2009/3/23 Mark Lanctot:

> (among other things)  All we know about mp3HD is that it's 16/44.1
> only, and since it's proprietary, we may not know much more.

Actually, the readme file that comes with the encoder says:

"This program encodes WAV audio files to mp3HD files.  The WAV audio
files have to contain plain PCM samples in mono or stereo with a
resolution of 16 bit per sample.  The sample rate is restricted to one
out of 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, or 48 kHz."

Anyhow, "proprietary" does not necessarily mean "secret".  It doesn't
make any sense to distribute an encoder or license a third party to
develop an encoder and then not inform the end user what type of
uncompressed files the encoder is capable of processing.

I couldn't agree more that WavPack has a superior implementation of
this concept, though.  I don't understand what having lossy and
lossless all in one file like mp3HD gets you.  I mean, yeah, you can
play back the file on a legacy MP3 player and it'll play the lossy
version, but that means you have to but a gigantic file on your iPod
or whatever just to hear regular MP3 audio that's not even encoded
with LAME (meaning no gapless play, among other drawbacks).

The separate correction file method that WavPack uses would be ideal,
but hardware support is almost non-existent.  What's kept me
maintaining separate lossless and lossy libraries so far instead of
going the WavPack-only route is mainly that I can't play WavPack files
on my iPod short of reflashing it with the RockBox firmware, which I
just personally don't care to use.  It's a viable one-library solution
to maintaining only one library if you do happen to have a
RockBox-capable player and a SqueezeBox, however.

-Steve
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