title
Products            Buy            Support Forum            Professional            About            Codec Central
 
Results 1 to 15 of 19

Thread: FLAC Compression level?

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    dBpoweramp Enthusiast
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    England
    Posts
    210

    FLAC Compression level?

    I have always used Lossless Uncompressed when ripping CDs or converting from WAV using the Batch converter.
    dBPoweramp has options 0 (Fast) through to 8 (Highest) and Uncompressed as a separate option. So where does Uncompressed fit into the levels? I ask because I also use Audacity to record Vinyl - but this only gives the options 0 (Fastest) through to 8 (Best) (no Uncompressed).

    I have mistakenly I think been using 8, thinking that was equivalent to uncompressed as it is labelled "Best". But it is actually turning out to be around 30% compressed :(

    Is uncompressed actually level 0?

  2. #2
    dBpoweramp Guru
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Posts
    1,740

    Re: FLAC Compression level?

    The good news is, that the compression level has no influence on the sound quality at all, and that you can convert between the different levels back and forth without any loss of quality.


    Dat Ei

  3. #3
    dBpoweramp Enthusiast
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    England
    Posts
    210

    Re: FLAC Compression level?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dat Ei View Post
    The good news is, that the compression level has no influence on the sound quality at all, and that you can convert between the different levels back and forth without any loss of quality.


    Dat Ei
    I know - but, I'd rather not compress at all. Makes the renderer have to uncompress unnecessarily!

  4. #4
    dBpoweramp Guru
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    4,015

    Re: FLAC Compression level?

    In the dBpoweramp Music Converter window, after selecting FLAC from the Encoding dropdown box, click the Help icon to open the help page for the FLAC codec, which explains all the compression levels.

  5. #5
    dBpoweramp Enthusiast
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    England
    Posts
    210

    Re: FLAC Compression level?

    Quote Originally Posted by mville View Post
    In the dBpoweramp Music Converter window, after selecting FLAC from the Encoding dropdown box, click the Help icon to open the help page for the FLAC codec, which explains all the compression levels.
    Unfortunately in mine, the help button does nothing for Flacs. But I've open the mp3 one and gone up a level and found flac.htm page there.

    Found it:
    "the higher compression levels will give a small % file size saving, but will require more time to compress and decompress. Compression Level 0 requires the least compression time, whilst Compression Level 8 the most. Uncompressed is a special compression mode with stores 16 bit audio in an uncompressed state. "

    That sounds wrong to me. Surely the higher the level, the larger the % file size saving?

    And does that really mean Level 0 isn't actually uncompressed even though 1 is given as "fastest". And 0 = worst, 8=best? Worst/best what?

  6. #6
    Administrator
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Posts
    43,857

    Re: FLAC Compression level?

    The newest versions of dBpoweramp have an Uncompressed option in the drop list for FLAC.

    Level 8 is closer to uncompressed than Level 0, however it is still compressed.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •