Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase - User contributions [en]

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2017-05-12T23:39:34Z

94.196.91.57: date change

{{Codec Infobox
| name = FLAC
| logo = [[Image:FLAC logo.gif]]
| type = lossless
| purpose = Popular open source patent free lossless compression scheme.
| maintainer = Josh Coalson, Xiph Community
| recommended_encoder = FLAC encoder
| recommended_text = FLAC v1.3.2 (1 Jan 2017)
| website = http://xiph.org/flac/
}}
'''Free Lossless Audio Codec''' ('''FLAC''') is a codec for lossless audio compression.
Grossly oversimplified, FLAC is similar to [[MP3]], but [[lossless]], meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo, if supported) just like you would a lossy file.

FLAC is supported by default in Android since version 3.1 and in Windows 10.

== General aspects of the format ==
FLAC is freely available and supported on most operating systems, including Windows, UNIX (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OS X, IRIX), BeOS, OS/2, and Amiga. There are build systems for autotools, MSVC, Watcom C, and Project Builder.

The FLAC project consists of:
* the stream format
* reference encoders and decoders in library form
* flac, a command-line program to encode and decode FLAC files
* metaflac, a command-line metadata editor for FLAC files
* input plugins for various music players

When it's said that FLAC is ''free'', it means more than just that it is available at no cost. It means that the specification of the format is fully open to the public to be used for any purpose, although the FLAC project reserves the right to set the FLAC specification and certify compliance. It also means that neither the FLAC format nor any of the implemented encoding/decoding methods are covered by any known patent. And it means that all the source code is available under [http://xiph.org/flac/license.html open-source licenses]. It is the first truly open and free lossless audio format.

== Features ==
* '''Lossless:''' The encoding of audio (PCM) data incurs no loss of information, and the decoded audio is bit-for-bit identical to what went into the encoder. Each frame contains a 16-bit CRC of the frame data for detecting transmission errors. The integrity of the audio data is further insured by storing an MD5 signature of the original unencoded audio data in the file header, which can be compared against later during decoding or testing.
* '''Fast:''' FLAC is asymmetric in favor of decode speed. Decoding requires only integer arithmetic, and is much less compute-intensive than for most perceptual codecs. Real-time decode performance is easily achievable on even modest hardware.
* '''Hardware support:''' Because of FLAC's free reference implementation, low decoding complexity and popularity, FLAC has relatively widespread hardware support compared to other lossless formats.
* '''Streamable:''' Each FLAC frame contains enough data to decode that frame. FLAC does not even rely on previous or following frames. FLAC uses sync codes and CRCs (similar to MPEG and other formats), which, along with framing, allow decoders to pick up in the middle of a stream with a minimum of delay.
* '''Seekable:''' FLAC supports fast sample-accurate seeking. Not only is this useful for playback, it makes FLAC files suitable for use in editing applications.
* '''Flexible metadata:''' New metadata blocks can be defined and implemented in future versions of FLAC without breaking older streams or decoders. Currently there are metadata types for tags, cue sheets, and seek tables. Applications can write their own APPLICATION metadata once they register an ID.
* '''Suitable for archiving:''' FLAC is an open format, and there is no generation loss if you need to convert your data to another format in the future. In addition to the frame CRCs and MD5 signature, FLAC has a verify option that decodes the encoded stream in parallel with the encoding process and compares the result to the original, aborting with an error if there is a mismatch.
* '''Convenient CD archiving:''' FLAC has a ''cue sheet'' metadata block for storing a CD table of contents and all track and index points. For instance, you can rip a CD to a single file, then import the CD's extracted cue sheet while encoding to yield a single file representation of the entire CD. If your original CD is damaged, the cue sheet can be exported later in order to burn an exact copy.
* '''Error resistant:''' Because of FLAC's framing, stream errors limit the damage to the frame in which the error occurred, typically a small fraction of a second worth of data. Contrast this with some other lossless codecs, in which a single error destroys the remainder of the stream.

== Pros ==
* Portable to many systems
* Open source and freely licensed
* Hardware support (PhatBox, Kenwood MusicKeg, Rio Karma, etc. See below)
* Streaming support
* Extremely fast decoding
* Supports multichannel and high resolution streams
* Supports [[ReplayGain]]
* Supports cue-sheet (with some limitations)
* Gaining wide use as successor to [[Shorten]]

== Cons ==
* Compresses less efficiently than other popular modern compressors ([[Monkey's Audio]], [[OptimFROG]])
* Higher compression modes slow, for little gain over the default setting.

== Hardware and software that support FLAC ==
For a more comprehensive list see the [http://xiph.org/flac/links.html FLAC links page].

=== Hardware ===
==== Car stereo ====
* Kenwood [http://www.kenwood.com/cs/ce/audiofile/index.php?model=KMM KMM series]
* Pioneer [http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/25/121/61/overview.html Car Stereo] (search FLAC)
* JVC [http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?pathId=139 KD-X "Digital Media Receivers" series] (almost all)
* Soundstream [http://soundstream.com/store/car-video/source-units.html Source Units]
* Tesla Model S
* Citroën DS5

==== Home stereo ====
* Olive's [http://www.olive.us/ Symphony] wireless digital music center
* [http://www.numark.com/ Numark]'s DJ equipment (HDX and CDX turntables, HDMIX mixer)
* [http://www.sonos.com/ Sonos Digital Music System]
* Slim Devices' [http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html Squeezebox] networked audio players

==== Portable ====
* [[Apple iPod]] with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[iAudio M3]], M5 and X5
* [[iRiver]] iHP-120/iHP-140 with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[Iwod G10]]
* [[Rio Karma]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SanDisk_Sansa SanDisk Sansa]
* TrekStor's [http://www.trekstor.de/en/products/detail_mp3.php?pid=66 Vibez]
* Devices running Android 3.1+
* [[Pono|Pono Player]]

=== Software ===
==== Players ====

'''Windows'''
* [[foobar2000]]
* [[MediaMonkey]]
* [[Winamp]]
*[http://mplayerwin.sourceforge.net/ MPlayer] Console player
* [http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd-ultra/features_en_US.html?&r=1 PowerDVD]
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMPlay]

'''Mac'''
* [http://coppertino.com/ VOX]
* [http://cogx.org/ Cog]
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]

'''Linux'''
* [http://www.clementine-player.org/ Clementine]
* [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ MPlayer]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/ MythTV]
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [[XMMS]]

==== Frontends (Windows) ====
* FLAC frontend - [http://sourceforge.net/projects/flacfrontend/ download] / [http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Download_page discussion] (ktf)
* <s> Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek) </s>

==== Frontends (Mac) ====
* [http://www.sbooth.org/Max/ Max]

==== Converters ====
* [http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ dBpowerAMP] Music Converter / Audio Player / CD Writer
* [http://www.mediamonkey.com/ MediaMonkey] Music Manager / Audio Player / CD Writer
* [http://www.freac.org/ fre:ac] Music Converter / CD Writer/Ripper

==== Editors ====
*[http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity]
* [[Adobe Audition]]
* [http://www.goldwave.com/ GoldWave]

==== CD writers/rippers ====
* [http://www.nero.com/eng/ Nero]
* [http://arson.sourceforge.net/ Arson]
* [http://www.burrrn.net Burrrn] Audio CD burner
* [[Exact Audio Copy]] CD Ripper
* [http://cdexos.sourceforge.net CDex] CD ripper
* [http://www.cdwave.com/ CD Wave]
* [http://cdburnerxp.se/ CDBurnerXP] CD writer
* [http://www.mediamonkey.com/ MediaMonkey] - CD ripper/writer

==== Taggers ====
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Mp3tag] - Universal Tag Editor
* [http://www.jtclipper.eu/thegodfather/ The GodFather] - Tagger / Music manager
* [http://sbooth.org/Tag/ Tag] - for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

* [http://www.synthetic-soul.co.uk/tag/ Case's Tag] - Command line tagger
* [https://xiph.org/flac/documentation_tools_metaflac.html metaflac] - for general metadata (including Vorbis comments) maintenance
* [[MediaMonkey]] - Tagger / Music manager (Including multiple and linked album art support)
* [http://www.xdlab.ru/en/ TagScanner] - "The Ultimate Tag Editor"

==== Other tools ====
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container
* [https://xiph.org/flac/documentation_tools_metaflac.html metaflac] - for general metadata (including Vorbis comments) maintenance, also to calculate [[ReplayGain]] values for FLAC files lacking such

for a more comprehensive list use the '''External Links''' bottom of this page to visit flac's download and link page.

== Frequently asked questions ==
''Question:'' Does the compression level affect decompression speed?

''Short Answer'': No.

''Long Answer'': In truth, the compression level does affect the decompression speed, but the difference between the various compress levels can barely be measured and is too small to be noticed, even on low-end machines.

''Question:'' What is the best compression level for encoding my music?

''Short Answer'': The default setting, 5.

''Long Answer'': Encoding at the default setting will give the best balance between compression and encoding speed. Encoding at 8 can more than quadruple the encoding time, while having an insignificant effect on compression.

== See also ==
* [[Lossless]]
* [[Lossless comparison]]

== External links ==
* [https://xiph.org/flac/ FLAC Homepage]
* [http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showforum=67 FLAC discussion]
* [http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=107611 FLAC 1.3.1 discussion]
* [http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=107913 FLAC 1.3.1 non-SSE2 build for older CPUs]
* ktf's [http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=107990 Lossless codec comparison] graphs the influence of the chosen encoding level on the encoding and decoding performance of FLAC 1.3.1 and various other lossless codecs. Omion's older test, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20091108104748/http://people.ucsc.edu/~rswilson/flactest File Size vs. Decoding Speed"], covers the influence of the chosen encoding level on the decoding speed of FLAC 1.2.1.

[[Category:Lossless]]
[[Category:Encoder/Decoder]]

Mp3tag

2017-05-12T23:20:29Z

94.196.91.57: Updated

{{Software Infobox
| name = MP3tag
| logo =
| screenshot = [[Image:MP3tag-screenshot.png|250px|MP3tag screenshot]]
| caption = powerful and easy-to-use tool to edit metadata
| maintainer = Florian Heidenreich
| stable_release = [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html 2.82] (29 April 2017)
| preview_release = [http://developer.mp3tag.de/ Beta]
| operating_system = Windows
| use = Metadata
| license = Freeware
| website = http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
}}

=Introduction=
'''MP3tag''' is an powerful and mature [[Metadata|metadata]] editor for lots of common audio formats. Its development was started in 1999 by Florian Heidenreich.

You can rename files based on the [[Tagging|tag]] information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, create playlists. The program supports online database lookups for selected files, allowing you to automatically gather proper tag information for select files or CDs. Batch processing to edit lots of ifles is supported.

==Features==

* Write [[ID3v1.1]]-, [[ID3v2]]-, [[APEv2]]-Tags and [[Vorbis_Comment|Vorbis Comments]] to multiple files at once
* Full Unicode support
* Support for embedded cover art
* Automatically create playlists
* Recursive subfolders support
* Remove parts or the entire tag of multiple files
* Rename files based on the tag information
* Import tags from filenames
* Format tags and filenames
* Replace characters or words from tags and filenames
* Regular Expressions
* Export tag information to user-defined formats (like html, rtf, csv, xml)
* Import tag information from online databases like Amazon, discogs, freedb, MusicBrain (also by text-search)
* Import tag information from local freedb databases
* Support for [[ID3v2|ID3v2.3]] (ISO-8859-1 and UTF-16) and [[ID3v2|ID3v2.4]] with [[UTF-8]]

==Supported formats==

* Advanced Audio Coding ([[AAC|aac]])
* Free Lossless Audio Codec ([[FLAC|flac]])
* Monkey's Audio ([[APE|ape]])
* Mpeg Layer 3 ([[MP3|mp3]])
* MPEG-4 ([[MP4|mp4]] / [[M4A|m4a]] / m4b / [[iTunes]] compatible)
* Musepack ([[MPC|mpc]])
* Ogg Vorbis ([[Ogg_Vorbis|ogg]])
* OptimFROG ([[OptimFROG|ofr]])
* OptimFROG DualStream (ofs)
* Opus ([[Opus|opus]])
* Speex ([[Speex|spx]])
* TAK ([[TAK]])
* True Audio (tta)
* Windows Media Audio ([[WMA|wma]])
* WavPack ([[WavPack|wv]])

==Operating Systems==
* Win XP SP3
* Win 2003
* Win Vista
* Win 2008
* Win 2012
* Win 7
* Win 8
* Win 8.1

Windows 2000 is no longer supported as of version 2.40. Version 2.39 is still available on the download page at the MP3tag website.

==External links==
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ Mp3tag: Homepage]
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html Mp3tag: Download]
* [https://forums.mp3tag.de/index.php? Mp3tag: Official forum]
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/changelog.html Mp3tag: Changelog]

* [http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Mp3tagGuide Mp3tagGuide - Slim Devices]
[[Category:Software]]
[[Category:Tag editors]]

VLC media player

2017-05-12T22:46:04Z

94.196.91.57: -

{{title|VLC Media Player}}
{{Infobox Software
| name = VLC Media Player
| logo =
| screenshot =
| caption = Cross-platform media player
| maintainer = VLC team
| stable_release = 2.2.5.1 "Weatherwax" (12 May 2017)
| preview_release = -
| operating_system = Cross-platform
| use = Media Player
| license = LGPL
| website = http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
}}

=Introduction=
'''VLC''' is a software project, which produces free and open source software for multimedia, released under the GNU General Public License.

== Features ==
* VLC is popular for its ability to play the video content of incomplete, unfinished, or damaged video downloads before the files have been fully downloaded. (For example, files still downloading via [[BitTorrent (protocol)|BitTorrent]], [[eMule]], or [[Gnutella]]). It also plays [[m2t]] MPEG Transport Streams (.TS) files while they are still being digitized from an [[HDV]] camera via a [[FireWire]] cable, making it possible to monitor the video as it is being played. This is because it is a packet-based player.
* The player also has the ability to use libcdio to access [[.iso]] files so that the user can play files on a [[disk image]], even if the user's operating system does not have the capability of working directly with .iso images.
* VLC supports all codecs and all file formats supported by [[FFmpeg]]. This means that [[VOB|DVD Video]] and [[MPEG-4]] playback as well as support for [[Ogg]] and [[Matroska]] (MKV) file formats work "out of the box". However, this feature is not unique to VLC, as any player using the FFmpeg libraries, including [[MPlayer]] and [[xine-lib]]-based players, can play those formats without need for external codecs. VLC also supports codecs that are not included in FFmpeg.
* VLC is one of the [[free software]] and [[open source]] DVD players that ignores [[DVD region code#Software DVD players|DVD region coding]], making it a region free player, even on locked RPC-2 firmware.
* VLC media player has some filters that can distort, rotate, split, [[deinterlace]], mirror videos, create display walls, or add a logo overlay. It can also produce video output as [[ASCII art]].
* VLC media player can play [[High-definition video|high definition]] recordings of [[D-VHS]] tapes duplicated to a computer using CapDVHS.exe. This offers another way to archive all D-VHS tapes with the DRM copy freely tag.
* Using a [[FireWire]] connection from cable boxes to computers, VLC can stream live, unencrypted content to a monitor or HDTV.
* VLC media player can display the playing video as the [[Computer wallpaper|desktop wallpaper]], like [[Windows DreamScene]], but this feature is not currently available on [[Linux]].
* VLC media player can do screencasts and record the desktop.
* On Microsoft Windows, VLC also supports the Direct Media Object (DMO) framework and can therefore make use of some third-party [[Dynamic-link library|DLLs]].
* VLC can be installed and run directly from a flash or other external drive.
* VLC can be extended through scripting. It uses the [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]] scripting language.

==Screenshots==

Sreenshots are available on VLC [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/screenshots.html here]

==Supported formats==
*[http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html Supported formats]

==Supported platforms==

Official Downloads of VLC media player [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/#download here]

*Windows
*Apple Platforms
*GNU/Linux

==External links==

*[http://www.videolan.org/ Official website]
*[http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS Chanelog]

[[Category:Software]]
[[Category:Media Players]]

VLC media player

2017-05-12T22:44:03Z

94.196.91.57: Updated Version and Links

{{title|VLC Media Player}}
{{Infobox Software
| name = VLC Media Player
| logo =
| screenshot =
| caption = Cross-platform media player
| maintainer = VLC team
| stable_release = 2.2.5.1 "Weatherwax" (12 May 2017)
| preview_release = -
| operating_system = Cross-platform
| use = Media Player
| license = LGPL
| website = http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
}}

=Introduction=
'''VLC''' is a software project, which produces free and open source software for multimedia, released under the GNU General Public License.

==Features==

== Features ==
* VLC is popular for its ability to play the video content of incomplete, unfinished, or damaged video downloads before the files have been fully downloaded. (For example, files still downloading via [[BitTorrent (protocol)|BitTorrent]], [[eMule]], or [[Gnutella]]). It also plays [[m2t]] MPEG Transport Streams (.TS) files while they are still being digitized from an [[HDV]] camera via a [[FireWire]] cable, making it possible to monitor the video as it is being played. This is because it is a packet-based player.
* The player also has the ability to use libcdio to access [[.iso]] files so that the user can play files on a [[disk image]], even if the user's operating system does not have the capability of working directly with .iso images.
* VLC supports all codecs and all file formats supported by [[FFmpeg]]. This means that [[VOB|DVD Video]] and [[MPEG-4]] playback as well as support for [[Ogg]] and [[Matroska]] (MKV) file formats work "out of the box". However, this feature is not unique to VLC, as any player using the FFmpeg libraries, including [[MPlayer]] and [[xine-lib]]-based players, can play those formats without need for external codecs. VLC also supports codecs that are not included in FFmpeg.
* VLC is one of the [[free software]] and [[open source]] DVD players that ignores [[DVD region code#Software DVD players|DVD region coding]], making it a region free player, even on locked RPC-2 firmware.
* VLC media player has some filters that can distort, rotate, split, [[deinterlace]], mirror videos, create display walls, or add a logo overlay. It can also produce video output as [[ASCII art]].
* VLC media player can play [[High-definition video|high definition]] recordings of [[D-VHS]] tapes duplicated to a computer using CapDVHS.exe. This offers another way to archive all D-VHS tapes with the DRM copy freely tag.
* Using a [[FireWire]] connection from cable boxes to computers, VLC can stream live, unencrypted content to a monitor or HDTV.
* VLC media player can display the playing video as the [[Computer wallpaper|desktop wallpaper]], like [[Windows DreamScene]], but this feature is not currently available on [[Linux]].
* VLC media player can do screencasts and record the desktop.
* On Microsoft Windows, VLC also supports the Direct Media Object (DMO) framework and can therefore make use of some third-party [[Dynamic-link library|DLLs]].
* VLC can be installed and run directly from a flash or other external drive.
* VLC can be extended through scripting. It uses the [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]] scripting language.

==Screenshots==

Sreenshots are available on VLC [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/screenshots.html here]

==Supported formats==
*[http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html Supported formats]

==Supported platforms==

Official Downloads of VLC media player [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/#download here]

*Windows
*Apple Platforms
*GNU/Linux

==External links==

*[http://www.videolan.org/ Official website]
*[http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS Chanelog]

[[Category:Software]]
[[Category:Media Players]]