New Lossless MPEG 4 Standard: MPEG-4ALS

The new lossless audio encoding standard MPEG-4 ALS has recently been approved by the ISO/IEC committee, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). This new standard originated as LPAC which was developed by Tilman Liebchen and submitted by the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) and chosen as the reference design for the new MPEG4 standard. With companies such as NTT and Real Networks contributing various improvements and technologies to create what is now the new MPEG-4 standard. Some of the intended applications are archival systems (broadcasting, studios, record labels, libraries, studio operations (storage, collaborative working, digital transfer), high-resolution disc formats, internet distribution of audio files, online music stores and portable music players.

Some of the features include:

• General support for virtually any uncompressed digital audio format (including wav, aiff, au, bwf, raw)
• Support for PCM resolutions of up to 32-bit at arbitrary sampling rate (including 16/44.1, 16/48, 24/48, 24/96, 24/192)
  
• Multi-channel / multi-track support for up to 65536 channels (including 5.1 surround).
• Support for 32-bit IEEE floating point audio data.
• Fast random access to any part of the encoded data.
• Optional storage in MP4 file format (allows multiplex with video).
• High flexibility of codec parameters for various applications.

Read More...
Press Release...
History of MPEG-4 ALS


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DVDM-522: Escient's Multi-Zone Media Manager

Escient has released the DVDM-522, a multi-zone media manager for your DVD, CD and digital media files. With a built-in 500GB hard drive there is plenty of space for starting a media collection but if that's not enough you can also attach external CD/DVD changers to the unit to add additional content. The DVDM-522 can also be used with the Mp200 remote media player to access to your media collection from anywhere in your house and like many of the other Escient products supports WAV, MP3 and FLAC. This is the second media manager that Escient has released this year.
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Toast 7.02 Update

Roxio has released an update for Toast 7.0. The new version 7.02 includes a lot of anticipated fixes including correctly enabling the Flac and Ogg Audio Export feature.

7.02 Update
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Merry Christmas from The LAB!

Merry Christmas to all those around the world that visit The LAB! We have recently added Mapstats, which allows you to see where visitors to The Lab are coming from. Click below to see today's results.

Visitors to The LAB

I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous New Year!

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DTS-HD Demo at CES 2006

At CES 2006 this year DTS will demo the new mandatory format for Blu-ray Disc (BD) and High Definition Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD). The format labeled DTS-HD is the only technology that can provide lossless surround sound for these new disc formats. The demonstrations will be held on January 5-8, 2006, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall Room #N242.
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X plosion Soundcard: Hardware DTS Encoding

*In the interest of achieving the best sound possible from your audio files we will occasionally have posts regarding hardware and software that are top of the line and come highly recommended.

From the makers of the X mistique 7.1 sound card comes the X plosion 7.1 DTS. This new card is based on the C-media CMI8770 chipset which is an upgrade from the C-media CMI8768. It is also the first soundcard to bear the DTS Connect logo which signifies it can do encode DTS in realtime. It can also handle Full Bit Rate DVD's at 1.5 Mbps. They also have another new card that is DTS only, the Xraider 7.1 DTS. Both have been advertised to be available in January but I found it for $121.99 on backorder at ZipZoomFly.
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List of Full Bit Rate DVDs


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Media Center Edition 2005 with Flac & Ogg

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Windows Media Center Edition 2005 does not provide native support for FLAC, APE or many other popular formats but by using one of the FLAC/Ogg Directshow Filters and the WMPTSE plugin you can now not only play your FLAC files in MCE 2005/2004 but they can also be added to the MCE library with support for meta data. Currently this guide works for WMP 9, 10 and 11 as well as MCE 2004 and 2005.

MCE/WMP GUIDE

1. Download and Install one of the FLAC Directshow Filters. These filters allow you to play FLAC files in Windows Media Player. The most popular being the Illiminable Directshow Filter.

Illiminable Ogg Directshow Filter

Core Flac Directshow Filter

2. Download and Install WMP Tag Support Extender: This plugin allows Ape, MPC, WavPack, OptimFROG, AAC, Flac and Ogg (read only) tags to be used in Windows Media Player and added to the library in Windows Media Center Edition. Be sure to use the latest version.

WMP Tag Support Extender

3. Configure the WMPTSE Plugin: Open WMP and go to Options. Click on the Plugin-Ins Tab and then choose the Background category. Then make sure there is a check in the box for the WMPTagSupportExtender Plugin and choose Properties.




Once in the Properties you can configure how the plugin refreshes the media library as well as additional Read/Write options. There is also a Refresh Now button for refreshing your library.




4. Open MCE/WMP and add new files to your library. Better results are obtained by using Add Folders instead of Scan for Media.


5. Enjoy!

*MCE/WMP Tips*

Tags

MCE uses the tag AlbumArtist for the Album Title. To improve the viewing of your tags in MCE you'll want to add a AlbumArtist tag to your files. Both Foobar's Masstagger and MP3Tag can be used to add a tag field or you can use the Album Art Fixer utility that we recently posted about to add the AlbumArtist field.


WMPTSE
*WMP 11 Users - WMPTSE does work with WMP 11 but you may need to register the WMPTSE .dll for it to work properly.

To register WMPTSE:
Open a command window and paste in: cd C:\Program Files\piPOol\Windows Media Player Tag Support Extender then register the dll by pasting the following text in: regsvr32 WMPTagSupportExtender.dll


WMP 11 Settings
Library > More Options then PRIVACY > Enhanced Playback and Media Experience

• Display media information from the internet

• Update music files by retreiving media info from the internet

LIBRARY > Library Automatic Media Information updates for files.

• Retrieve Additional Information from the Internet

• Rename music files using rip music settings.

• Rearrange music in rip music folder, using rip music settings.

CLEARING WMP DATABASE

To delete your WMP database:
Paste the following text into the Run box and delete the databases found. You can then have WMP rescan your folders for meda files:

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player


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*Thanks to EqualRightsForWerewolves for providing some of the screenshots!

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First Car With Support For FLAC & OGG

Volvo has worked with the designers of PhatNoise to create the Volvo Digital Jukebox, a jukebox system that allows you to sync your audio files from your PC to the car and then control then via the head unit located in the Volvo's dashboard console. The permanent "Master Unit" is located in the trunk and then a portable cradle is used with 20GB DMS cartridge so you can sync with your PC via USB 2.0. The system currently supports MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC and OGG. The Digital Jukebox is available for the S60, V70, XC70 and S80 models with a RTI after September 2001.
Read More From Volvo...

Read More From Phatnoise...


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OptimFROG Turns 4!

On Dec. 16th 2001 OptimFROG 4.0b was released into the world providing at the time, the best lossless compression available.
The upcoming release of OptimFROG due out in the next few weeks will have the following features:

• significantly improved compression [done, integrating into mainstream OFR]
• creation of self extracting archives, 30kB only SFX code for Windows [90%]
• ID3v2 tags support [90%]
• utility for gapless joining of multiple OptimFROG files [50%]

Future Features:

• multichannel support
• cue sheet support
• Darwin/MacOS and PocketPC port (*OptimFROG was successfully ported to HP 4150 PPC)Adobe Audition plug-in
• integrated GUI interface and automated installer with plug-ins
• recovery of data from severely broken files

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iTunes to Meedio Playlist Converter

MITPlaylists is a utility that enables you to convert your iTunes playlists to Meedio playlists by matching your iTunes audio files with the same Meedio audio file and then creating a playlist in Meedio.
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MediaMonkey: Media Jukebox and Organizer

Ventis Media is the purveyor of MediaMonkey, a full featured media jukebox and music organizer. MediaMonkey is able to tag,organize, encode, decode, play and synchronize your audio files and works with a wide variety of lossless formats.
The tagging capabilities include the standard ID3 editor (ID3v1 & ID3v2) as well as an APE2 editor, WMA editor, WAV editor and OGG editor for both OGG and FLAC tagging. There is also a built-in Auto-Tagger which pulls info from Amazon. I found that tagging was much easier and alot faster than the application I was using previously, Tag&Rename. It also worked alot fast across my network as all of my audio files are on a media server. And if you have a large collection that is spread out over multiple folders, the Auto-Organize feature can help you organize files by allowing you to choose your own filing system such as \Artist-\Track. This is accomplished by entering a destination mask (*See image below) which makes it much easier for 1st time taggers.

MM 2.4 also has encoding support with a OGG Encoder, LAME encoder, WMA Encoder and in the upcoming version 2.5 a FLAC Encoder has been added as well. Due to the fact that many Winamp plugins are supported the possibilities are endless (*see image below). So if the format you want to transfer to doesn't have a built-in encoder then you can download the plugin. The website has a list of input/output, DSP, and visualization plugins that can be downloaded from the Winamp website.

Another interesting feature is MediaMonkey's ability to synchronize with portable devices. Supported devices include the Ipod, most USB MASS Storage devices and the iRiver 1xx and 3XX HDD Players. A really cool synchronization feature of the upcoming version of MM 2.5 is the ability to encode to the format of your choice as you are synchronizing (*See image below). Currently all of my files are in FLAC so when synchronizing my girlfriends iRiver H320 MM will automatically encode my FLAC files to OGG while transferring them to the H320. The rest of synchronization features are what you would expect, you can specify to synchronize everything or on sync specific Artists, Albums or Playlists.


Another interesting item is the Wishlist Forum where users can post items that they want supported in MM. Along with the wishlist forum is The Official Wishlist thread where the developers list the order of importance for different features as they are developed! Too bad all developers don't do this.
MM offers a Gold version for $19.95. The Gold Version gives you the following additional features:

• File Monitor (automatically updates library)
• Advanced Searches and AutoPlaylists
• Advanced Portable Device Synchronization
• Unlimited MP3 encoding
• Virtual CD
• Filters
• Previews
• Sleep Timer

Future Versions

2.5 (beta)
2.5 Lossless Updates
-New framework that allows anyone to develop an encoding plugin.
-A FLAC encoding plugin using the new framework

2.6
-Ape Encoder (potential)

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VitalStream partners with MusicGiants, Inc.

VitalStream, Inc. a global provider of streaming audio and video services and has agreed to provide distribution of lossless audio for MusicGiants, Inc. MusicGiants is the first to offer the entire catalogs in lossless audio format for major labels like Sony, Universal Music Group, EMI Music and Warner Music Group. The only format available is DRM-protected WMA Lossless files.
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And More...

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Escient Fireball SE-D1 DVD/CD Music Manager

Escient has released the Fireball SE-D1 a DVD and CD Manager that can be used with Sony DVD/CD changers. The SE-D1 supports both FLAC and MP3.
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Ape,MPC, Flac, Ogg Tags in Windows Media Player

Currently Windows Media Player cannot handle Flac tags but with the WMP Tag Support Extender ( WMPtagsupportextender) WMP can handle Flac, Apple and Ogg Vorbis metatags such as Artist, Album,etc.

Currently Supports
- Monkey's audio (*.ape)
- MusePack (*.mpc)
- WavPack (*.wv)
- OptimFROG (*.ofr)
- FLAC (*.flac)
- Vorbis Comments (*.ogg) <- READ-ONLY Read More...

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Sony's Lossless Format

Sony has developed a new lossless format called Advanced Lossless Technology or ATRAC. Support for ATRAC has appeared on the MZ-DH, MZ-RH and MZ-DN series of MD players as well as the MD Player/Recorder MDS-JE480. This new format has two types of data Atrac3 and Atrac3plus and uses something called "scalable compression". With "scalable compression" the device determines whether to use compression or not. This enables a user who wants lossless audio and has a portable device to have just one file type instead of having to create a lossless version and a lossy version.



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Sony's ATRAC Listening Tests

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MEDIA RAGE: MAC OS X Media Tools

Media Rage by Chaotic Software is a set of 17 media tools for MAC OS X and is geared towards those with large media collections. Media Rage can handle MP3, AAC\MP4, FLAC, AIFF, WAVE, BWF and OGG Vorbis as well as Exif data from digital images.
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Grateful Dead Lossless Archives Removed From Archive.org?

The Internet Archive website reacted to a request by the Grateful Dead to remove the GD archives and make it available for streaming only. But based on this post it seems that the Internet Archive reacted too quickly in trying to comply with GD's request. Instead of wanting all of the GD archives taken down the Grateful Dead representatives just wanted the soundboard recordings removed and made available as streaming media and the audience files available as both downloads and streaming. For those of you who are not familiar with the Internet Archives vast archive of music they have a lot of Shorten and FLAC encoded audio for free that is meticulously handled and seeded. There is a petition going for those that don't agree with GD demanding the removal of the soundboards.
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Sign Petition


UPDATE: Phil Lesh has also just posted a message on Phillesh.net. Click on the 11.30 Update Message at the top of the screen.

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