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Topic: OptimFROG with EAC (Read 6486 times) previous topic - next topic
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OptimFROG with EAC

Is it possible to encode OFR from within EAC?

I've fiddled around a bit, but can only get it to work by ripping to .WAV with EAC and then use Kermit to encode to OFR.

*confused*

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #1
Why are you using a closed source lossless format?

Even Monkey's Audio is more open (and compresses by basically the same amount -- within 0.3% in half the time according to the FLAC comparison page).

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #2
It's free, and the normal (1) setting will give almost the same compression rate as APE @ highest quality, but much faster.
And when I start ripping my cd collection, both speed and compression rate does matter.
Hummmmm... but I suppose it's useless to fight the stream, so I'll probably go with Monkey's Audio in the end :-/


OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #4
Hm, that was the page I was studying when I decided to use OptimFROG

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #5
Program usage
-------------

Use

optimfrog e {WAVFile|-} OptimFROGFile [mode] [speedup]

to encode WAVFile or stdin to OptimFROGFile (with seek information), or

optimfrog a {WAVFile|-} OptimFROGFile [mode] [speedup]

to archive WAVFile or stdin to OptimFROGFile (no seek information)

25.4 x real-time - mode 0, speedup 4x (switch 0 4)
14.4 x real-time - mode 1, speedup 4x (switch 1 4, default)
10.6 x real-time - mode 2, speedup 4x (switch 2 4)
6.0 x real-time - mode 3, speedup 4x (switch 3 4)

3.5 x real-time - mode 4, speedup 4x (switch 4 4)
1.1 x real-time - mode 4, speedup 1x (switch 4 1)



-------------------------------------------------------------
The above translates into selecting a "user defined encoder" - changing the file extension to .ofr - then in the "Additional commandline options" put:

e %s %d

(if you want it to include the seek info)

a %s %d

(to drop the seek info and make it slightly smaller, sucks for playback though)

These two default settings will run in the (1) normal setting that you specified.

To run any other settings, just use a combo of the compression and speedup values for example:

e %s %d 3 4

(3) extra compression + (4) speedup value.

When creating normal files to be played back in Winamp, don't use anything other than 4 for the speedup value, or higher than compression level 3.
You can't kill the Elephant.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #6
Seriously, what is *wrong* with you Windows peoples? Does using a completely closed format not bother you at all?

I know you're probably too young to have learnt to program in anything except Visual Basic, but there are reasons why it's good to have either the source code or a file format specification.

In Monkey's Audio you have an *incredibly* good file format, with source available (although under a slightly unclear licence). This provides a very good guarantee that you'll be able to decode MAC files at any time in the future (although you might have to pay someone you know who can program to port the source code).

What is to stop optimFrog from pulling a RAR (another of my pet hates), where new versions of the encoder produce files which cannot be played back on old decoders, and the new decoders are not available on all the platforms the old one was?

Doesn't this worry you?

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #7
enough Jon Ingram.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #8
Quote
Originally posted by Jan S.
enough Jon Ingram.


come on, don't play the big boss here. Jon Ingram is totally right, but as he already said, no one cares.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #9
Quote
Originally posted by Jon Ingram
Doesn't this worry you?


Not really, because you're seeing the worst of possible futures. I'm not that pessimistic.

If somehow Florin Ghido screws up and makes new files backwards incompatible, or if I decide to switch to a plataform where OFR isn't supported, I can first decode my Frog files and reencode to other format. (After all, it's lossless. Transcoding isn't an issue at all)

Quote
Originally posted by Benjamin Lebsanft
Jon Ingram is totally right


I disagree.

BTW: I don't use OptimFROG. I just wanted to point out why I'm not concerned about these possibilities.

Heh, I use WavPack.

Regards;

Roberto.

PS: Calm down, Jan, please.

 

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #10
Thank you wildboar!

It worked wonderfully!  Although I'm left with two more questions:

1. What does 'seek' mean when coding audio.
2. And if anyone should know.... with the speedup set to 4 the encoder either predicts or round off to speed things up. How can it still be an identical (lossless) copy?


And no, I don't worry about the closed source nature of OptimFROG. As Roberto pointed out, I can always batch transcode to another format if I'm not happy with the way it is developing. And I am not convinced that the worst case scenario will take place to give me the extra work.


Cheers


Ps. I coded C++ in DOS at the Uni in 1991, and came to the realisation that it wasn't worth it to get an ulcer from internalising the rage caused by crashing compilers (and my buggy code)

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #11
The seek feature is so when you are playing the file back in Winamp (or whatever player you are using) it won't take 20 seconds to find a spot in the file if you grab the slider and fastforward it to a certain point.  Something you obviously don't need if you are truly archiving files to a cd-r or transferring whole albums with a .cue sheet so it can be burned by someone else.

I don't know any technical details on speedup 4, but it definitely makes a losless file. Using the lower speedup values are not practical because Winamp playback takes a huge performance hit.  Again, for true archiving you could use them, but they are really slow and the space saving is minimal.
You can't kill the Elephant.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #12
Quote
Originally posted by Jon Ingram
Seriously, what is *wrong* with you Windows peoples? Does using a completely closed format not bother you at all?

I know you're probably too young to have learnt to program in anything except Visual Basic, but there are reasons why it's good to have either the source code or a file format specification.

In Monkey's Audio you have an *incredibly* good file format, with source available (although under a slightly unclear licence). This provides a very good guarantee that you'll be able to decode MAC files at any time in the future (although you might have to pay someone you know who can program to port the source code).

What is to stop optimFrog from pulling a RAR (another of my pet hates), where new versions of the encoder produce files which cannot be played back on old decoders, and the new decoders are not available on all the platforms the old one was?

Doesn't this worry you?


You've answered your own question: Windows people generally don't have to worry about new decoders not available on their platform.  It is THE platform.

I haven't personally tried optimfrog, and likely won't unless it features significantly better compression than MA(at least 5%), which is likely a pipedream for any lossless codec.  And thats assuming it has useable tagging/seeking capabilities on par with MA.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #13
Quote
[You've answered your own question: Windows people generally don't have to worry about new decoders not available on their platform.  It is THE platform.

Which version of Windows? They are not homogeneous. I'm already finding it hard since I use Windows98 -- Windows95 (and, god forbid, Windows3.x) users are already out in the cold.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #14
Quote
Originally posted by Jon Ingram
Which version of Windows? They are not homogeneous. I'm already finding it hard since I use Windows98 -- Windows95 (and, god forbid, Windows3.x) users are already out in the cold.


Yes, but Win3.1 is officially outdated and unsupported. Specially because it's a 16bit plataform.

It's the same thing as asking developers to make their software compatible with Linux 1.0.

And why Win95 users are out on the cold? AFAIK, you can use OptimFROG in Win95.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #15
Thank you for all of your replies!


As for only swapping format for better compression, I'd say ripping time and CPU usage does play in the equation.

Plus, apparently there is a new version of OptimFROG coming out "soon", which hopefully will have better tag functions.
I just think it's a sympathetic format. Don't ask me why.

OptimFROG with EAC

Reply #16
Quote
Originally posted by estragon
I just think it's a sympathetic format. Don't ask me why.


Then go for it and ignore what the other format moaners say!