The Xiph.Org community has released an update to the free audio codec FLAC 1.5.0, allowing sound compression without loss of quality. FLAC uses only lossless encoding methods, which ensures complete retention of the original audio stream quality and its identity with the reference version subjected to encoding. The lossless compression methods used can reduce the size of the original audio stream by 50-60%. FLAC is a completely free streaming format, implying not only 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 library code is distributed under the BSD license.
Among the changes in the new version:
- The encoder now operates in multi-threaded mode. The multi-threaded encoder can be used via libFLAC or through the command-line utility flac.
- Added the ability to decode chained Ogg files that pack multiple independent FLAC audio streams into a single file.
- Support for writing to a new file when metadata changes has been implemented in libFLAC, libFLAC++, and metaflac, instead of overwriting the existing file. In libFLAC, a check for specifying a symbolic link as the input file has been added when changing metadata, along with protection against writing to such files during in-place replacement.
- The API for the libFLAC and libFLAC++ libraries has been expanded.
- The LMS (Loose Mid-Side) mode implementation has been adapted for multi-threaded operation, which separately encodes the common information for stereo channels and the difference between the left and right channels.
- Support for compilation to WebAssembly format has been implemented using the Emscripten compiler.
- The specification for the FLAC format has been fixed in RFC 9639.
- In the flac utility, a check for matching MD5 hashes has been added when re-encoding an existing FLAC file. In test mode, 'flac -t' now parses all metadata blocks and outputs warnings when ID3v1 metadata is detected. The built-in help for available options has been improved. The format for storing external metadata used by the flac utility has been documented.
- The license for the documentation has been updated to the GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License) version 1.3 (previously 1.2).
Source: opennet.ru
