"reference libFLAC 1.2.1 win64 20080709" and Flac 64-bits, What does this version number mean? How to compile flac for x64? Options

[Isayama]

Hello everyone

As I was browsing my flac library in foobar, I noticed that an album had an unusual decoder version displayed under the "encoder" column, "reference libFLAC 1.2.1 win64 20080709", while most of the others have "reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917" or previous "official" releases (from binaries corresponding to the ones marked on the sourceforge site of FLAC (changelog)). This album was given to me by a friend.

A quick research on Google returned links mostly to torrent sites, which were offering albums encoded with this special version (not "purposefully": mediaInfo would actually bring the encoder info up in the nfo file attached on the presentation page).
I was wondering what was hiding behind this reference, specially user-built binaries, or an unreferenced version,...?
Also, what reliability may I give to this encode/encoder?

After trying to dig the question a bit more, I found that actually 64-bits binaries weren't that easy to find (euphemism), because these specials were expected to be built case by case for the specific user needs (SSE2, SSE3...); I'm currently running some tests with x64 encoders but I have no basic knowledge in compiling at all. I'm trying to get a hand on it with oggenc and lame sources plus some info given in this HA thread, but as I'm really only a self learner in computer matters it's not improving quickly...

Why is that flac x64 binaries are not considered so useful that they'd be so difficult to find? (A more thorough search in the forum answered that question: HA search for "compile 64 bit flac") And would reference Flac encoder benefit from an update (last version dates back to 2007, I found an ICL 11.1 compile by John33 on Rarewares' lossless page from 2009, but it's the same version that has been built (1.2.1))?

I hope I made myself clear, any info would be more than welcome :-)
Thanks

reason for edit: typo + new info

This post has been edited by Isayama: Feb 18 2012, 17:56

[lvqcl]

Why is that flac x64 binaries are not considered so useful that they'd be so difficult to find?

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=777401

This post has been edited by lvqcl: Feb 18 2012, 17:59