Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase - User contributions [en]

Lossless comparison

2007-09-18T18:15:56Z

Josh Coalson: FLAC RIFF changes

The '''lossless comparison page''' aims to gather information about lossless codecs available so users can make an informed decision as to what lossless codec to choose for their needs.

== Introduction ==
Given the enormous amount of [[lossless]] audio compressor choices available, it is a very difficult task to choose the one most suited for each person's needs.

Several people only take into consideration compression performance when choosing a codec. But as the following table and article shows, there are several other features worth taking into consideration when making that choice.

For example, users wanting good multiplatform compatibility and robustness (E.G, people sharing live recordings) would favour [[WavPack]] or [[FLAC]]. Another user, looking for the very highest compression available, would go with [[OptimFROG]]. Someone wanting portable support would use [[FLAC]] or [[ALAC]], and so on.

En fin, this is not a matter worth getting too worked up about. If you later find out the codec you chose isn't the best for your needs, you can just transcompress to another format, without risk of losing quality.

'''Note:''' for latest comparison of lossless compression, scroll down to the [[Lossless comparison#External links|Links section of this page]].

== Comparison Table ==


{| cellspacing="2" style="text-align:center; border:1px solid blue;"
|width="120px"|'''Features'''
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | WavPack
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | ALAC
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | FLAC
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | Monkey's
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | OptimFROG
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | Shorten
|-
|align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Encoding speed
| style="background: #00FF00" | very fast
| style="background: #FFFFFF" | average
| style="background: #CCFFCC" | fast
| style="background: #CCFFCC" | fast
| style="background: #FF9900" | slow
| style="background: #00FF00" | very fast
|-
|align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Decoding speed
| style="background: #00FF00" | very fast
| style="background: #CCFFCC" | fast
| style="background: #00FF00" | very fast
| style="background: #FFFFFF" | average
| style="background: #FFFFFF" | average
| style="background: #00FF00" | very fast
|-
|align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Compression*
| style="background: #CCFFCC" | 58.0%
| style="background: #CCFFCC" | 58.50%
| style="background: #CCFFCC" | 58.70%
| style="background: #00FF00" | 55.50%
| style="background: #00FF00" | 54.70%
| style="background: #FF9900" | 63.50%
|-
|align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Flexibility**
| style="background: #00FF00" | very good
| style="background: #FF9900" | bad
| style="background: #00FF00" | very good
| style="background: #00FF00" | very good
| style="background: #00FF00" | very good
| style="background: #FF9900" | bad
|-
|style="background: #FFFFFF" |  
|-
|align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Error handling
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #FFFFFF" |  
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-
|align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Seeking
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
| style="background: #00FF00" | yes
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Tagging ||! style="background: #00FF00" | ID3/APE ||! style="background: #00FF00" | QT tags ||! style="background: #00FF00" | Vorbis tags ||! style="background: #00FF00" | ID3/APE ||! style="background: #00FF00" | ID3/APE ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
| align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Hardware support
| style="background: #FF9900" | limited
| style="background: #CCFFCC" | good
| style="background: #00FF00" | very good
| style="background: #FF9900" | limited
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
| style="background: #FF9900" | limited
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Software support ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | good ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #00FF00" | very good ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | good ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #00FF00" | very good
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Hybrid/lossy ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Replay Gain ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | sort of ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | RIFF chunks ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |   ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Streaming ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Pipe support ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Open source ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | Yes (decoding) ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Multichannel ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | High resolution ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | OS support ||! style="background: #00FF00" | All ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | Win/Mac ||! style="background: #00FF00" | All ||! style="background: #00FF00" | All ||! style="background: #00FF00" | Win/Mac/Linux ||! style="background: #00FF00" | All
|}

''(table continued below)''

{| cellspacing="2" style="text-align:center; border:1px solid blue;"
|width="120px"|'''Features'''
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | WMA
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | LA
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | TTA
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | LPAC
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | MPEG-4 ALS
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | MPEG-4 SLS
| width="95px" style="background: #00FFFF" | Real Lossless
|-
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Encoding speed ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #FF9900" | slow ||! style="background: #00FF00" | very fast ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #FF9900" | slow ||! style="background: #FF9900" | slow
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Decoding speed ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #FF9900" | slow ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | fast ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | fast ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | fast ||! style="background: #FF9900" | slow ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | fast
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Compression* ||! style="background: #00FF00" | 56.30% ||! style="background: #00FF00" | 53.50% ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | 57.10% ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | 57.20% ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | 57.10% ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | ? ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | 57.0%
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Flexibility** ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #00FF00" | very good ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad
|-
|! style="background: #FFFFFF" |  
|-
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Error handling ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |  
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Seeking ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | slow ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Tagging ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | Proprietary ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | ID3v1 ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | ID3 ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | Proprietary
|-|
| align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Hardware support
| style="background: #FF9900" | limited
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
| style="background: #FF9900" | limited
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
| style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Software support ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | good ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" | average ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad ||! style="background: #FF9900" | bad
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Hybrid/lossy ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Replay Gain ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | RIFF chunks ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |   ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |   ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |  
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Streaming ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |   ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Pipe support ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |   ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |   ||! style="background: #FFFFFF" |   ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Open source ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | Multichannel ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | High resolution ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #00FF00" | yes ||! style="background: #FF9900" | no
|-|
|! align="left" style="background: #FFFF99" | OS support ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | Win/Mac ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | Win/Linux ||! style="background: #00FF00" | All ||! style="background: #CCFFCC" | Win/Linux/Sol ||! style="background: #00FF00" | All ||! style="background: #00FF00" | All ||! style="background: #00FF00" | Win/Mac/Linux
|}

<nowiki>*</nowiki> The Compression ratio is calculated with the division of compressed size by uncompressed size * 100. So, lower is better.

Encoding speed, Decoding speed and Compression ratio are based on each encoder's default settings.

<nowiki>**</nowiki> Flexibility refers to the amount of encoding choices offered to the users (Fast/low compression, Slow/high compression and everything inbetween)

These are the most popular lossless codecs, in alphabetical order:

== Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) ==
http://www.apple.com/itunes/import.html

[[ALAC]] is a codec developed by Apple for usage in [[Apple iPod|iPod]] and AirPort Express.

=== ALAC pros ===
* Very fast decoding
* [[Open source]] ([http://craz.net/programs/itunes/alac.html decoding only])
* Hardware support ([[Apple iPod|iPod]], AirPort Express)
* Streaming support
* Tagging support (QT tags)
* Excellent hardware-software-lossy format integration with [[iTunes]]/iPod.
* Supports [[multichannel]] audio and [[high resolution]]s

=== ALAC cons ===
* Closed source (encoding)
* Limited software support
* Compression efficiency not on par with other lossless codecs
* No hybrid/lossy mode

=== ALAC Other features ===
* Fits in the [[MP4]] container
* Can be used with the AirPort Express gadget

== Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) ==
http://flac.sourceforge.net/

[[FLAC]] is a lossless codec developed by Josh Coalson. It's part of the Xiph multimedia portfolio, along with [[Ogg]], [[Vorbis]], [[Speex]] and [[Theora]].

=== FLAC pros ===
* [[Open source]]
* Very fast decoding
* Fast encoding
* Hardware support ([[Rio Karma|Karma]], Phatbox, etc.)
* Very good software support
* Error robustness
* Streaming support
* Supports [[multichannel]] audio and [[high resolution]]s
* Tagging support (FLAC tags)
* Supports [[RIFF]] chunks
* Pipe support
* [[Replay Gain]] compatible

=== FLAC cons ===
* No hybrid/lossy mode

=== FLAC Other features ===
* Supports embedded CUE sheets (with [http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html#general__no_cuesheet_tags limitations])
* Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking
* Fits the [[Ogg]] and [[Matroska]] containers

== LosslessAudio (LA) ==
http://www.lossless-audio.com/

[[LA]] is a lossless codec developed by Michael Bevin.

=== LA pros ===
* Very high compression
* Tagging support ([[ID3v1]])
* Supports [[RIFF]] chunks
* Pipe support

=== LA cons ===
* Closed source
* Very slow encoding and decoding
* Doesn't support [[multichannel]] audio and [[high resolution]]s
* No hardware support
* No hybrid/lossy mode
* Bad software support
* Doesn't support [[Replay Gain]]

'''''It's important to mention that the LA foobar plugin is buggy and doesn't produce lossless streams!'''''

== Lossless Predictive Audio Coder (LPAC) ==
http://www.nue.tu-berlin.de/wer/liebchen/lpac.html

[[Lossless Predictive Audio Coder]] (LPAC) is a lossless codec developed by Tilman Liebchen. Development of it has been halted in favour of development of [[MPEG-4]] ALS.

=== LPAC pros ===
* Reasonable compression ratios
* [[High resolution]] audio support
* Supports [[RIFF]] chunks

=== LPAC cons ===
* Closed source
* No error robustness
* Slow seeking
* No tagging
* No [[multichannel]] support
* No hybrid/lossy mode
* No hardware support
* Doesn't support [[Replay Gain]]

== Monkey's Audio (APE) ==
http://www.monkeysaudio.com/

[[Monkey's Audio]] is a very efficient lossless compressor developed by Matt Ashland.

=== APE pros ===
* [[Open source]]
* High efficiency
* Good software support
* Simple and user friendly. Official GUI provided.
* Java version (multiplatform)
* Tagging support ([[ID3v1]], [[APE tags]])
* [[High resolution]] audio support
* Supports [[RIFF]] chunks (only in the GUI encoder)
* Pipe support (only in a [http://www.etree.org/shnutils/shntool/ special] version)

=== APE cons ===
* No [[multichannel]] support
* No error robustness
* No hybrid/lossy mode
* Limited hardware support ([http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/17/gemei-x-21-offers-ape-support/ Gemei X21])
* Doesn't support [[Replay Gain]]

=== APE Other features ===
* Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking
* Supports APL image link files (similar to CUE sheets)

== MPEG-4 SLS ==
MPEG-4 SLS allows audio encoding from lossless scalable to [[AAC]].

=== SLS pros ===
* Transcoding to standard AAC or any higher lossy bitrate at the speed of copying a file
* Scalable decoding from lossless, to any bitrate down to the AAC core track
* Best lossless compression available when you count the AAC track (~5% gain over any other lossless compression + AAC)
* [[High resolution]] audio support
* Multi channel audio support
* [[Open source]] (MPEG-4 Reference code)
* Embedded in standard MP4 files, so supports same tagging and Replay Gain features as AAC does.

=== SLS cons ===
* No usable software available yet
* Pure lossless compression not the best there is
* Seems to be slow in encoding and decoding, but we have to wait for released software

=== SLS Other features ===
* Transform based lossless codec with optional LC AAC core track

== OptimFROG (OFR) ==
http://losslessaudiocompression.com/

[[OptimFROG]] is a lossless format developed by Florin Ghido to become the champion in audio compression.

=== OFR pros ===
* Very high compression
* Good software support
* Error robustness
* Streaming support
* Supports [[high resolution]]s
* Hybrid/lossy mode
* Tagging support ([[ID3]], [[APE tags]])
* Supports [[RIFF]] chunks
* [[Replay Gain]] compatible

=== OFR cons ===
* Closed source
* No [[multichannel]] audio support
* No hardware support
* Quite slow decoding

=== OFR Other features ===
* Supports 32bit float streams
* Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking

== RealAudio Lossless (RAL) ==
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/codecs/realaudio.html

RealAudio lossless is the lossless codec developed by Real Networks for their multimedia portfolio

=== RAL pros ===
* Very fast decoding
* Streaming support
* Tagging support (proprietary)

=== RAL cons ===
* Closed source
* No [[multichannel]] and [[high resolution]] audio support
* Little software support (Real Player)
* No hardware support
* Compression efficiency not on par with other lossless codecs
* No hybrid/lossy mode
* No pipe support
* Doesn't support [[Replay Gain]]

== Shorten (SHN) ==
http://www.etree.org/shnutils/shorten/

[[Shorten]] is a very old and featureless lossless codec developed by Tony Robinson at SoftSound.

=== SHN pros ===
* [[Open source]]
* Fast decoding
* Very good software support
* Supports [[RIFF]] chunks
* Pipe support

=== SHN cons ===
* Quite inefficient
* No [[multichannel]] or [[high resolution]] audio support
* No hybrid/lossy mode
* No error robustness
* Not streamable
* No hardware support
* No native tagging
* Doesn't support [[Replay Gain]]

== True Audio (TTA) ==
http://www.true-audio.com/

[[TTA]] is a new lossless codec developed by a team of russian programmers.

=== TTA pros ===
* [[Open source]]
* Good efficiency
* Hardware support (obscure DVD player)
* Supports [[multichannel]] audio and [[high resolution]]s
* Tagging support ([[ID3]])
* [[Replay Gain]] compatible
* Error robustness

=== TTA cons ===
* No streaming support
* No hybrid/lossy mode
* Doesn't support [[RIFF]] chunks
* No pipe support

=== TTA Other features ===
* Fits the [[Matroska]] container

== WavPack (WV) ==
http://www.wavpack.com/

[[WavPack]] is a fast and featureful lossless codec developed by David Bryant.

=== WV pros ===
* [[Open source]]
* Very fast decoding
* Very fast encoding
* Good efficiency
* Error robustness
* Streaming support
* Hardware support ([http://www.rockbox.org/ RockBox])
* Supports [[multichannel]] audio and [[high resolution]]s
* Hybrid/lossy mode
* Tagging support ([[ID3v1]], [[APE tags]])
* Supports [[RIFF]] chunks
* Ability to create self extracting files for Win32 platform
* Pipe support
* Good software support
* [[Replay Gain]] compatible

=== WV cons ===
* Limited hardware player support

=== WV Other features ===
* Supports 32bit float streams
* Supports embedded CUE sheets
* Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking
* Can encode in both symmetrical and assymmetrical modes.
* Fits the [[Matroska]] container

== Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMAL) ==
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/codecs/audio.aspx

WMA Lossless is the lossless codec developed by Microsoft to be featured in their Windows Media codec portfolio.

=== WMAL pros ===
* Streaming support
* Very good software support
* Supports [[multichannel]] audio and [[high resolution]]s.
* Tagging support (proprietary)
* Pipe support

=== WMAL cons ===
* Closed source
* No hybrid/lossy mode
* Limited hardware support ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabeat Gigabeat V and S line from Toshiba])
* Doesn't support [[RIFF]] chunks
* Doesn't support [[Replay Gain]]

=== WMAL Other features ===
* Fits the [[ASF]] container

== Oddball Formats ==
There are several old lossless formats that aren't being featured in the article above. Reasons are: lack of widespread support, lack of features, bad efficiency and, most importantly, it seems noone is really interested in them.

Most of those would have disappeared by now, but they are being preserved for posterity at [[User:Rjamorim|rjamorim]]'s [http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/ ReallyRareWares]

=== Advanced Digital Audio (ADA) ===
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/ada.html

=== Bonk ===
* http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/bonk

=== Marian's a-Pac ===
* http://www.marian.de/en/downloads#APAC
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/apac.html

=== AudioZip ===
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/audiozip.html

=== Dakx WAV ===
* http://www.dakx.com/
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/daxwav.html

=== Entis Lab MIO ===
* http://www.entis.gr.jp/eri/frame.html
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/mio.html

=== LiteWave ===
* http://www.clearjump.com/products/LiteWave.html
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/litewave.html

=== Pegasus SPS ===
* http://www.krishnasoft.com/sps.htm
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/pegasussps.html

=== RK Audio (RKAU) ===
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/split2000.html

=== Sonarc ===
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/sonarc.html

=== VocPack ===
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/vocpack.html

=== WavArc ===
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/wavarc.html

=== WaveZip/MUSICompress ===
* http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/sndspace/
* http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/wavezip.html

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

== External links ==
=== Other lossless compressions comparisons ===
''Sorted based on last '''update''' date.''

* [http://uclc.info/LossLess.pdf Johan De Bock's speed oriented comparison] - best choices speedwise are indicated in green, mostly electronic music (last updated 2006-07-22)
* [http://web.inter.nl.net/users/hvdh/lossless/lossless.htm Hans Heijden's] -- used as reference to build the table (last updated 2006-07-07)
* [http://synthetic-soul.co.uk/comparison/lossless/ Synthetic Soul's comparison] (last update 2006-09-14)
* [http://synthetic-soul.co.uk/comparison/josef/ Josef Pohm's comparison, hosted by Synthetic Soul] (last update 2006-05-29)
* [http://www.bobulous.org.uk/misc/lossless_audio_2006.html Bobulous' lossless audio comparison] — a look at six lossless formats in terms of speed and file size (last updated 2006-05-22)
* [http://uclc.info/lossless_audio_compression_test.htm Johan De Bock's size oriented comparison] - aimed only at the maximum compression setting for each codec (based on a somewhat limited set of samples, however) (last updated 2006-05-19)
* [http://guruboolez.free.fr/lossless/ Guruboolez'] -- comparing only classical music (last updated 2005-02-27)
* [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm Speek's] (last updated 2005-02-07)

=== More on lossless compressions ===
* [http://losslessaudioblog.com/ The Lossless Audio Blog] - by windmiller, is a reliable and complete source of news about lossless compression.
* Go to the [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=33226 Hydrogenaudio thread] to discuss this article.

[[Category:Guides]]

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2007-07-25T18:39:43Z

Josh Coalson: fix link to lossless comparison

{{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 v1.1.4
| website = http://flac.sourceforge.net/
}}
'''Free Lossless Audio Codec''' ('''FLAC''') is a codec for lossless audiocompression.
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 an MP3 file.

== 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 we say 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 (the FLAC project reserves the right to set the FLAC specification and certify compliance), and that neither the FLAC format nor any of the implemented encoding/decoding methods are covered by any known patent. It also means that all the source code is available under open-source licenses. It is the first truly open and free lossless audio format.

Some claim FLAC is the most widely used lossless compression format on UNIX systems (though it seems more likely that shn retains that honor on all OS platforms).
FLAC files also can be placed inside an Ogg container using libOggFLAC and libOggFLAC++.

== 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 and low decoding complexity, FLAC is currently the only lossless codec that has any kind of hardware support.
* '''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
* Source open and freely licenced
* Hardware support (PhatBox, Kenwood MusicKeg, Rio Karma, etc. See below)
* Streaming support
* Extremely fast decoding
* Supports multichannel and high resolution streams
* Supports [[Replay Gain]]
* 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://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html FLAC links page].

=== Hardware ===
==== Home stereo ====
* [http://www.request.com/us/ AudioReQuest] music servers
* [http://www.avegasystems.com/ Avega Systems]' wireless [http://www.avegasystems.com/_documents/Oyster_Specifications.pdf Oyster] loudspeakers
* Digital Techniques' "iStereo" [http://www.digitaltechniques.com/M300A_Overview.html M300A Digital Music Player]
* Escient's [http://www.escient.com/ FireBall servers (E2-40/160/300, DVDM-300)]
* [http://www.hermstedt.com/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html Hifidelio]
* [http://www.imuse.us/ iMuse] audio/video media servers
* Meda Systems' [http://www.medainc.com/ Bravo servers]
* The [http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/show_floor/product_locator/product_details.asp?prodid=5181 MS300 Music Server] by McIntosh Laboratory
* Olive's [http://www.olive.us/ Symphony] wireless digital music center
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player]
* [http://www.numark.com/ Numark]'s DJ equipment (HDX and CDX turntables, HDMIX mixer)
* [http://www.mock.com/receiver/ Rio Reciever] and Dell Digital Audio Receiver
* [http://www.rokulabs.com/products/photobridge/features.php Roku PhotoBridge HD] (with [http://homepage.ntlworld.ie/p.mc.quillan/FLAC_V0.7.zip plugin])
* [http://www.skipjam.com/ SkipJam]'s networked audio/video devices
* [http://www.sonos.com/ Sonos Digital Music System]
* Slim Devices' [http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html Transporter] and [http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html Squeezebox] networked audi players
* [http://www.z500series.com/ Zensonic Z500 Networked DVD Media Player]
* Ziova's [http://www.ziova.com/cs510.php CS510] and [http://www.ziova.com/cs505.php CS505] network media players

==== Car stereo ====
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php Kenwood Music Keg]
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php PhatBox]

==== Portable ====
* [[Apple iPod]] with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* Bluedot's [http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2006/07/bluedot_pmp_runs_linux_loves.php BMP-1430]
* Green Apple's portable media player: [http://www.apod.com.cn/show_products.asp?photoID=437 AP3000]
* [[iAudio M3]] and X5
* [[iRiver]] iHP-120/iHP-140 with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[Iwod G10]]
* [[Rio Karma]]
* TrekStor's [http://www.trekstor.de/en/products/detail_mp3.php?pid=66 Vibez]

=== Software ===
==== Players ====
* [http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/ Apollo]
* [http://cogosx.sourceforge.net Cog] — for Mac OS X
* [[foobar2000]]
* [[JRiver Media Center]]
* [http://fondriest.frederic.free.fr/realisations/lamip/ LAMIP]
* [[MediaMonkey]]
* [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ MPlayer]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/ MythTV]
* [http://www.quinnware.com/ QCD] ([http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?type=input plugin])
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm VUPlayer]
* [[Winamp]]
* [[Windows Media Player]] and other directshow-based players (MPC, TCMP, RadLight) (with [http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ Illiminable's directshow filters] or [http://corecodec.org/projects/coreflac CoreFLAC])
* [http://xine.sourceforge.net/ Xine]
* [[XMMS]]
* [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMplay]

==== Frontends (Windows) ====
* [http://www.uninformative.com/flacattack/ Flacattack]
* Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek)
* [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck
* [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah
* [http://www.webearce.com.ar/ MAREO] by Kwambis

==== Frontends (Mac) ====
* [http://www.danrules.com/macflac/ MacFLAC]
* [http://www.sbooth.org/Max/ Max]
* [http://members.rogers.com/beamsplitter/ RipBeak]
* [http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952 xACT]

==== 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.germanixsoft.de/ GX:Transcoder] Music converter

==== Editors ====
* [[Adobe Audition]]

==== CD writers/rippers ====
* [http://www.ahead.de Ahead Nero Burning Rom]
* [http://arson.sourceforge.net/ Arson]
* [http://www.burnatonce.com/ burnatonce]
* [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]

==== Taggers ====
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/files/Tag.zip Case's Tag] command line tagger
* [http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/ The GodFather] Tagger / Music manager
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Mp3tag] Universal Tag Editor
* [http://sbooth.org/Tag/ Tag] — for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation.html#metaflac metaflac] - for general metadata (including Vorbis comments) maintenance

==== Other tools ====
* [http://www.burrrn.net/mrq/ Mr. QuestionMan]
* [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier]
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation.html#metaflac metaflac] - for general metadata (including Vorbis comments) maintenance, also to calculate [[Replay Gain]] values for FLAC files lacking such

...and many more; see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#software FLAC software section] and [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras download section] for a more comprehensive list.

== 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]]

== Externals links ==
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net FLAC website]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html FLAC download]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/format.html Detailed description of the FLAC format]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation.html FLAC documentation]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html FLAC FAQ]
* [http://people.ucsc.edu/~rswilson/flactest Omion's FLAC "File Size vs. Decoding Speed" test] - a very thorough test on [[Free Lossless Audio Codec#Frequently Asked Questions|the influence of the chosen encoding level on the decoding speed of FLAC]]; the only one so far to have covered FLAC's --super-secret-totally-impractical-compression-level to this extent as well.
* [http://www.losslessaudioblog.com/ The Lossless Audio Blog] Lossless Audio News & Information Site.

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

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2006-09-09T00:34:44Z

Josh Coalson: add several more hardware players

=What is FLAC?=

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, see supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. "Free" means "Free" - that the specification of the stream format is in the public domain. It also means that the sources for libFLAC and libFLAC++ are available under the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) licence.

FLAC compiles on many platforms.

Some claim FLAC is the most widely used lossless compression format on UNIX systems (though it seems more likely that shn retains that honor on all OS platforms).

FLAC files can be placed inside an Ogg container using libOggFLAC and libOggFLAC++.

==Pros==
* Portable to many systems
* Source open and freely licenced
* 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.

=Players that support FLAC=
For a more complete list see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html FLAC links page].
==Hardware==
===Home stereo===
* [http://www.request.com/us/ AudioReQuest] music servers
* [http://www.avegasystems.com/ Avega Systems]' wireless [http://www.avegasystems.com/_documents/Oyster_Specifications.pdf Oyster] loudspeakers
* Digital Techniques' "iStereo" [http://www.digitaltechniques.com/M300A_Overview.html M300A Digital Music Player]
* Escient's [http://www.escient.com/ FireBall servers (E2-40/160/300, DVDM-300)]
* [http://www.hermstedt.com/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html Hifidelio]
* [http://www.imuse.us/ iMuse] audio/video media servers
* Meda Systems' [http://www.medainc.com/ Bravo servers]
* The [http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/show_floor/product_locator/product_details.asp?prodid=5181 MS300 Music Server] by McIntosh Laboratory
* Olive's [http://www.olive.us/ Symphony] wireless digital music center
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player]
* [http://www.numark.com/ Numark]'s DJ equipment (HDX and CDX turntables, HDMIX mixer)
* [http://www.mock.com/receiver/ Rio Reciever] and Dell Digital Audio Receiver
* [http://www.rokulabs.com/products/photobridge/features.php Roku PhotoBridge HD] (with [http://homepage.ntlworld.ie/p.mc.quillan/FLAC_V0.7.zip plugin])
* [http://www.skipjam.com/ SkipJam]'s networked audio/video devices
* [http://www.sonos.com/ Sonos Digital Music System]
* Slim Devices' [http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_transporter.html Transporter] and [http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html Squeezebox] networked audi players
* [http://www.z500series.com/ Zensonic Z500 Networked DVD Media Player]
* Ziova's [http://www.ziova.com/cs510.php CS510] and [http://www.ziova.com/cs505.php CS505] network media players

===Car stereo===
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php Kenwood Music Keg]
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php PhatBox]

===Portable===
* [[Apple iPod]] with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* Bluedot's [http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2006/07/bluedot_pmp_runs_linux_loves.php BMP-1430]
* Green Apple's portable media player: [http://www.apod.com.cn/show_products.asp?photoID=437 AP3000]
* [[iAudio M3]] and X5
* [[iRiver]] iHP-120/iHP-140 with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[Iwod G10]]
* [[Rio Karma]]
* TrekStor's [http://www.trekstor.de/en/products/detail_mp3.php?pid=66 Vibez]

==Software==

===Players===
* [http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/ Apollo]
* [http://cogosx.sourceforge.net Cog] — for Mac OS X
* [[foobar2000]]
* [[JRiver Media Center]]
* [http://fondriest.frederic.free.fr/realisations/lamip/ LAMIP]
* [[MediaMonkey]]
* [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ MPlayer]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/ MythTV]
* [http://www.quinnware.com/ QCD] ([http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?type=input plugin])
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm VUPlayer]
* [[Winamp]]
* [[Windows Media Player]] and other directshow-based players (MPC, TCMP, RadLight) (with [http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ Illiminable's directshow filters] or [http://corecodec.org/projects/coreflac CoreFLAC])
* [http://xine.sourceforge.net/ Xine]
* [[XMMS]]
* [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMplay]

===Frontends (Windows) ===
* [http://www.uninformative.com/flacattack/ Flacattack]
* Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek)
* [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck
* [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah
* [http://www.webearce.com.ar/ MAREO] by Kwambis

===Frontends (Mac) ===
* [http://www.danrules.com/macflac/ MacFLAC]
* [http://www.sbooth.org/Max/ Max]
* [http://members.rogers.com/beamsplitter/ RipBeak]
* [http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952 xACT]

===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.germanixsoft.de/ GX:Transcoder] Music converter

===Editors===
* [[Adobe Audition]]

===CD writers/rippers===
* [http://www.ahead.de Ahead Nero Burning Rom]
* [http://arson.sourceforge.net/ Arson]
* [http://www.burnatonce.com/ burnatonce]
* [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]

===Taggers===
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/files/Tag.zip Case's Tag] command line tagger
* [http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/ The GodFather] Tagger / Music manager
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Mp3tag] Universal Tag Editor
* [http://sbooth.org/Tag/ Tag] — for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation.html#metaflac metaflac] - for general metadata (including Vorbis comments) maintenance

===Other tools===
* [http://www.burrrn.net/mrq/ Mr. QuestionMan]
* [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier]
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentation.html#metaflac metaflac] - for general metadata (including Vorbis comments) maintenance, also to calculate [[replaygain]] values for FLAC files lacking such

...and many more; see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#software FLAC software section] and [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras download section] for a more comprehensive list.

=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: [http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html FLAC FAQ]

=Addtional Reading=
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net FLAC Project Webpage]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html Download]
* [http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261 Rio Karma]
* [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm Speek's Comparison of lossless audio compressors]
* [[Lossless comparison|Lossless Codec Comparison]] by Rjamorim
* [http://people.ucsc.edu/~rswilson/flactest Omion's FLAC "File Size vs. Decoding Speed" test] - a very thorough test on [[FLAC#Frequently_Asked_Questions|the influence of the chosen encoding level on the decoding speed of FLAC]]; the only one so far to have covered FLAC's --super-secret-totally-impractical-compression-level to this extent as well.

[[Category: Codecs]]

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2006-02-08T01:58:39Z

Josh Coalson: /* Portable */

=What is FLAC?=

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, see supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. "Free" means "Free" - that the specification of the stream format is in the public domain. It also means that the sources for libFLAC and libFLAC++ are available under the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) licence.

FLAC compiles on many platforms.

Some claim FLAC is the most widely used lossless compression format on UNIX systems (though it seems more likely that shn retains that honor on all OS platforms).

FLAC files can be placed inside an Ogg container using libOggFLAC and libOggFLAC++.

==Pros==
* Portable to many systems
* Source open and freely licenced
* 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.

=Players that support FLAC=
For a more complete list see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html FLAC links page].
==Hardware==
===Home stereo===
* [http://www.request.com/us/ AudioReQuest] music servers
* Digital Techniques' "iStereo" [http://www.digitaltechniques.com/M300A_Overview.html M300A Digital Music Player]
* Escient's [http://www.escient.com/ FireBall servers (E2-40/160/300, DVDM-300)]
* [http://www.hermstedt.com/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html Hifidelio]
* Meda Systems' [http://www.medainc.com/ Bravo servers]
* The [http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/show_floor/product_locator/product_details.asp?prodid=5181 MS300 Music Server] by McIntosh Laboratory
* Olive's [http://www.olive.us/ Symphony] wireless digital music center
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player]
* [http://www.mock.com/receiver/ Rio Reciever] and Dell Digital Audio Receiver
* [http://www.rokulabs.com/products/photobridge/features.php Roku PhotoBridge HD] (with [http://homepage.ntlworld.ie/p.mc.quillan/FLAC_V0.7.zip plugin])
* [http://www.skipjam.com/ SkipJam]'s networked audio/video devices
* [http://www.sonos.com/ Sonos Digital Music System]
* [http://www.slimdevices.com/ Squeezebox2 and Squeezebox 3 (earlier models support via Slimserver)]
* [http://www.z500series.com/ Zensonic Z500 Networked DVD Media Player]

===Car stereo===
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php Kenwood Music Keg]
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php PhatBox]

===Portable===
* [[Apple iPod]] with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[iAudio M3]] and X5
* [[iRiver]] iHP-120/iHP-140 with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[Iwod G10]]
* [[Rio Karma]]

==Software==

===Players===
* [http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/ Apollo]
* [[foobar2000]]
* [[JRiver Media Center]]
* [http://fondriest.frederic.free.fr/realisations/lamip/ LAMIP]
* [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ MPlayer]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/ MythTV]
* [http://www.quinnware.com/ QCD] ([http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?type=input plugin])
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm VUPlayer]
* [[Winamp]]
* [[Windows Media Player]] and other directshow-based players (MPC, TCMP, RadLight) (with [http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ Illiminable's directshow filters] or [http://corecodec.org/projects/coreflac CoreFLAC])
* [http://xine.sourceforge.net/ Xine]
* [[XMMS]]
* [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMplay]

===Frontends (Windows) ===
* [http://www.uninformative.com/flacattack/ Flacattack]
* Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek)
* [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck
* [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah
* [http://mareo.monkeydev.org/ Mareo] by Kwambis

===Frontends (Mac) ===
* [http://www.danrules.com/macflac/ MacFLAC]
* [http://members.rogers.com/beamsplitter/ RipBeak]
* [http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952 xACT]

===Converters===
* [http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ dBpowerAMP] Music Converter / Audio Player / CD Writer
* [http://www.germanixsoft.de/ GX:Transcoder] Music converter

===Editors===
* [[Adobe Audition]]

===CD writers/rippers===
* [http://www.ahead.de Ahead Nero Burning Rom]
* [http://arson.sourceforge.net/ Arson]
* [http://www.burnatonce.com/ burnatonce]
* [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]

===Taggers===
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Mp3tag] Universal Tag Editor
* [http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/ The GodFather] Tagger / Music manager
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/files/Tag.zip Case's Tag] command line tagger

===Other tools===
* [http://www.burrrn.net/mrq/ Mr. QuestionMan]
* [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier]
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container

...and many more; see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#software FLAC software section] and [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras download section] for a more comprehensive list.

=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: [http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html FLAC FAQ]

=Addtional Reading=
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net FLAC Project Webpage]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html Download]
* [http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261 Rio Karma]
* [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm Speek's Comparison of lossless audio compressors]
* [[Lossless comparison|Lossless Codec Comparison]] by Rjamorim
* [http://people.ucsc.edu/~rswilson/flactest Omion's FLAC "File Size vs. Decoding Speed" test] - a very thorough test on [[FLAC#Frequently_Asked_Questions|the influence of the chosen encoding level on the decoding speed of FLAC]]; the only one so far to have covered FLAC's --super-secret-totally-impractical-compression-level to this extent as well.

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2005-08-11T18:51:13Z

Josh Coalson: /* Players that support FLAC */

=What is FLAC?=

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, see supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. "Free" means "Free" - that the specification of the stream format is in the public domain. It also means that the sources for libFLAC and libFLAC++ are available under the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution)

FLAC compiles on many platforms.

Some claim FLAC is the most widely used lossless compression format on UNIX systems (though it seems more likely that shn retains that honor on all OS platforms).

FLAC files can be placed inside an Ogg container using libOggFLAC and libOggFLAC++.

==Pros==
* Portable to many systems
* Source open and freely licenced
* 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.

=Players that support FLAC=
For a more complete list see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html FLAC links page].
==Hardware==
===Home stereo===
* [http://www.request.com/us/ AudioReQuest] music servers
* Digital Techniques' "iStereo" [http://www.digitaltechniques.com/M300A_Overview.html M300A Digital Music Player]
* Escient's [http://www.escient.com/ FireBall servers (E2-40/160/300, DVDM-300)]
* [http://www.hermstedt.com/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html Hifidelio]
* Meda Systems' [http://www.medainc.com/ Bravo servers]
* The [http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/show_floor/product_locator/product_details.asp?prodid=5181 MS300 Music Server] by McIntosh Laboratory
* Olive's [http://www.olive.us/ Symphony] wireless digital music center
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player]
* [http://www.mock.com/receiver/ Rio Reciever] and Dell Digital Audio Receiver
* [http://www.rokulabs.com/products/photobridge/features.php Roku PhotoBridge HD] (with [http://homepage.ntlworld.ie/p.mc.quillan/FLAC_V0.7.zip plugin])
* [http://www.skipjam.com/ SkipJam]'s networked audio/video devices
* [http://www.sonos.com/ Sonos Digital Music System]
* [http://www.slimdevices.com/ Squeezebox2]
* [http://www.z500series.com/ Zensonic Z500 Networked DVD Media Player]

===Car stereo===
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php Kenwood Music Keg]
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php PhatBox]

===Portable===
* [[Rio Karma]]
* [[iAudio M3]] and X5
* iRiver iHP-120/iHP-140 with the open source Rockbox firmware

==Software==

===Players===
* [http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/ Apollo]
* [[foobar2000]]
* [[JRiver Media Center]]
* [http://fondriest.frederic.free.fr/realisations/lamip/ LAMIP]
* [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ MPlayer]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/ MythTV]
* [http://www.quinnware.com/ QCD] ([http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?type=input plugin])
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm VUPlayer]
* [[Winamp]]
* [[Windows Media Player]] and other directshow-based players (MPC, TCMP, RadLight) (with [http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ Illiminable's directshow filters] or [http://corecodec.org/projects/coreflac CoreFLAC])
* [http://xine.sourceforge.net/ Xine]
* [[XMMS]]
* [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMplay]

===Frontends (Windows) ===
* [http://www.uninformative.com/flacattack/ Flacattack]
* Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek)
* [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck
* [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah
* [http://mareo.monkeydev.org/ Mareo] by Kwambis

===Frontends (Mac) ===
* [http://www.danrules.com/macflac/ MacFLAC]
* [http://members.rogers.com/beamsplitter/ RipBeak]
* [http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952 xACT]

===Converters===
* [http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ dBpowerAMP] Music Converter / Audio Player / CD Writer
* [http://www.germanixsoft.de/ GX:Transcoder] Music converter

===Editors===
* CoolEdit

===CD writers/rippers===
* [http://www.ahead.de Ahead Nero Burning Rom]
* [http://arson.sourceforge.net/ Arson]
* [http://www.burnatonce.com/ burnatonce]
* [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]

===Taggers===
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Mp3tag] Universal Tag Editor
* [http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/ The GodFather] Tagger / Music manager
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/files/Tag.zip Case's Tag] command line tagger

===Other tools===
* [http://www.burrrn.net/mrq/ Mr. QuestionMan]
* [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier]
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container

...and many more; see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#software FLAC software section] and [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras download section] for a more comprehensive list.

=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: [http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html FLAC FAQ]

=Addtional Reading=
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net FLAC Project Webpage]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html Download]
* [http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261 Rio Karma]
* [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm Speek's Comparison of lossless audio compressors]
* [[Lossless comparison|Lossless Codec Comparison]] by Rjamorim
* [http://people.ucsc.edu/~rswilson/flactest Omion's FLAC "File Size vs. Decoding Speed" test] - a very thorough test on [[FLAC#Frequently_Asked_Questions|the influence of the chosen encoding level on the decoding speed of FLAC]]; the only one so far to have covered FLAC's --super-secret-totally-impractical-compression-level to this extent as well.

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2005-08-11T18:38:26Z

Josh Coalson: /* Players that support FLAC */

=What is FLAC?=

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, see supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. "Free" means "Free" - that the specification of the stream format is in the public domain. It also means that the sources for libFLAC and libFLAC++ are available under the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution)

FLAC compiles on many platforms.

Some claim FLAC is the most widely used lossless compression format on UNIX systems (though it seems more likely that shn retains that honor on all OS platforms).

FLAC files can be placed inside an Ogg container using libOggFLAC and libOggFLAC++.

==Pros==
* Portable to many systems
* Source open and freely licenced
* 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.

=Players that support FLAC=
For a more complete list see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html FLAC links page].
==Hardware==
===Home stereo===
* [http://www.request.com/us/ AudioReQuest] music servers
* Digital Techniques' "iStereo" [http://www.digitaltechniques.com/M300A_Overview.html M300A Digital Music Player]
* Escient's [http://www.escient.com/ FireBall servers (E2-40/160/300, DVDM-300)]
* [http://www.hermstedt.com/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html Hifidelio]
* Meda Systems' [http://www.medainc.com/ Bravo servers]
* The [http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/show_floor/product_locator/product_details.asp?prodid=5181 MS300 Music Server] by McIntosh Laboratory
* Olive's [http://www.olive.us/ Symphony] wireless digital music center
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player]
* [http://www.mock.com/receiver/ Rio Reciever] and Dell Digital Audio Receiver
* [http://www.skipjam.com/ SkipJam]'s networked audio/video devices
* [http://www.sonos.com/ Sonos Digital Music System]
* [http://www.slimdevices.com/ Squeezebox2]
* [http://www.z500series.com/ Zensonic Z500 Networked DVD Media Player]

===Car stereo===
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php Kenwood Music Keg]
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php PhatBox]

===Portable===
* [[Rio Karma]]
* [[iAudio M3]]

==Software==

===Players===
* [http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/ Apollo]
* [[foobar2000]]
* [[JRiver Media Center]]
* [http://fondriest.frederic.free.fr/realisations/lamip/ LAMIP]
* [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ MPlayer]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/ MythTV]
* [http://www.quinnware.com/ QCD] ([http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?type=input plugin])
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm VUPlayer]
* [[Winamp]]
* [[Windows Media Player]] and other directshow-based players (MPC, TCMP, RadLight) (with [http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ Illiminable's directshow filters] or [http://corecodec.org/projects/coreflac CoreFLAC])
* [http://xine.sourceforge.net/ Xine]
* [[XMMS]]
* [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMplay]

===Frontends (Windows) ===
* [http://www.uninformative.com/flacattack/ Flacattack]
* Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek)
* [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck
* [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah
* [http://mareo.monkeydev.org/ Mareo] by Kwambis

===Frontends (Mac) ===
* [http://www.danrules.com/macflac/ MacFLAC]
* [http://members.rogers.com/beamsplitter/ RipBeak]
* [http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952 xACT]

===Converters===
* [http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ dBpowerAMP] Music Converter / Audio Player / CD Writer
* [http://www.germanixsoft.de/ GX:Transcoder] Music converter

===Editors===
* CoolEdit

===CD writers/rippers===
* [http://www.ahead.de Ahead Nero Burning Rom]
* [http://arson.sourceforge.net/ Arson]
* [http://www.burnatonce.com/ burnatonce]
* [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]

===Taggers===
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Mp3tag] Universal Tag Editor
* [http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/ The GodFather] Tagger / Music manager
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/files/Tag.zip Case's Tag] command line tagger

===Other tools===
* [http://www.burrrn.net/mrq/ Mr. QuestionMan]
* [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier]
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container

...and many more; see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#software FLAC software section] and [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras download section] for a more comprehensive list.

=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: [http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html FLAC FAQ]

=Addtional Reading=
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net FLAC Project Webpage]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html Download]
* [http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261 Rio Karma]
* [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm Speek's Comparison of lossless audio compressors]
* [[Lossless comparison|Lossless Codec Comparison]] by Rjamorim
* [http://people.ucsc.edu/~rswilson/flactest Omion's FLAC "File Size vs. Decoding Speed" test] - a very thorough test on [[FLAC#Frequently_Asked_Questions|the influence of the chosen encoding level on the decoding speed of FLAC]]; the only one so far to have covered FLAC's --super-secret-totally-impractical-compression-level to this extent as well.

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2005-05-03T00:29:05Z

Josh Coalson: /* Home stereo */

=What is FLAC?=

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, see supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. "Free" means "Free" - that the specification of the stream format is in the public domain. It also means that the sources for libFLAC and libFLAC++ are available under the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution)

FLAC compiles on many platforms.

Some claim FLAC is the most widely used lossless compression format on UNIX systems (though it seems more likely that shn retains that honor on all OS platforms).

==Pros==
* Portable to many systems
* Source open and freely licenced
* 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]], [[LPAC]], [[OptimFROG]])
* Higher compression modes slow, for little gain over the default setting.

=Players that support FLAC=
For a more complete list see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html FLAC links page].
==Hardware==
===Home stereo===
* [http://www.request.com/us/ AudioReQuest] music servers
* Digital Techniques' "iStereo" [http://www.digitaltechniques.com/M300A_Overview.html M300A Digital Music Player]
* Escient's [http://www.escient.com/ FireBall servers (E2-40/160/300, DVDM-300)]
* [http://www.hermstedt.com/english/hifidelio/hifidelio.html Hifidelio]
* Meda Systems' [http://www.medainc.com/ Bravo servers]
* The [http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/show_floor/product_locator/product_details.asp?prodid=5181 MS300 Music Server] by McIntosh Laboratory
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player]
* [http://www.mock.com/receiver/ Rio Reciever] and Dell Digital Audio Receiver
* [http://www.skipjam.com/ SkipJam]'s networked audio/video devices
* [http://www.sonos.com/ Sonos Digital Music System]
* [http://www.slimdevices.com/ Squeezebox2]
* [http://www.z500series.com/ Zensonic Z500 Networked DVD Media Player]

===Car stereo===
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php Kenwood Music Keg]
* [http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php PhatBox]

===Portable===
* [[Rio Karma]]
* [[iAudio M3]]

==Software==

===Players===
* [http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/ Apollo]
* [[foobar2000]]
* [[JRiver Media Center]]
* [http://fondriest.frederic.free.fr/realisations/lamip/ LAMIP]
* [http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ MPlayer]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/ MythTV]
* [http://www.quinnware.com/ QCD] ([http://www.quinnware.com/list_plugins.php?type=input plugin])
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VLC]
* [http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm VUPlayer]
* [[Winamp]]
* [[Windows Media Player]] and other directshow-based players (MPC, TCMP, RadLight) (with [http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ Illiminable's directshow filters] or [http://corecodec.org/projects/coreflac CoreFLAC])
* [http://xine.sourceforge.net/ Xine]
* [[XMMS]]
* [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMplay]

===Frontends (Windows) ===
* [http://www.uninformative.com/flacattack/ Flacattack]
* Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek)
* [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck
* [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah
* [http://mareo.monkeydev.org/ Mareo] by Kwambis

===Frontends (Mac) ===
* [http://www.danrules.com/macflac/ MacFLAC]
* [http://members.rogers.com/beamsplitter/ RipBeak]
* [http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21952 xACT]

===Converters===
* [http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ dBpowerAMP] Music Converter / Audio Player / CD Writer
* [http://www.germanixsoft.de/ GX:Transcoder] Music converter

===Editors===
* CoolEdit

===CD writers/rippers===
* [http://www.ahead.de Ahead Nero Burning Rom]
* [http://arson.sourceforge.net/ Arson]
* [http://www.burnatonce.com/ burnatonce]
* [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]

===Taggers===
* [http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Mp3tag] Universal Tag Editor
* [http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/ The GodFather] Tagger / Music manager
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/files/Tag.zip Case's Tag] command line tagger

===Other tools===
* [http://www.burrrn.net/mrq/ Mr. QuestionMan]
* [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier]
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container

...and many more; see the [http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#software FLAC software section] and [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras download section] for a more comprehensive list.

=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: [http://flac.sourceforge.net/faq.html FLAC FAQ]

=Addtional Reading=
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net FLAC Project Webpage]
* [http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html Download]
* [http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261 Rio Karma]
* [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm Speek's Comparison of lossless audio compressors]
* [[Lossless comparison|Lossless Codec Comparison]] by Rjamorim