The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), which is responsible for the development of internet protocols and architecture, has approved the assignment of "Proposed Standard" status to the free audio codec FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), developed by the Xiph.Org community. Based on the 14th draft specification, an RFC will be formed (final editing and publication of an RFC typically takes 3-6 months). It is noteworthy that a specification for the Matroska media container format (".mkv") is also on the list of proposals being prepared for RFC.
The FLAC codec uses only lossless encoding methods, ensuring the complete preservation of the original audio stream quality and its identity with the reference version being encoded. The lossless compression methods used can reduce the size of the original audio stream by 50-60%. FLAC is a completely free streaming format, which not only implies the openness of libraries implementing encoding and decoding functions but also the absence of restrictions on the use of specifications and the creation of derivative versions. The code of the reference libraries is distributed under the BSD license.
Source: opennet.ru
