Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase - User contributions [en]

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2008-04-04T22:54:07Z

Sofaspace: typo

{{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 audio 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]], M5 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 Kwanbis

==== 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]]
* [http://www.goldwave.com/ GoldWave]

==== 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]]

OggdropXPd

2008-04-03T20:53:11Z

Sofaspace: updated stable version and url

{{Infobox Software
| name = OggDropXPd
| screenshot = [[image:Oggdropxpd-idle.PNG|130px]]
| caption = Graphical drag-n-drop frontend
| maintainer = John Edwards
| stable_release = 1.8.9
| preview_release =
| operating_system = Windows
| use = Encoder/Decoder
| license = GPL
| website = [http://www.rarewares.org/ogg-oggdropxpd.php RareWares]
}}
= Introduction =
John33's (Ogg) [[Vorbis]] encoder with a nice drag-and-drop interface.

== Features ==
* Compression from [[lossless]] files ([[FLAC]], [[LPAC]], [[Monkey's Audio]], [[OptimFROG]], and [[WavPack]])
:'''Note:''' if you want to use Monkey's Audio, LPAC, WavPack, or OptimFrog as source files, you must provide the decoder yourself.
* Auto-tagging
* Renaming encoded files (using FLAC Tags)
* Setting of advanced encoder parameters
* Use of VorbisGain tags ([[Replay Gain]] for Vorbis) on decode
* Playlist (.pls) creation
* And more...

= Quick start manual =
Here is a short user manual on how to quickly employ OggDropXPd. This is not exhaustive; a far more exhaustive one is hosted at [http://www.rarewares.org/ogg-oggdropxpd.php this site].

== Installing ==
* Extract the ZIP file you download (see the [[OggDropXPd#Download|Download section]]) to any folder.
* If you use the processor-optimized version (i.e. for P3/AMD or for P4), also copy '''libmmd81.dll''' into the same folder. You can get it at [http://www.rarewares.org/files/libmmd8.1.zip here].
* (Optional) Create a shortcut and copy it into your Start Menu, Desktop, QuickLaunch bar, etc.
* If you want support for encoding from lossless file (other than [[FLAC]] support which is built-in), extract the proper decoders in the same folder. You can get them at RareWares.

== Configuring for Encoding ==
''Note: All ScreenCaps taken from OggDropXPd v1.8.7''
* Start OggDropXPd. The small Drop Target window will open (the right one is for [[Lancer]] OggDropXPd):
<div style="margin-left:60px;">[[Image:Oggdropxpd-idle.PNG]] [[Image:Oggdropxpd-idle_lancer.PNG]]</div>
* Right-click on the small window. The following menu will be displayed:
<div style="margin-left:60px;">[[Image:Oggdropxpd-menu.png]]</div>
* Click on a menu item to change the options. Menu items relevant for Encoding are described below.

=== Encoding Options ===
This is used to configure the Vorbis Encoder

<div style="margin-left:60px;">[[Image:Oggdropxpd-encodingoptions.png]]</div>
* General EncoderOptions
:This is where you choose the quality of the encoded file.

:* '''Use Standard Quality Mode''' <font style="color:red;">''-- Recommended''</font>
::This ensures the highest quality, although you cannot exactly determine the bitrate.
::You can either type the exact -q value in the textbox, or drag the slider. Higher -q value gives better quality at the expense of larger file size.
::For some guidelines on what -q value to use, check out the [[Recommended Ogg Vorbis]] page.
:* '''Use Quality Mode by selection of Approximate Bitrate'''
::Sometimes you need to encode files at a certain bitrate, e.g. for streaming. Choose this and specify the approximate bitrate you're trying to get.
:* '''Bitrate management'''
::Although these two radio-buttons seem to be subsets of the previous option, they stand on their own, actually. i.e choosing either one of these two unselects the top 2 options.
::The following two options are not recommended, as they tend to sacrifice quality.
:::* '''Use ABR mode''', here you can limit the minimum bitrate (may cause size bloat), maximum bitrate (may reduce quality on 'difficult' songs), and the nominal bitrate (affects quality if too low)
:::* '''Use CBR mode'''. Here you just specify the bitrate you want.

* '''Delete input files after encoding'''
:Self-explanatory. However, if you do not have the original source (e.g. CD), then '''it is recommended to uncheck this option'''. Just in case you need to re-encode, you will still have the source.

* '''Advanced Encoder Options'''
:For QuickStarting, you can leave these options '''unchecked'''.

* '''Other Advanced Encoder Options'''
:For QuickStarting, leave this button alone.

=== Select Output Directory ===
This is used to configure where the encoded file will be placed.

<div style="margin-left:60px;">[[Image:Oggdropxpd-output_directory_options.png]]</div>

* '''Same as Input Directory'''
:The resulting .ogg file will be placed in the same directory as the source file. This is the default after installation.
:<div style="color:blue;">For the purposes of this QuickStart, choose this option.</div>
* '''Set Other Output Directory - THIS SESSION ONLY'''
:You can specify in where to put the resulting .ogg file by clicking on the "..." button. However, if you close OggDropXPd and restart it later, the setting will revert back to "Same as Input Directory."
* '''Set Other Output Directory - AS DEFAULT'''
:Same as above, but your specified directory will be used for later sessions also.

=== Select Temporary Directory ===
If you use the [[lossless]] source files of the formats .ape, .pac, .wv, .ofr, or .ofs, then this is where you store the temporary uncompressed .wav file.

<div style="margin-left:60px;">[[Image:Oggdropxpd-temporary_directory_options.png]]</div>

This dialog box should be self-explanatory.

=== Other Settings ===
* Uncheck AUTO Tagging
* Check: Write Log File, Show Bit Rate, Always On Top

== Encoding! ==
Drag and drop the file to be encoded from Windows Explorer onto the OggDropXPd droptarget window, and wait. The logo will spin while it is encoding: (Image capture of Lancer OggDropXPd)

<div style="margin-left:60px;">[[Image:Oggdropxpd-encoding_lancer.png]]</div>

There are 4 information shown while encoding, under the spinning logo:
* Last granule bitrate
* Current setting | encoding speed (i.e. x of real time)
* The lighter bar indicates the progress for the currently encoded file
* The darker bar indicates the total progress (i.e. when you dropped more than one source file onto OggDropXPd)

When the logo stops spinning... you're done! The resulting .ogg file can be found in the same directory as the source file.

'''''Thus concludes OggDropXPd QuickStart manual for encoding.'''''

= Download =
You can download the latest version from [http://www.rarewares.org/ogg.html Vorbis page at RareWares].

A highly-optimized version is also available at the [http://homepage3.nifty.com/blacksword/index_e.htm Ogg Vorbis Acceleration Project], with the codename of [[Lancer]].

[[Category:Software]]
[[Category:Encoder/Decoder]]

Free Lossless Audio Codec

2008-04-03T20:33:15Z

Sofaspace: /* Home stereo */

{{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 audio 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]] M5, 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 Kwanbis

==== 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]]
* [http://www.goldwave.com/ GoldWave]

==== 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

2008-04-03T20:32:44Z

Sofaspace: /* Portable */

{{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]] M5, 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 Kwanbis

==== 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]]
* [http://www.goldwave.com/ GoldWave]

==== 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

2008-04-03T20:31:45Z

Sofaspace: /* Editors */

{{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 Kwanbis

==== 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]]
* [http://www.goldwave.com/ GoldWave]

==== 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

2008-04-03T20:30:52Z

Sofaspace: /* Editors */

{{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 Kwanbis

==== 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]]
* [[GoldWave]]

==== 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]]

Vorbis

2008-04-03T20:24:43Z

Sofaspace: added iAudio players

{{featured}}
{{Codec Infobox
| name = Ogg Vorbis
| logo = [[Image:Fish logo.png]]
| type = lossy
| purpose = General audio compression at bitrates ~64–400 kbps
| maintainer = Christopher Montgomery, Xiph Community
| recommended_encoder = aoTuV
| recommended_text = aoTuV Beta 5
| website = http://www.vorbis.com/
}}

= Introduction =
'''Vorbis''' (commonly used inside the [[Ogg]] container) is a fully open, non-proprietary, patent-free (subject to [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13531 speculation]), and royalty-free, general-purpose compressed audio format for mid to high quality (8 khz–48.0 kHz, 16+ bit, [[multichannel]]) audio and music at fixed and variable bitrates from 16 to >256 kbps/channel. This places vorbis in the same competitive class as audio representations such as MPEG-4 ([[AAC]]), and similar to, but higher performance than [[MP3]], TwinVQ ([[VQF]]), [[WMA]] and [[PAC]]. Vorbis is the first of a planned family of Ogg multimedia coding formats being developed as part of Xiph.org's ogg multimedia project.

Informal listening test suggests Vorbis to be comparable to MPEG-4 [[AAC]] at most bitrates and [[Musepack]] at 128 kbps. Transparency is generally reached at about 150–170 kbps (-q 5) (with some exceptions). The encoder is reasonably young and unoptimized, so further improvements can always be expected.

Unfortunately, Xiph.org has failed to improve Vorbis at a steady rate since its initial 1.0 release in July 2002 (due to other developement projects and time constraints). Since then development has been led by other coders such as [http://sjeng.org/vorbisgt3.html Garf] and [http://www.geocities.jp/aoyoume/aotuv/ Aoyumi]. Aoyumi's '''[[aoTuV]]''' series of encoders was incorporated into the September 2004 release of 1.1, which brought about the first quality improvements across the board for 2 years. Aoyumi's Beta 4.51 was found to be very good, so it was re-branded into aoTuV Release 1 and it was the recommended encoder until June 2007. The latest tuning is aoTuV beta 5, which improves further on the low-bitrate quality without sacrificing compression, and <span style="color:blue;">it is currently the recommended Vorbis encoder at Hydrogenaudio.</span>

At the time being, Aoyumi's tuning (since aoTuV Release 1 up to aoTuV Beta 5) has not been incorporated yet into the 'official' Vorbis line.

Vorbis has had success with many recent video game titles employing Vorbis as opposed to MP3 (with Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004, the PC port of Microsoft's Halo and Uru being notable examples). (Ogg) Vorbis is also an official part of the [http://www.openal.org/extensions.html OpenAL] API extension library, used in many popular [http://www.openal.org/titles.html computer games]. On April 10, 2006, [http://www.radgametools.com/ RAD Game Tools] integrated (Ogg) Vorbis support to their Miles Sound System (MSS), which has been used in over 3,200 games worldwide. This ensures that future games utilizing MSS will have the capability to play (Ogg) Vorbis files. Check out [http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/Games_that_use_Vorbis xiph wiki] for a full list of games confirmed to use (Ogg) Vorbis.

'''Before encoding files using (Ogg) Vorbis, check out the [[Recommended Ogg Vorbis|Recommended (Ogg) Vorbis]] article to determine what encoder to use and what settings are recommended by Hydrogenaudio.'''

== Pros ==
* (Ogg) Vorbis specification is in the public domain; it is free for commercial or noncommercial use, under both (LGPL and BSD licenes)
* Easy to use high-level API (Application Programming Interface)
* Good all-round performance (>48 kbps – a leading codec at [http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multiformat128/results.html 128 kbps])
* Well written [http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/docs.html specs]
* Supported by most portable (Ogg) [[Vorbis#Supporting Digital Audio Players|DAPs]]
* Suitable for internet-streaming (via [http://www.icecast.org/ Icecast] and other methods)
* Fully [[gapless]] playback
* High potential for further tuning
* Structured to allow the design for a hybrid filterbank

== Cons ==
* Limited official development (third-party developement is always encouraged)
* Current implementations are more computationally intensive to decode than MP3
* Multichannel input mappings for 5.1, Ambisonic-B, and other configs have no channel coupling and aren't tuned (expect sub-optimal results until code is improved)

= Technical Information =
* Multiple block sizes for window switching including overlap (powers of two only) ''(128/1024, 256/2048, 512/4096)''
* Customly designed [[window function]] is applied similiar to the sine window. it has (good sidelobe rejection)
:<math>w_k = \sin{(\frac{\pi}{2} \cdot sin^2[(\pi\div2n \cdot (k+0.5))]}</math>
* Psychoacoustics masking is exploited via an ([[ATH]] model)
* Masking curves are computed from an ''emperically'' adjusted set of [http://www.zainea.com/masking2.htm Ehmer Curves]
* Modified Discrete Cosine Transform ([[MDCT]]) is used for noise analysis
* Fast Fourier Transform ([[FFT]]) is used for tonal analysis
* Global masking curve is a mixture between calculated FFT+MDCT curves and ATH curves overlayed
* Floor 1 or the noise-floor (envelope) is calculated using the global masking curve & piecewise linear approximation divided by spectrum to generate the residue (fine detail). The Levinson-Durbin [http://www.data-compression.com/speech.html#ana LPC model] in Floor 0 is no longer used, however the code still exists
* [[Noise normalization]] is applied to compensate for energy lost in certain frequency bands due to quantization (rounding).
* The channels are [[channel coupling|coupled]] ''strictly'' by residue using ([http://us.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/doc/stereo.html point/phase stereo] and lossless)
* Multistage [[Vector quantization]] is used for coding the noise-floor and residue backend using ''trained'' codebooks.
* [[Huffman coding]] is used to minimize vector codeword redundancy

= Software =
=== Encoders ===
* [[Oggenc]] official command-line encoder (Win32/Posix)
* [[OggDropXPd|OggdropXPd]] advanced drag-and-drop encoder by John33 (Win32)
* [[Lancer]] SSE-optimized vorbis encoder utility and libraries by BlackSword (Win32/Posix)
* [http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/foobar2000/ foo_vorbisenc] vorbis encoder library for Foobar2000 (Win32)

=== Decoders ===
* [http://www.rarewares.org/ogg.html OggDec] for Windows, by John33, a very featureful command line decoder (Win32)
* [[Ogg123]] for Unix systems (GPL), a very simple to use command-line player. (Win32/Posix)
* [http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/ illiminable Ogg Directshow Filters] also plays Speex, Theora and FLAC (Win32)
* [http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/ XiphQT] (Xiph's QuickTime Components) allows playback in [[QuickTime]]/[[iTunes]] (Win32/MacPPC/MacIntel)
* [http://corevorbis.corecodec.org/ CoreVorbis] DirectShow filter (Win32)

=== Replay Gain ===
* [http://www.rarewares.org/ogg.html VorbisGain] to apply [[Replay Gain]] on Vorbis files (Win32)
** Instructions to integrate VorbisGain into Foobar2000, Winamp, and Windows Explorer can be found in [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=41880&view=findpost&p=396612 this HA thread]<br />''A precompiled script of the procedure (in RAR format) can be found in [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=45196&view=findpost&p=397803 this HA posting]''
** RPM packages for VorbisGain are available [http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3?stat=3&search=vorbisgain&srodzaj=3 here], and source code for VorbisGain is available [http://sjeng.org/vorbisgain.html here]
* [http://www.rarewares.org/quantumknot/vorbisgain.gz VorbisGain Static GCC 4 compile] (Posix)
* [[foobar2000]]'s ''Replay Gain scanner'' supports (Ogg) Vorbis files
* [[Winamp]]'s ''Replay Gain Analyzer'' supports (Ogg) Vorbis files
* [[MediaMonkey]]'s ''Volume Levelling'' supports (Ogg) Vorbis files

=== Splitters ===
The following utilities are used to splice Vorbis streams without decoding/re-encoding.

* [http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Ogg_Cutter.htm Ogg Cutter] (Win32)
* [http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/ mp3splt] (Win32)
* [http://www.xiph.org/downloads/ vcut] (CLI tool part of the official vorbis-tools package) (Win32/Posix)
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/ogg-cut/ (Ogg) Vorbis Stream Cutter (ogg-cut)] (Posix)

=== Taggers ===
Most tagger supporting (Ogg) Vorbis are listed in [[download page#Tagging Utilities|the download page]].
* [http://www.rarewares.org/files/ogg/vorbiscomment-1.1.1.zip Vorbis Comment]

= Supported Digital Audio Players =
The following list contains some players that support Vorbis playback.
* [[Apple iPod]] with [[Rockbox]] firmware – check out this [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=32eeac65958144db631c8a739b41983c&showtopic=40992 HA thread]
* [http://www.ifreemax.com/ FreeMax] FW-960
* [http://www.iaudiophile.net/ iAudio] [[IAudio M3|M3]], M5, U2, G3, X5, I5, 7, D2, F2, T2, A3, Q5W, A2; VorbisGain support only on X5/M5 with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[iRiver H-Series]] with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[MPIO H-Series]]
* [[Neuros]] with [[Rockbox]] firmware
* [[Rio Karma]]
* [http://www.samsung.com/Products Samsung]
* [http://www.slimdevices.com/ Slim Devices: Squeezebox] External player
* [http://www.yepp.co.kr/ Yepp] YP-T6, YP-T7, YP-C1, YP-F1, YP-53 (Firmware 1.200), other..

A longer list can be found at [http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/PortablePlayers xiph's wiki].

'''Important note:''' There may be players out there that support (Ogg) Vorbis, although they are not marketed as such.

= External links =
The following links contain information surrounding the (Ogg) Vorbis codec that can be found on Hydrogenaudio and elsewhere throughout the web.

=== Hydrogenaudio Wiki ===
* [[Ogg]] (Container)
* [[Listening Tests#Multiformat Tests|Listening tests comparing Vorbis against MP3, AAC, WMA, etc.]]
* [[Recommended Ogg Vorbis|Recommended settings for encoding with Vorbis]] and its related [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=15049 HA thread]
* [[EAC and Ogg Vorbis|Configuring EAC and Vorbis as an external command-line encoder]]

=== Websites ===
* [http://www.vorbis.com Vorbis official website] (updated continually)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis Vorbis at Wikipedia]
* [http://www.playogg.org/ PlayOgg initiative] by the [http://www.fsf.org/ Free Software Foundation]
* [http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/?page=Ogg+Vorbis (Ogg) Vorbis at AudioCoding]
* [http://www.rarewares.org/ogg.html (Ogg) Vorbis binaries at Rarewares]
* [http://www.geocities.jp/aoyoume/aotuv/ Aoyumi's homepage of tuned versions of Vorbis encoder and current beta binaries]
* [http://homepage3.nifty.com/blacksword/index_e.htm The (Ogg) Vorbis Acceleration Project] – Archer/[[Lancer]] homepage for optimized versions of aoTuV Vorbis encoder and other SSE optmizations
* [http://www.xiph.org/ Xiph.org Foundation]

=== Scientific/R&D ===
* [http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=20132&st=0 Noise Normalization and HF Boost problem solution that ultimatly lead to the aoTuV tunings (HA Thread)]
* [http://www.free-comp-shop.com/vorbis.pdf Keith Wright rendition of understanding the MDCT in Vorbis by defining it's basic trig properties (PDF)]
* [http://www.mp3-tech.org/programmer/docs/embedded_vorbis_thesis.pdf (Ogg) Vorbis decoder for an embedded system (Master Thesis in PDF)]
* [http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/Bounties Xiph.org Vorbis bounties]

[[Category:Lossy]]