Difference between revisions of "Free Lossless Audio Codec"
(→Players that support FLAC) |
(→Players that support FLAC) |
||
| Line 56: | Line 56: | ||
* [[JRiver Media Center]] | * [[JRiver Media Center]] | ||
* [http://fondriest.frederic.free.fr/realisations/lamip/ LAMIP] | * [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] | * [http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.htm VUPlayer] | ||
* [[Winamp]] | * [[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]) | * [[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]] | * [[XMMS]] | ||
| + | * [http://www.un4seen.com/ XMplay] | ||
| − | ===Frontends=== | + | ===Frontends (Windows) === |
| + | * [http://www.uninformative.com/flacattack/ Flacattack] | ||
* Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek) | * Custom [http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm Windows Frontend] (by Speek) | ||
* [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck | * [http://www.unifront.boereck.de/ UniversalFront] by Böreck | ||
* [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah | * [http://home.vxu.se/mdati00/frontah/ Frontah] by Madah | ||
* [http://mareo.monkeydev.org/ Mareo] by Kwambis | * [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=== | ===Converters=== | ||
| Line 76: | Line 88: | ||
===CD writers/rippers=== | ===CD writers/rippers=== | ||
* [http://www.ahead.de Ahead Nero Burning Rom] | * [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 | * [http://www.burrrn.net Burrrn] Audio CD burner | ||
* [[Exact Audio Copy]] CD Ripper | * [[Exact Audio Copy]] CD Ripper | ||
* [http://cdexos.sourceforge.net CDex] CD ripper | * [http://cdexos.sourceforge.net CDex] CD ripper | ||
| + | * [http://www.cdwave.com/ CD Wave] | ||
===Taggers=== | ===Taggers=== | ||
| Line 89: | Line 104: | ||
* [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier] | * [http://www.bitattack.ro/ai/ Audio Identifier] | ||
* [http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ mkvtoolnix] - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container | * [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. | ...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. | ||
Revision as of 02:21, 18 April 2005
Contents
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 FLAC links page.
Hardware
Home stereo
- AudioReQuest music servers
- Digital Techniques' "iStereo" M300A Digital Music Player
- Escient's FireBall servers (E2-40/160/300, DVDM-300)
- Hifidelio
- Meda Systems' Bravo servers
- The MS300 Music Server by McIntosh Laboratory
- PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player
- Rio Reciever and Dell Digital Audio Receiver
- SkipJam's networked audio/video devices
- Squeezebox2
- Zensonic Z500 Networked DVD Media Player
Car stereo
Portable
Software
Players
- Apollo
- foobar2000
- JRiver Media Center
- LAMIP
- MPlayer
- MythTV
- QCD (plugin)
- VLC
- VUPlayer
- Winamp
- Windows Media Player and other directshow-based players (MPC, TCMP, RadLight) (with Illiminable's directshow filters or CoreFLAC)
- Xine
- XMMS
- XMplay
Frontends (Windows)
- Flacattack
- Custom Windows Frontend (by Speek)
- UniversalFront by Böreck
- Frontah by Madah
- Mareo by Kwambis
Frontends (Mac)
Converters
- dBpowerAMP Music Converter / Audio Player / CD Writer
- GX:Transcoder Music converter
Editors
- CoolEdit
CD writers/rippers
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom
- Arson
- burnatonce
- Burrrn Audio CD burner
- Exact Audio Copy CD Ripper
- CDex CD ripper
- CD Wave
Taggers
- Mp3tag Universal Tag Editor
- The GodFather Tagger / Music manager
- Case's Tag command line tagger
Other tools
- Mr. QuestionMan
- Audio Identifier
- mkvtoolnix - tool to multiplex FLAC streams inside the Matroska container
...and many more; see the FLAC software section and 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.
