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Topic: Is BladeEnc dead? (Read 9329 times) previous topic - next topic
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Is BladeEnc dead?

Is it?

The Homepage (http://bladeenc.mp3.no) doesn't exist anymore, and It's hard to find sources of it anywhere else.
Fedora doesn't seem to have bladeenc in its repos, or any repo linked with the Fedora project.

Why did it die?
Is LAME so much better, or just the one that is still around?

What alternatives do I have for encoding MP3s?
Is LAME the only encoder available for Linux these days?
 

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #2 –
I think blade was just a modified version of the ISO reference encoder, not something you'd actually want to use to encode music.  Its probably dead because people lost interest in it.

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: polemon on
Why did it die?
Is LAME so much better, or just the one that is still around?

What alternatives do I have for encoding MP3s?
Is LAME the only encoder available for Linux these days?

I am not sure why it died. But I do know something of its history. A 'tweaked' mp3 codec of supposed audiophile quality which unfortunately caused, noticeable by anyone, distortions and some sort of weird atonal hissing I never heard anything like it then or since, it would grow and shrink in volume.. *shudders*.

He gave it a good try though. It just took a lot more time and effort by lots more people than just one guy to make a really great MP3 codec.. LAME is awesome. Use LAME. There simply was no way to 'tune' MP3 to sound any better than perfect no matter how hard Blade tried.

[edit] P.S. I think still have some old vinyl and cd rips encoded in BladeEnc on a CD in the dark back of some drawer hidden deep in the depths of... wait, you don't need to know that! But, they still sound strange.

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #4 –
I don't use Linux, but LAME seems to be the "most maintined" MP3 encoder.


Quote
Fedora doesn't seem to have bladeenc in its repos, or any repo linked with the Fedora project.
You're supposed to pay a royality whenever you distribute any MP3 encoder, so it's my understanding that none of the official Linux distrubutions include one.  (The official LAME website only distributes the source code, so you have to go somewhere else to find the working/compiled code.)

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Quote
Fedora doesn't seem to have bladeenc in its repos, or any repo linked with the Fedora project.
You're supposed to pay a royality whenever you distribute any MP3 encoder, so it's my understanding that none of the official Linux distrubutions include one.  (The official LAME website only distributes the source code, so you have to go somewhere else to find the working/compiled code.)


That's why you have other repos linked with the project.
LAME is in the Fedora repos.

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #6 –
This reminds me, what ever happened to ReallyRareWares?

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: polemon on
Is it?


Yes, development stopped some eight years or so.


Quote from: polemon on
The Homepage (http://bladeenc.mp3.no) doesn't exist anymore


Web.archive.org is your friend. Edit: for text contents of web sites, that is. Don't expect .zip files there.

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: polemon on
That's why you have other repos linked with the project.
LAME is in the Fedora repos.


From an install I just did:
Quote
================================================================================
Package      Arch        Version                Repository              Size
================================================================================
Installing:
lame        i686        3.98.4-1.fc14          rpmfusion-free        108 k


rpmfusion is not part of Fedora, you have to add it to your repository list after installing Fedora.  It's a collection of extras accumulated by someone else.

If you are able to play mp3's you may have already added rpmfusion in following one of the procedures on various FAQ pages.  How to play mp3 when that's not in the original distribution is certainly a FAQ!

side note: the fact that I didn't have lame already installed reflects that I rarely encode things in mp3.  Vorbis etc work fine for me, but still need to be able to decode streams, podcasts, etc that are mostly mp3.

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #9 –
Quote from: DonP on
rpmfusion is not part of Fedora, you have to add it to your repository list after installing Fedora.  It's a collection of extras accumulated by someone else.
What I ment was the repos linked with Fedora, RPMfusion is one of them, but there are others serving some other packages of course.

If I could, I'd only use AAC and FLAC, but FLAC is sometimes just too large (embedded devices for instance), and the issues with AAC are pretty well known, I believe...
We're still stuck with MP3 for the most part, so I'll be still converting into MP3 for some time. LAME has made things very good for MP3 though. The codec is on-par with AAC and Ogg/Vorbis in the mid-quality settings.
From the perspective of a developer for embedded systems, Ogg/Vorbis is virtually everywhere. It's used in most automotive systems, GPS navigation devices, cell phones, PBXes, anything. Oh, and a lot of games use it as well.
It's everywhere, but it somehow hides from most of the casual users. Puzzling.

The problems with AAC don't stop with embedded devices, though.
I have problems with AAC playback with some contemporary software, like MPD, which uses FAAD2 for AAC decoding. Don't take my word for it, but I believe, that the strict policy for AAC encoding and decoding, is what keeps it from widespread adoption. It'll still take a lot of time, till it surpasses MP3 (In the mean time, MP3 is getting 'better' through development in things like LAME).

FLAC should stay what it is, I don't believe it can become any better, or something. If Ogg/Vorbis sees more development that make it equal to AAC in lower bit ranges, it might become an alternative for casual users.

Is BladeEnc dead?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: MuncherOfSpleens on
This reminds me, what ever happened to ReallyRareWares?


Quote from: Porcus on
Web.archive.org is your friend. Edit: for text contents of web sites, that is. Don't expect .zip files there.


Au contraire! For ReallyRareWares, there's a plethora of ZIPs. The god aweful BladeEnd in particular.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070803235255/.../rrw/blade.html