[linux-audio-dev] WAVE-EX File Format Spec

[Fred Gleason]

On Tuesday 09 August 2005 19:14, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:
> When I get a bit of time (yeah right :-)) I'll take a look at the
> BWF stuff.

Nothing like having a truck back up and dump a bunch of standards docs on your 
desk...  :)


> However, since you already have a hardware MPEG codec (where the
> hardware manufacturer pays the licensing fees), you might want
> to look at the sf_read_raw/sf_write_raw interfaces:
>
>    http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/api.html#raw
>
> The warning about reading/writing compressed format being undefined
> is mainly warning about mixing raw read/writes with standard read/
> writes which use libsndfile's internal codecs. This would not be
> an issue for your case.

This is pretty much the approach I had in mind.  Rivendell is at a crossroads 
right now where I need to add two key features:

Surround-sound support (hence WAVE-EX)
OggVorbis and OggFLAC

So, it sounds like this could be a strategic point to make the switch.  Would 
you accept patches to add BWF functionality?  There would be no MPEG codec 
support -- I quite understand the patent concerns.  Merely the ability to 
create and parse the proper chunk structures, dealing only with raw MPEG 
frames.


> PS : Libsndfile is very close to having full Ogg Vorbis support
>      (Conrad ???). Would that be enough for you to drop or at
>      least partially replace MP3?

Actually, I don't care that much about MP3 -- Layer 2 support is what we 
primarily need.  If Ogg were available, we'd still need L2 for backward 
compatibility, but I suspect it would rapidly become a 'legacy' format.

Cheers!


|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. | Director of Broadcast Software Development  |
|                           |             Salem Radio Labs                |
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|    There cannot be a crisis next week.  My schedule is already full.    |
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