X Lossless Decoder: converte e codifica formati lossless

[Lester]

Posto nuovamente il riassunto di diversi post andati perduti con il recente problema hardware.

Ci sono stati numerosi aggiornamenti dell'applicazione, tuttora in corso di frenetico sviluppo. Lo sviluppatore è un tipo piuttosto incredibile, che spesso soddisfa richieste nel giro di ore e rilascia nuove beta.

Riassumere tutti i miglioramenti è arduo; per chi avesse voglia di leggere riporto sotto una version history ridotta. A mio avviso, il miglioramento più importante riguarda la funzione di rip dei CD e della registrazione del ripping in un accurato log, più dettagliato di quello di xACT (l'unico sinora disponibile per Mac, a quanto ne so). Il risultato viene poi confrontato con il database online di http://www.accuraterip.com per verificarne l'accuratezza (per utilizzare questa funzione vedi qui). Oltre che per i perfezionisti, un log accurato viene in genere richiesto a chi voglia fare upload di musica presso vari tracker torrent privati (attività ovviamente non consigliabile in quanto illegale).

In confronto a Max, le conversioni sono nettamente più veloci su una macchina lenta come la mia (iBook G4 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM).



L'ultima versione ufficiale è quella disponibile sul sito (20080914), mentre le beta possono venire scaricate mediante la funzione di autoaggiornamento.

http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html

Un ottimo sito per approfondire le proprie conoscenze in fatto di tecnologia audio e in cui si parla spesso di XLD sono i forum della Hydrogenaudio

2008/9/14

Feature additions

• Added feature to calculate an AccurateRip hash for the existing files. Choose "Check file with AccurateRip" from the File menu.
• Added feature to fix a wrong offset of the existing files using AccurateRip database. You can detect and fix an offset from "Detect Offset" and "Save with Offset Correction..." in File menu, after opening a file (with cuesheet) that you want to fix.
• Implemented a feature to check offset in the ripping stage. Now XLD performs a real-time offset checking while ripping, when the CD is available in AccurateRip DB. The result is written in the log if found.
• Integrated cdparanoia-III 10.2 engine. You can use the old engine by checking "Use old CDParanoia engine" checkbox.
• Added option to set the strength of the cache defeating ability. Only for the new engine. Stronger is safer, but slower. Stronger setting will be useful for the drive which has a large cache.
• Added feature to scan ReplayGain. You can use this feature by choosing "Scan ReplayGain" in File menu. There is also an option to scan ReplayGain during ripping.

Improvements

• XLD now automatically recognizes inserted/ejected CD
• Supported embedding album art in WavPack encoder
• Fixed to ask output directory if the default directory is not writable
• Added option to save a log file automatically
• Improved progress view to show a speed and remaining time
• Added option to veryfy suspicious sectors
• Added option to test before copy
• Added option to avoid testing when the track exists in AccurrateRip DB
• Supported creating a cue sheet for separated track files. You can choose type in the save dialog. Note that currently XLD can't read this type of cue sheet.
• XLD now shows "[AR]" string in the titlebar of the window when a disc is available in AccurateRip DB
• Sorted character encoding pop-up menu by alphabetical order
• Separated drift errors from skip errors in cdparanoia statistics
• Added option to treat AccurateRip mismatch as an inconsistency in log
• Automatic album art downloading feature now can be disabled from CDDB menu
• Added option to modify a size of padding section in FLAC encoder
• Added save button in Log window
• REM DATE and REM GENRE line for the cue sheet is now written in the common section

Bug fixes

• Fixed incompatibility with OSX 10.3. Automatic updating is not available in 10.3.
• Fixed again an AccurateRip hash calculation for the first track
• Fixed a problem that XLD sometimes failed to find a CD in AccurateRip database
• Fixed several bugs in cdparanoia routine according to the latest release
• Fixed UTF-8 NFD issue when looking up Gracenote database
• Fixed MusicBrainz query failure on PPC Mac
• Fixed an endian-swapping issue on some environments and CDs
• Fixed a problem for reading an enhanced CD (CD-extra)
• Fixed a problem of ALAC decoding with QuickTime 7.5.5
• Fixed an invalid TLEN tag issue in LAME encoder

2008/8/22

• Fixed an AccurateRip hash calculation for the first and last track
• Improved tag editor
• Supported automatic update using Sparkle

2008/8/18

• Supported AccurateRip database to check integrity of the ripped tracks. To use, read offset correction value should be correct (please refer to here). Not available when pregaps are excluded.
• Added option to disable cache of the drive .Cache should be disabled to rip in cdparanoia mode.
• Added support for CRC calculation. Both the standard CRC and the EAC-compatible one are displayed.
• Improved log display format

2008/8/16 (cont.)

• XLD now can read metadata obtained from Gracenote CDDB by iTunes when reading Audio CD

2008/8/16

• Fixed various bugs in CD ripper
• Improved pregap detection algorithm
• Supported EAC-like log output. Only available if you use cdparanoia mode.
• Automatic album art download using Musicbrain's ASIN database
• Updated German resource
• Updated Simplified Chinese resource

2008/8/12

• Added CD ripper
  Main features are:
  
• CDParanoia engine
• Pregap length detection
• Read sample offset correction

To read a CD, select "Open Audio CD" from File menu. You can save tracks as separated files, or a single file with a cuesheet. When you save as a single file and selected output format is FLAC or Wavpack, cuesheet is embedded into the file itself.

[Lester]

X Lossless Decoder - 20090215

Numerosi miglioramenti e bug fix.

What's new in this version:

Feature additions

• Supported simultaneous codec conversion
Select "Multiple Formats" in the output format and check the preferred format in the option. Note that WAV, AIFF, PCM and WAVE64 is exclusive each other.

• Integrated drive caching ability measurement routine of CDParanoia III 10.2
To measure, open a CD and choose "Measure Drive Cache Ability" in File menu.

• Integrated drive offset database into application
You can select the offset correction value for your drive if it is registered in the database.

•*Added option to use C2 error pointers

When the option is turned on, XLD first read a sector in burst mode, and check the occurrence of C2 error. If C2 error occurs, then XLD re-read the sector with cdparanoia. This accelerates ripping extremely for the drive with C2 error support (Plextor, NEC, etc), without losing safety. If you use this option, please make sure that your drive supports reporting C2 errors.

• Supported folder conversion
XLD now accepts folder! There is an option to preserve the whole directory structures, and to control the depth of subfolder to read in preferences.

• Added option to open, query, and eject CD automatically
XLD now recognizes disc insertion and allows you to start ripping without any manual operations. If you choose XLD as an preferred application for audio CDs in system preferences, XLD works as iTunes.

Improvements

• XLD now recognizes '/' (slash) as a directory separator in the filename format field
XLD creates folder automatically. You can save files in the preferred folder by its title, artist, etc.

• Supported album artist (%A) and format name (%f) in the filename field

• Renovated the behavior of progress window
You can convert thousands of files without slowdown.

• Supported writing metadata for AIFF files
XLD now writes iTunes-compatible tags against AIFF files.

• Added option to control samplerate in some output plugins

• Updated LAME output plugin to make id3 tags to be written in little-endian format
Because some softwares in windows doesn't support big-endian tags (sucks!).

• Supported compilation tag

• Improved Gracenote (iTunes) CDDB file importer
Now per-track artist, composer, comment, etc. are recognized.

• Added option to disable embedding cue sheet in FLAC and WavPack encoder

• Modified wavpack encoder to store MD5 checksum by default

• Updated LAME to version 3.98.2

• Updated Sparkle.framework

• Added Dutch translation (thanks to Jesse Muller)

Bug fixes

• Fixed AR checking issue of Apple Lossless files
• Fixed some issues with the new cdparanoia engine
• Fixed a problem when ripping Mixed Mode CD/Enhanced CD
• Removed redundancy of the cue sheet generated by XLD
• Fixed crash on connection failure to MusicBrainz database

Operating System Requirements:

This product is designed to run on the following operating systems:
Mac OS X 10.5 Intel
Mac OS X 10.5 PPC
Mac OS X 10.4 Intel
Mac OS X 10.4 PPC
Mac OS X 10.3.9
Mac OS X 10.3

http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html

[meigel]

X Lossless Decoder - 20090215

Grazie; procedo

[Padmé Amidala]

Dove sei Lester...

Version 20090320:
Feature additions

• Added support for DDP (Disc Description Protocol) files "DDPMS" files can be opened as a cue sheet.
• Supported reading ISRC from discs

Improvements

• Added "Apply This Item for All Files" context menu in tag editor (for "Edit tags before convert")
• Added option for batch conversion to split file with embedded cue sheet automatically
• Relaxed the limitation of the size of album arts embedded into MP3 files
• Improved support for FLAC metadata (ALBUMARTIST/TRACKTOTAL/DISCTOTAL/COMPILATION)
• Now %y (year) can be used as a filename format indicator
• Added option to control appending BOM to cue sheets
• Added option to force mono encoding in LAME encoder
• XLD now shows a dialog when quitting with active tasks
• Updated libcdio library
• Updated libsndfile library

Bug fixes

• Fixed a problem when embedding a large album art into AAC/ALAC files
• Fixed a problem that Monkey's audio decoder sometimes wrongly detected files
• Fixed a problem that a png image embedded with iTunes wasn't read
• Improved reliability of CD Info.cidb parser
• Improved stability when connecting MusicBrainz server
• Fixed a problem that colon( in the folder name was not replaced with the safe one

[Lester]

^^ Grazie, stasera sono un po' preso Nel frattempo non avevo nemmeno segnalato due o tre altri aggiornamenti disponibili solo attraverso l'auto-update...

[Padmé Amidala]

2009/8/28
Version 20090829:
Fixed a problem when reading ISRC tag in FLAC files
Supported the new HE-AAC encoder in Snow Leopard
To use, check "Encode with HE-AAC" checkbox in the option dialog of MPEG-4 AAC encoder. In HE-AAC encoder, true VBR is not available and available bitrate is limited (24-80kbps).
Existing "MPEG-4 HE-AAC" encoder is still available, but this is different from the Apple's one.
Fixed a small problem in CD info.cidb parser
Updated internal drive offset database
Updated Simplified Chinese resources

2009/8/25
Fixed an incompatibility of AAC/ALAC encoder with Snow Leopard
More intelligent CD Info.cidb parser
Fixed failure of exporting to iTunes when filename contains backslash
XLD is now able to skip processing when the file with the same name exists
Supported comment line in cue sheets
New document icon

[Padmé Amidala]

Version 2009 09 26:

• Fixed a problem of ALAC metadata reader on Snow Leopard
• Fixed a problem that autoloading disc was not working on Snow Leopard
• XLD now accepts cover arts dragged from web browsers
• Implemented an interactive bitrate indicator for AAC ture VBR encoder
• Fixed a problem when reading ISRC tag in FLAC files

[Votantonio]

Ottimo. Grazie della segnalazione, Padmè.

[Votantonio]

X Lossless Decoder - 20091107

http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html.

[Votantonio]

X Lossless Decoder - 20091108

What's new:
Supported pre-emphasis flag
Supported disk number (%D) in the filename field
Added an option to quit XLD after ripping
Added support for grouping tag in ALAC decoder
FLAC decoder now supports reading embedded pictures not marked as "Cover (front)"
Updated WavPack library to version 4.60
Changed the default value of VBR quality for AAC encoder in QT 7.6.3 or later
Fixed an odd behavior of automount feature
Fixed a problem when creating a file with too long filename
Fixed an m4a incompatibility issue with some software
Added Russian localization.

http://tmkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/xld/index_e.html.