--- mkozlows <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Josh Coalson;143003 Wrote: > > > > you know, once you went with WMAL you pretty much tethered yourself > > to microsoft. all microsoft has to say is 'no' to slimdevices or > > price the license too high, or ... and that's it. > > > > For very light values of "tether", considering that it's a lossless > format and there are freely downloadable SDKs and API documentation. > WMA Lossless definitely isn't as open as FLAC, but it's no Apple > Lossless, either.
yeah, I see what you're saying, but as far as I know the libraries are binary-only and only work on windows, they're not going to help anyone except those already tethered to microsoft. maybe you mean it at least allows you to transcode on a windows machine? but that wasn't sufficient for Martin. > Anyway, open source arguments notwithstanding, the current situation > kinda sucks for lossless people. There's no lossless format that > will > natively work on the best software (Windows Media Player 11, which > only > supports WMA Lossless), the best portable device (the iPod, which > only > supports Apple Lossless) ... or FLAC via rockbox. yes there is effort to get it to work but less than getting WMAL to work on anything else. best is also debateable as there are several very good portables that natively support FLAC. http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#hardware all that said, the basic problem is choosing closed, proprietary codecs designed to lock you in, then asking for support for them from the competitors of the codecs' creators. slim responded to user demand for FLAC because they could; it was open, free, well documented, had C reference decoder with source, and widely supported. it is not so easy for ALAC or WMAL for many reasons. I think your solution of using FLAC + MP3 is the most reasonable right now. Josh __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
