]

Originally posted by jcoalson

Not sure what you mean... FLAC has had solaris-sparc binary releases from the beginning and darwin-ppc since 1.0.1.  It should build almost anywhere you'd expect it to.  Somebody mentioned a problem on 64-bit Alpha's but someone else said it worked fine.  Hell, it even runs on an ARM 10 in the PhatBox.

Both Frank Klemm and Monty were complaining they couldn't get FLAC 1.0.2 to decode files on non-x86 systems.

--
GCP

[rjamorim]

Fast compile of Flac 1.0.3 available at RareWares.

Regards;

Roberto.

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by Garf


Both Frank Klemm and Monty were complaining they couldn't get FLAC 1.0.2 to decode files on non-x86 systems.

Yeah, Frank routinely claims FLAC "doesn't work" but won't give any details even when I ask directly. I haven't heard anything from Monty about it but I would give that more credibility. There are no bug reports filed about it and people are using it routinely on all kinds of systems and have been since 1.0. But I would welcome any specifics.

Josh

[Sachankara]

Originally posted by jcoalson
There's EasyTAG or Tag; hopefully they'll add support for Vorbis tags in FLAC.

Josh

Well, I was thinking/hoping for native support within the executable and setting all the "output rules" via the command line... Not via an external application...

[spoon]

Excellent Josh I shall update the dBpowerAMP codecs in the next few days.

If I read the announcements correctly (ok haven't had chance download it yet <slap wrist>), what is the full story with tags - previously there were ID3v1 andv2, now the SDK defaults to Vorbis tags? does the SDK emigrate old tags to new tags?

[rocketsauce]

Whenever I use the new version of the Winamp plugin to play a FLAC file I get a message saying:

ERROR: invalid/missing FLAC metadata

I then click OK and in the Winamp playlist window, instead of showing the file name, it shows:

Invalid FLAC File: ""

The file still plays. However, I don't get the error message if I use the previous version of the plugin.

Since the files I had were encoded with FLAC 1.0.2, I tried decoding them and re-encoding (with FLAC Frontend) using the newer encoder, but I still get the same error message. I tried this with the bundle downloaded from the FLAC website and also the versions from Rarewares.

I'm using Win98SE and Winamp 2.80.

Thanks,
Rob

BTW, rjamorim, the FLAC bundle zip (dated 2002-07-04) I downloaded from your site doesn't have the files for the frontend in it.

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by spoon
Excellent Josh I shall update the dBpowerAMP codecs in the next few days.

If I read the announcements correctly (ok haven't had chance download it yet <slap wrist>), what is the full story with tags - previously there were ID3v1 andv2, now the SDK defaults to Vorbis tags? does the SDK emigrate old tags to new tags?

The API knows nothing about id3 tags except how to skip them. The plugins support id3v1 and there are some patches in for id3v2. So basically all id3 tagging is done with external tools and flac plays nice with them.

Vorbis tags are new and supported by the API and metaflac, but there are no command line options to set them in flac yet and the plugins don't read them yet. But with the new metadata interface it is much easier to add support for these.

Josh

[spoon]

Excellent, I think monkeys went the same sort of way - id3 tags then the API natively supported tags and that worked out well.

For a codec to work well it should read all 3 types, for flac files with existing id3 tags it should try to keep with them, for new files it should always use the new format. It shall be done

[Speek]

Originally posted by rocketsauce
Whenever I use the new version of the Winamp plugin to play a FLAC file I get a message saying:

ERROR: invalid/missing FLAC metadata

I then click OK and in the Winamp playlist window, instead of showing the file name, it shows:

Invalid FLAC File: ""

The file still plays.  However, I don't get the error message if I use the previous version of the plugin.

Same problem here (Win2000 & Winamp 2.80).

[madah]

With this new Flac 1.03 Winamp-plugin, I also get the same problems as rocketsauce & Speek did:

ERROR: invalid/missing FLAC metadata
then the file shows as Invalid FLAC File: ""
But the file plays fine and show correct length...

Win2000 & Winamp 2.80

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by madah
With this new Flac 1.03 Winamp-plugin, I also get the same problems as rocketsauce & Speek did:

ERROR: invalid/missing FLAC metadata
then the file shows as Invalid FLAC File: ""
But the file plays fine and show correct length...

Win2000 & Winamp 2.80

I don't have win2k but I'll try some other boxen tonight and try and reproduce it.

Josh

[john33]

Just to add my 2 cents, it happens on XP and Me too.

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by jcoalson


I don't have win2k but I'll try some other boxen tonight and try and reproduce it.

OK, I have the fix here. Winamp wasn't following it's own plugin spec...

Josh

[Agent69]

I have noticed that FLAC is available for my home operating system, a console only NetBSD box. But what I really need is a command-line program that can play FLAC files outright; something like a flac123.

Does anyone know if anyone is working on such a beast?



Thanks!


Agent69

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by Agent69
I have noticed that FLAC is available for my home operating system, a console only NetBSD box. But what I really need is a command-line program that can play FLAC files outright; something like a flac123.

Does anyone know if anyone is working on such a beast?

There's a flac123 in flac-tools .

Josh

[Peter]

Originally posted by jcoalson

Winamp wasn't following it's own plugin spec...

just for future reference: which part of plugin specs was it this time ?
(yes, i know how much wa2 plugin specs suck better than anyone else)

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by zZzZzZz

just for future reference: which part of plugin specs was it this time ?
(yes, i know how much wa2 plugin specs suck better than anyone else)

From in2.h:

CODE

void (*GetFileInfo)(char *file, char *title, int *length_in_ms); // if file == NULL, current playing is used

Winamp is sometimes calling this function for the "current playing file" case with 'file' not set to NULL, but instead pointing to an empty string (i.e. "").

Josh

[JohnV]

Hey Josh. Do you expect to gain any better compression in the near future?
You thinking to add some better algorithms like better stereo decorrelation?
According to Florin, it increased Monkey's compression quite a bit.
http://www.monkeysaudio.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/Y...8125336&start=4

[jcoalson]

Originally posted by JohnV
Hey Josh. Do you expect to gain any better compression in the near future?
You thinking to add some better algorithms like better stereo decorrelation?
According to Florin, it increased Monkey's compression quite a bit.
http://www.monkeysaudio.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/Y...8125336&start=4

I think this was based on a private conversation between Matt and Florin... I can't figure out what's special about the technique they are using from just the MAC code, unless it's specific to the adaptive predictor. FLAC already does the mid-side decorrelation.

I am open to improvements but it is not my main focus for a few reasons. One, the more exotic the techniques, the more chance of running into patents. Also, higher compression seems to significantly increase the decoder complexity. WavPack is probably the only exception here; a low complexity adaptive method is still appealing.

There's only a few percent left to gain and I think now a codec's value is in the features. But like I said, I'm open to alternatives if they fit in with the above goals.

Josh

[spoon]

I have updated the dBpowerAMP Codec to Flac 1.0.3 and is fully compatible with Ogg Tags.

You are welcome to try the new codec here:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?threadid=601

For use with either dBpowerAMP Audio Player, or dBpowerAMP Music Converter.