Thank you for the new release, Josh. I've downloaded it, but some of the details in the history file puzzle me, so I've not tried to use it yet. Pardon my denseness here ... First, as long as you don't use the --cuesheet option when you encode, are .flac files encoded by 1.1.0 still readable by earlier versions? Second, if the old default for seekpoints was -S100x and the new one is -S10s, does that mean that, if you encode a 44.1-ksps WAV that was ripped from a CD, the old default was to set 441 seekpoints per second and the new one is to set one seekpoint every ten seconds? One of the major reasons I preferred FLAC to APE, despite APE's usually tighter compression, was that it sought with much more precision. One seekpoint every ten seconds is way too coarse for the default; surely I'm missing something here. Then again, 441 seekpoints per second would be overkill. Third, 4 KB of padding is now the default; isn't it needed a lot less often than it is not needed? It seems I'll need to use --no-padding and a specific seekpoint setting every time I encode, but the bad part is that I'll have to ask others to do the same. Well, maybe not; I can always reencode with more seekpoints and less padding, true? Thanks for any help with these questions. DWT
Thank you very much for the explanations, Josh. | the seekpoints are not the only places in the stream that can | be seeked to, they are just hints about regular locations in | the stream. you can still seek to any sample. the number of | seekpoints are just one factor in determining how fast the | decoder can find any particular sample. I did a lot of testing | before deciding on -S10s. So you can seek anywhere, but if it isn't on a stored seekpoint, the calculation will be interpolated between the preceding and following seekpoints? I'll have to try it and see what happens. Come to think of it, what bugs me about Winamp's seeking through APEs is not so much the precision of locating the destination as the willingness to part from the current spot; it tends to stay where it is for a noticeable fraction of a second before jumping, while Winamp moves immediately if it's playing a FLAC file. | > Third, 4 KB of padding is now the default; isn't it needed a lot less | > often than it is not needed? | | it depends on how you encode, if you use --tag and --cuesheet | at encode time or later then you probably don't need it. a | little bit may come in handy though. Well, does --no-padding produce a file that is about 4 KB smaller? (Should unpack 1.1.0 and try that for myself, I guess.) In a boundary condition, where the files just miss fitting onto one CDR (or N CDRs), would omitting the padding help? | yes, you can add padding and seekpoints with metaflac now. Can you remove padding or seekpoints with metaflac now? Again, Josh, thank you very much. David
--- "David W. Tamkin" <dattier@panix.com> wrote:> First, as long as you don't use the --cuesheet option when you > encode, are > .flac files encoded by 1.1.0 still readable by earlier versions?that's right.> Second, if the old default for seekpoints was -S100x and the new one > is -S10s, > does that mean that, if you encode a 44.1-ksps WAV that was ripped > from a CD, > the old default was to set 441 seekpoints per second and the new one > is to set > one seekpoint every ten seconds?no, -S100x meant 100 seekpoints per stream, regardless of the length. a three minute song would have one every 1.8 seconds but a 70 minute album would have one every 42 seconds. that's why a switched to a fixed interval spacing.> One of the major reasons I preferred FLAC to APE, despite APE's > usually > tighter compression, was that it sought with much more precision. > One > seekpoint every ten seconds is way too coarse for the default; surely > I'm > missing something here. Then again, 441 seekpoints per second would > be > overkill.the seekpoints are not the only places in the stream that can be seeked to, they are just hints about regular locations in the stream. you can still seek to any sample. the number of seekpoints are just one factor in determining how fast the decoder can find any particular sample. I did a lot of testing before deciding on -S10s.> Third, 4 KB of padding is now the default; isn't it needed a lot less > often > than it is not needed?it depends on how you encode, if you use --tag and --cuesheet at encode time or later then you probably don't need it. a little bit may come in handy though.> It seems I'll need to use --no-padding and a specific seekpoint > setting every > time I encode, but the bad part is that I'll have to ask others to do > the > same. Well, maybe not; I can always reencode with more seekpoints > and less > padding, true?yes, you can add padding and seekpoints with metaflac now. Josh __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com