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Third-party Decoder Released for Apple Lossless Audio Format

Third-party Decoder Released for Apple Lossless Audio Format

by , 6:00 AM EST, March 7th, 2005

iTunes' recent Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) encoding option has always had a catch: only iTunes, QuickTime-supported systems, and iPods can read the format. David Hammerton, however, has released the first version of a basic decoder that allows other systems and players to recognize the files.

Only a decoder is currently offered, but Hammerton notes that writing an encoder should be fairly easy. Additionally, his decoder only handles mono and stereo ALAC files--ALAC itself can support up to 8 channels. Like the encoder, Hammerton says adding support for multiple channels should be "trivial."

Hydrogenaudio is offering a rather extensive discussion on the decoder, as are countless posters on Slashdot.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Spider Posts: 2997 Joined: 12 Aug 2001
Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:11 am Subject:

if it is so trivial, then why is he talking now instead of when it is added to this program?

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Close Name:DrShakagee - TMO Forum Mod Posts: 941 Joined: 14 Jun 2001
Mon Mar 07, 2005 1:09 pm Subject:

Quote
Spider wrote:
if it is so trivial, then why is he talking now instead of when it is added to this program?

Probably to test the waters and see if Apple sues him

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Close Name:jadams Posts: 33 Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Mon Mar 07, 2005 2:56 pm Subject:

Quote
DrShakagee wrote:
Quote
Spider wrote:
if it is so trivial, then why is he talking now instead of when it is added to this program?

Probably to test the waters and see if Apple sues him

Careful, they might sue you for implying they are litigious...

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Close Name:Guest
Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:31 am Subject: I gotta Reality Check here

This is Mac Observer right? And 1 whole day on this story with no Reality Check
So I guess I have to do it for him.
Let's see...

Ha Ha, all you iLemmings! It is obvious that your proprietary iPods and Apple ar going down because of this.

How was that?

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Close Name:Seawolf Posts: 11 Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:41 pm Subject:

...or maybe it's because in reality it's not THAT easy.

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Close Name:Guest
Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:30 pm Subject:

Because one needs multi channel and non-16bit ALAC files to test with, which iTunes can not create.

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Close Name:Guest
Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:33 pm Subject:

Because one needs multi channel and non-16bit ALAC files to test with, which iTunes can not create.

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Close Name:davidneale Posts: 987 Joined: 26 Aug 2001
Wed Mar 09, 2005 5:14 pm Subject:

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Because one needs multi channel and non-16bit ALAC files to test with, which iTunes can not create.

Was that stereo or just plain echo?

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