vorbis-tools 1.4.0, libvorbis 1.3.1, and libao 1.0.0 coordinated relea, March 26, 2010 Xiph's news Options

[forart.eu]

libao 1.0.0 released
libVorbis 1.3.1 released
vorbis-tools 1.4.0 released

Xiph.Org announces the release of libao-1.0.0, libvorbis-1.3.1 and vorbis-tools-1.4.0. This is a coordinated update of the audio libraries and tools to deploy improved surround-sound support across the libraries and toolchain.

libao improvements

• AO returned to active development
• Added surround channel mapping API and capability
• Updated all drivers on modern installs
• New config file options
• Driver options may be specified in config file
• Support for MacOSX updated to 10.5 and later
• Build in WMM driver rather than using dlopen()
• Added Roar Audio driver
• Added OpenBSD SNDIO driver
• Workaround for ESD non-4096 byte write bug
• Workaround aRts server crash bug
• Workaround for VIA82xx click/crackle bugs under ALSA
• Remove dead/unused drivers (solaris, alasa05, mmsound)
• Numerous patches from multiple downstreams

libvorbis improvements
libVorbis 1.3.0 was briefly available as an unreleased staging snapshot. This official release bumps the version number to 1.3.1 to avoid any possible confusion.

• Optimized/coupled surround support for 5.1 encoding at 44.1/48kHz
• Added encoder control call to disable channel coupling
• Corrected an overflow bug in very low-bitrate encoding on 32 bit machines that caused inflated bitrates
• Numerous API hardening, leak and build fixes
• Correct bug in 22kHz compand setup that could cause a crash
• Correct bug in 16kHz codebooks that could cause unstable pure tones at high bitrates

vorbis-tools improvements
vorbis-tools 1.4.0 is the first official release of vorbis-tools since 1.2.x. 1.3.x was never offered as an official snapshot, though various versions were widely deployed as patch-sets by distributions.

• Implement corrected channel mappings for all input and playback file types
• Correct an possible infinite loop in WAV input reading code when header is corrupt
• Implement "disable_coupling" option for oggenc
• Fix Ctrl-C lockup bug in ogg123
• ogg123 directory playback in sorted order
• Add WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE support
• More translations
• Add '-' as stdin/out filename in vcut
• Add -lnetwork check for socket in configure
• Remove 'extra' F parameter from ogg123 remote output
• Numerous code and build fixes

Downloads

The libao 1.0.0 release is available from http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/ao/

The libvorbis 1.3.1 and vorbis-tools 1.4.0 releases are available from http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/vorbis/

Happy hacking!

Monty
Xiph.Org

This post has been edited by greynol: Mar 26 2010, 23:06

Reason for edit: Removed post icon.

[HotshotGG]

Seconding this question.

Also, unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like there have been any major quality changes that affect my use of Vorbis (q5/6, 2.0 stereo, 44.1kHz), so I'm guessing I should just stick with aoTuV b5.7 for now.

Can anyone confirm or deny my assessment?

Confirm and deny. The new source code implements channel coupling models for 5.1 tracks for example and changes a few minor things that's the "deny" part. The "confirm" part is the source code doesn't include any AoTuV tunings due to the fact the they have to be tested to see if they resulted in any regressions first. While most people equate to the AoTuV tunings as being "better" nobody looks at the opposite whether or not they have actually caused a regression going backwards. Once that's determined they will be merged into the next release.

This post has been edited by HotshotGG: Mar 30 2010, 23:12