Flac - Apr 2007 - Re: FLAC: decoding to WAV in the future

Hi,

I'm a FLAC beginner and I had a question. Suppose I encode my whole CD
collection now in the FLAC format, using the FLAC encoder version 1.1.4 (the
most recent one at this time).
Will I still be able to decode all FLAC files to WAV files in the future
using the latest FLAC decoder, when for example version 2.0 of FLAC (or a
later version) is released or is it possible that at some point in the
future you can't decode older FLAC files anymore with the latest FLAC
decoder?

So basically my question is: can you always decode ANY FLAC file, no mather
what FLAC encoder version you have used to encode it, by using ANY other
newer FLAC decoder that still has to be released in the future?

I was hoping the main developer Josh Coalson could confirm this, because
it's an important point for people who like to store their CD collection in
the FLAC format!

thanks in advance!
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Hi Harry,

First of all, if you keep a copy of flac 1.1.4 then you will always  
be able to decode the files.  Why not make a backup of flac 1.1.4?

Second of all, flac is open-source, so somebody will always be able  
to compile flac 1.1.4 for any new platform.

There are never any guarantees about the future.  Some day, MP3 won't  
decode on a new computer, AIFF and WAV might be unheard of.  What  
makes you think that WAV will outlast FLAC?  Some day, there won't be  
a single CD Player still working.  Your best bet is to use open- 
source software and keep backups.  Hopefully, the C programming  
language won't disappear from the face of computing.

Brian Willoughby
Sound Consulting


On Apr 1, 2007, at 07:18, Harry Sack wrote:

Hi,

I'm a FLAC beginner and I had a question. Suppose I encode my whole  
CD collection now in the FLAC format, using the FLAC encoder version  
1.1.4 (the most recent one at this time).
Will I still be able to decode all FLAC files to WAV files in the  
future using the latest FLAC decoder, when for example version 2.0 of  
FLAC (or a later version) is released or is it possible that at some  
point in the future you can't decode older FLAC files anymore with  
the latest FLAC decoder?

So basically my question is: can you always decode ANY FLAC file, no  
mather what FLAC encoder version you have used to encode it, by using  
ANY other newer FLAC decoder that still has to be released in the  
future?

I was hoping the main developer Josh Coalson could confirm this,  
because it's an important point for people who like to store their CD  
collection in the FLAC format!

thanks in advance!

What Brian Willoughby means is that even though the future is
uncertain, you may trust FLAC.  The format is mature enough so that
you won't see major changes preventing playback of files encoded by
older encoders, but even if that comes to happen, the playback
libraries on most software will be backwards-compatible, and FLAC is
lossless meaning that you may convert FLAC 1.1.4 to a possible FLAC 3
without problems.

Hope that helps,
Ivo Emanuel Gon?alves