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[jolo]

This is bugged me for a while, because I am ignorant about it.


 Can someone please explain the following options and if they are advisable to use or not ??

• Add 4k padding block
• Add seek table (if possible)
• Use Ogg as transport layer (.ogg)

Thank you,

Jon T.

[Alex B]

I once posted the following reply on the MC13 board. MC14 has the same FLAC encoding settings.

The settings explained:

Quality (compression level)

I think the name of this setting is a slight mishap and can be misleading. The same setting in the Monkey's Audio encoder plugin is called "Compression Level". Perhaps JRiver could change the displayed name.

If I recall correctly the default compression level value is 6 and I think it is pretty much optimal for general use. 7 & 8 compress only very slightly more and are slower. If you find the level 6 too slow you can try a smaller number.

The level 0 is very fast but the resulting file size is a lot bigger. I have used it for saving temporary files when I want to convert a bunch of files to an intermediate lossless format before editing them with a wave editor.

Verify

This compares the decoded PCM data and the encoded FLAC file during the encoding process. You can use it, but because it does not redecode the source file it can verify only the latter part of the process. I don't think it is necessary unless you suspect hardware problems.

Add 4 k padding block

Reserves some empty space for the file tags. It is a useful setting. The FLAC tags are stored in the beginning of the file and without adequate padding a tag change can trigger a complete rewrite of the FLAC file. This setting can speed up tagging only when you are storing textual metadata. Cover art files don't usually fit in the reserved padding block.

Add seek table

Makes seeking faster. Keep it enabled unless you have a specific reason to disable it.

Use Ogg as transport layer

This packs the encoded FLAC audio stream in the Ogg container. Use it only if you need to create Ogg-FLAC files for an external application. MC's Ogg decoder supports only the Vorbis format.

[jolo]

Thank you, this is helpful as I have forgotten.

However, it appears that support and development of APE, seems to have wained, while at the same time, FLAC, has been gaining more acceptance. Since there is no quality difference, I also liked APE for their front end, which included a nice APE player as well. But the big thing was the higher level of compression.
No complaints about FLAC, I am delighted that it appears that this open source product is becoming more and more accepted.

What I didn't understand was the 4k padding black,
the seek table and
the Ogg transport layer.

On the Ogg transport layer, that might be something I might think of using in the future.
I would need to see more about the growth of having
Ogg Vorbis for audio and Theora Ogg being embedded in W3 standardized web browser's like Firefox, that is supporting HTML 5 and their wonderful new
Video and Audio command.
I don't see any advantage to having FLAC in a Ogg package at the moment, but who knows, that might come in usewell at some time.

I am aware that the Quality field in the FLAC encoder front end, is about the level of compression and has virtually nothing to do with quality.
I guess it would be a good idea to have that changed to something like "Compression Level" instead.
I normally use 8, if I am not in any kind of rush. If I set it up and just walk away for a while, I might as well have the highest compression level set.
I am assuming that the higher the compression rate = slower encoding speed, it only a function of the e encoding, but not a function of playback. ?

I haven't heard APE referenced for a while. That used to be my lossless compressed format of choice. The biggest reason was that APE allows for smaller compressed files than FLAC. Okay, I thought the file extension name was kind of cool, especially since it was not a "techy" type of name. I liked the logo as well. MY COWON can decode and play both APE and FLAC, as can MC. 

Thanks very much.,

Jon Temple