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[scthom]

The new and updated version of the FLAC Encoder Plugin is available.

Version 1.1 now works with MC version 11!!

I have submitted it to JRiver for inclusion in the plugin database, but in the meantime, you can pick it up from http://members.cox.net/scot.thompson/.

It works on my computer, but please let me know if you have issues or comments!

Thanks!

[Alex B]

Works like a charm. Thanks!

Unfortunately Oblong's input plug-in doesn't show the physical file tags in Action Window > File Type Info. I think it is the only thing missing from a complete FLAC support.

[Omni]

Now that Roxio has added FLAC support in their new Media Creator 7.5, odds are that Nero will add it soon, too.  Once that happens, maybe JRiver will feel enough pressure to add official FLAC support to MC.    (Not that I care, really, since I only use APE anyway. )

Sources:  Hydrogenaudio Forums, Roxio's Q&A Page

[jgreen]

scthom--
Your plugin seems stable and does a great job.  Thank you for your hard work.  I was watching your posts on the plugin developer page to see how things were progressing, and I saw a lot of sweat and ingenuity.  I'm now converting a month's worth of shns from etree.org into the far superior format of FLAC.  Thanks again.

[DJMUK]

scthom--
Your plugin seems stable and does a great job.  Thank you for your hard work.  I was watching your posts on the plugin developer page to see how things were progressing, and I saw a lot of sweat and ingenuity.  I'm now converting a month's worth of shns from etree.org into the far superior format of FLAC.  Thanks again.

I second that - you have made my Slim Devices SqueezeBox2 very happy!

Thanks again.

[scthom]

I second that - you have made my Slim Devices SqueezeBox2 very happy!

How do you like the 2?  I have a "1"  that I've had since Christmas and am very pleased.  It's part of the reason I have been working on the FLAC encoder plugin as well   

[scthom]

Thank You to everyone.

I truly appreciate the feedback.

[DJMUK]

How do you like the 2?  I have a "1"  that I've had since Christmas and am very pleased.  It's part of the reason I have been working on the FLAC encoder plugin as well   

Before last Christmas I used to feed APE's from MC into a 'not bad' mini hi-fi system.  The APE's on a server in my home office and a Dell portable connected to the hi-fi in the lounge via a wireless network.  However, just before Christmas I invested £3k in a new hi-fi (ARCAM / PMC GB1).  After that playing songs was accompanied by backgroud computer noise which I could not get rid of.  I tried 3 different PC's and got the same problem.  I came to the conclusion that the ARCAM was so sensitive it was picking this up where the old cheap hi-fi did not.  I spent Christmas scouring the web for alternatives and plumped for the SB1 Wireless.  Best purchase I have made in a long time.

I got the SB1 on  New Years Eve and was very impressed.  No more nasty noises and no PC to have in the lounge - even my Wife was impressed.  At that stage I had all my files as .APE for MC.

With the advent of the SB2 I decided to buy a Wireless one and have transferred the SB1 for service in my home office.  So I used your plugin to convert all my APE's to FLAC's because, as you know, the SB2 has inbuilt FLAC decoding.

The SB2 has worked well and, for my dodgy eyesight, the display is a easier to see, when using the 'normal' size text.  The wireless network is less strained because of the built in FLAC decoder.  I think these devices are very good value.  The sound into my ARCAM / PMC GB1 hi-fi setup is superb.  It's really fun to hear all that detail again.

The only real shame is that we can't use MC as the back-end as the SlimServer software is nowhere as good.

Thank again for the plugin.

[Hildy]

Thank you, so much!

[jgreen]

scthom--
I've used your plugin on about 1,000 tracks so far.  Thanks to your work, I've been able to upgrade the functionality of shns, and reduce the file size of selected wavs. 

I do have an observation.  The conversion process seems to crash the program when attempting larger files.  I'm not sure if it's the plugin or the conversion script within MC11, but it seems to occur at the point your progress slider hits 100%.  With your plugin enabled, the slider seems to represent the progress for loading the file, rather than converting it.  So I conclude that the problem is when the process confronts the large file in its entirety.

As A test, I set up a seguence of wav files, 16 bit x 48 mhz (1536 kbps), ordered in ascending file size.  The program did just fine on a 13-minute wave ( don't know the file size it was), but crashed on a 20-minute wav (224 mb).  It doesn't seem to work on larger files, as a function of data size.  Longer-duration shns seem to work, but I'm GUESSING that I never tried one that was 224 mb.

The event produces a dialogue box that says (roughly):

Microsoft Visual c++ runtime Library
Runtime Error!
Program..../media center.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact scthom and ask him to do more hard work.

(The last line is somewhat paraphrased.)

As a note, I just ran the 20-minute file in order to get the dialogue, and it succeeded.  It seems to matter whether there's already been some measure of processing going on or completed.  The plugin did crash on the second file, a 600-mb wav.

scthom, the lossless audio angels appreciate your hard work.

[scthom]

Now then, how much/what would it take to commision an .mpc encoder?

Nice try 

At this point, I'm not really interested in taking on another project like that.  I'd be happy to give advice to anyone who does though.

[scthom]

I've used your plugin on about 1,000 tracks so far.  Thanks to your work, I've been able to upgrade the functionality of shns, and reduce the file size of selected wavs. 

I do have an observation.  The conversion process seems to crash the program when attempting larger files.  I'm not sure if it's the plugin or the conversion script within MC11, but it seems to occur at the point your progress slider hits 100%.  With your plugin enabled, the slider seems to represent the progress for loading the file, rather than converting it.  So I conclude that the problem is when the process confronts the large file in its entirety.

I'm glad it's (mostly) working for you.

I'll admit right now that this plugin needs a bit of work.  I took several "easy" paths to get it going for most files, but there are several holes, which you have adequately found 

One problem will be with large files.  Part of the problem is the FLAC development kit expects different size data units than wav files - I chose to simply copy it in memory, so any large files will need a lot of memory.  This is the only shortcut I took that could cause the crash.

Another shortcut is that the progress bar is not updated by the encoder.  Only the ripping part will update the bar.

The last major shortcut is that the encoder doesn't actually encode chunks, it only works on the whole file, so even when "encode while ripping" is enabled, it just copies to a file and then works on that.

Fortunately, these shortcuts don't affect most users or most files.  That's why I took them at this stage.  I intend to try to fix these, but am not as pressed now that it mostly works.

Thanks for your comments!!  I was wondering how the shortcuts would affect overall usability.

[jgreen]

scthom--
Yes--bottom line, it's working, and working BETTER than the equivilent WMA (lossless) plugin, and apparently also ape, according to a post on the .282 version board.

I think the reason your plugin works better is the "shortcut" you used.  Specifically, if your plugin is going to fail, it fails on loading the file, and not halfway through the conversion process.  I have found that with the WMA (lossless) conversion (which bombs out a LOT more often), the file it fails on must be retrieved from the recycle bin, and in some cases is destroyed.

Now, I get the feeling that the memory limitation is a hard number.  Yes?  No?  The reason is that I've got 2 gigs of ram, and your plugin hardly uses any of it, that I can see.  Turn it up to "11", dude!  Let fly!  Is there any easy way to check for memory and use it if it's there?

In the meantime, your plugin continues to chug away on files.  There is a heck of a lot of beneficial karma being developed here.

[Hildy]

I've had the large file problem too, and I also have 2GB of memory on my laptop so I shouldn't run out on the files that I'm dealing with...

It was only an issue for one of my 7000 files so I agree that you shouldn't stay up nights to fix everything, if people are ripping books on disc etc they may need to use a different codec.

Thanks again! 

[scthom]

Now, I get the feeling that the memory limitation is a hard number.  Yes?  No?  The reason is that I've got 2 gigs of ram, and your plugin hardly uses any of it, that I can see.  Turn it up to "11", dude!  Let fly!  Is there any easy way to check for memory and use it if it's there?

I think there is a limit, but I'm unsure of what it is off-hand.  It's really a windows memory allocation limit and not a limit on how much physical memory you have (or don't have).