IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), which is responsible for the development of internet protocols and architecture, has approved the designation of 'Proposed Standard' for the free audio codec FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), developed by the Xiph.Org community. Based on the 14th draft of the FLAC specification, an RFC will be formed (typically, the final editing and publication of an RFC takes 3-6 months). Notably, the specification for the Matroska media container format ('.mkv') is also on the list of RFCs in preparation.
The FLAC codec uses only lossless encoding methods, which ensures complete preservation of the original sound stream's quality and its identity with the reference version that underwent encoding. The lossless compression methods used allow for a reduction in the size of the original sound stream by 50-60%. FLAC is a fully free streaming format, implying not only openness of libraries implementing encoding and decoding functions but also no restrictions on the use of specifications and the creation of derivative versions. The source code of the reference libraries is available under the BSD license.
Izvor: opennet.ru
