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		<B><FONT SIZE="+2">faq</FONT></B>
		</FONT></TD></TR>
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	<P>
		<B>General</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#joke"><B>Your codec seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train.  Why is it so popular?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__tagging"><B>What kinds of tags does FLAC support?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__native_vs_ogg"><B>What is the difference between (native) FLAC and Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__native_or_ogg"><B>Which should I use, (native) FLAC or Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__no_cuesheet_tags"><B>Why aren't PERFORMER/TITLE/etc tags stored in the FLAC CUESHEET block?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__asymmetry"><B>Why do the encoder settings have a big effect on the encoding time but not the decoding time?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__alternatives"><B>Why use FLAC instead of other codecs that compress more?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__encode_faster"><B>Why can't you make FLAC encode faster?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__lossless_trust"><B>How can I be sure FLAC is lossless?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__testing"><B>How much testing has been done on FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__lowest_bitrate"><B>What is the lowest bitrate achievable with FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<P>
		<B>Tools</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__eac_and_flac"><B>How do I set up EAC to rip directly to FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__option_blocking"><B>How do I encode a file that starts with a dash?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__long_meta_edits"><B>Why does it take so long to edit some FLAC files with metaflac?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__hardware_prob"><B>I compressed a file to FLAC with verify on, and flac said "Verify FAILED!"  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__wave_flac_wave"><B>I compressed a WAVE file to FLAC, then decompressed to WAVE, and the two weren't identical.  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__skipped_subchunk"><B>I compressed a WAVE file to FLAC and it said "warning: skipping unknown sub-chunk LIST".  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__two_bytes_short"><B>I decoded a FLAC file and the WAVE is 2 bytes shorter than the original.  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__not_streamable"><B>Why did I get "ERROR initializing encoder, state = 14:FLAC__STREAM_ENCODER_NOT_STREAMABLE"?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<P>
		<B>API</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#api__frame_length"><B>How can I determine the encoded frame length?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<P>
		<B>Project</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#project__lists"><B>Where are the mailing lists, forums, discussion areas, etc.?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#project__submit_bug"><B>How do I submit a bug report?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<H2>
		<B>General</B>
	</H2>
	<P>
		<A NAME="joke"><B>Your codec seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train.  Why is it so popular?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		Just kidding.  Only real questions here.
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__tagging"><B>What kinds of tags does FLAC support?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		FLAC has it's own native tagging system which is identical to that of Vorbis.  They are called alternately "FLAC tags" and "Vorbis comments".  It is the only tagging system required and guaranteed to be supported by FLAC implementations.
	</P>
	<P>
		Out of convenience, some plugins and implementations allow and also read other kinds of tags.  For example, the official FLAC Winamp and XMMS plugins can also read ID3 v1 and v2 tags in addition to FLAC tags.  The reference decoder knows how to skip ID3 tags so that they don't interfere with decoding.  But you should not expect any tags beside FLAC tags to be supported in all applications; some implementations may not even be able to decode a FLAC file with ID3 tags.
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__native_vs_ogg"><B>What is the difference between (native) FLAC and Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		You can think of an audio codec as having two layers.  The inside layer is the raw compressed data, and the outside layer is the "container" or "transport layer" that splits and arranges the compressed data in pieces so it can be seeked through, edited, etc.
	</P>
	<P>
		"Native" FLAC is the compressed FLAC data stored in a very minimalist container, designed to be very efficient at storing single audio streams.
	</P>
	<P>
		Ogg FLAC is the compressed FLAC data stored in an <A HREF="http://xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/doc/oggstream.html">Ogg container</A>.  Ogg is a much more powerful transport layer that enables mixing several kinds of different streams (audio, data, metadata, etc).  The overhead is slightly higher than with native FLAC.
	</P>
	<P>
		In either case, the compressed FLAC data is the same and one can be converted to the other without re-encoding.
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__native_or_ogg"><B>Which should I use, (native) FLAC or Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		The short answer right now is probably "native FLAC".  If all you are doing is compressing audio to be played back later, native FLAC will do everything you need, is more widely supported, and will yield smaller files.  If you plan to edit the compressed audio, or want to multiplex the audio with video later in an Ogg container, Ogg FLAC is a better choice.
	</P>
	<P>
		Note that seeking in Ogg FLAC is not yet supported but will be in the next release.
	</P>
	<P><commit_msg>add "what hardware?" and "what software" FAQs<commit_after><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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		<B><FONT SIZE="+2">faq</FONT></B>
		</FONT></TD></TR>
	</TABLE>
	<TABLE WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="0"><TR BGCOLOR="#000000"><TD><IMG SRC="images/1x1.gif" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" ALT=""></TD></TR></TABLE>
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	<P>
		<B>General</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#joke"><B>Your codec seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train.  Why is it so popular?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__tagging"><B>What kinds of tags does FLAC support?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__software"><B>What software support FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__hardware"><B>What hardware products support FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__native_vs_ogg"><B>What is the difference between (native) FLAC and Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__native_or_ogg"><B>Which should I use, (native) FLAC or Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__no_cuesheet_tags"><B>Why aren't PERFORMER/TITLE/etc tags stored in the FLAC CUESHEET block?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__asymmetry"><B>Why do the encoder settings have a big effect on the encoding time but not the decoding time?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__alternatives"><B>Why use FLAC instead of other codecs that compress more?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__encode_faster"><B>Why can't you make FLAC encode faster?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__lossless_trust"><B>How can I be sure FLAC is lossless?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__testing"><B>How much testing has been done on FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#general__lowest_bitrate"><B>What is the lowest bitrate achievable with FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<P>
		<B>Tools</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__eac_and_flac"><B>How do I set up EAC to rip directly to FLAC?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__option_blocking"><B>How do I encode a file that starts with a dash?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__long_meta_edits"><B>Why does it take so long to edit some FLAC files with metaflac?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__hardware_prob"><B>I compressed a file to FLAC with verify on, and flac said "Verify FAILED!"  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__wave_flac_wave"><B>I compressed a WAVE file to FLAC, then decompressed to WAVE, and the two weren't identical.  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__skipped_subchunk"><B>I compressed a WAVE file to FLAC and it said "warning: skipping unknown sub-chunk LIST".  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__two_bytes_short"><B>I decoded a FLAC file and the WAVE is 2 bytes shorter than the original.  Why?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#tools__not_streamable"><B>Why did I get "ERROR initializing encoder, state = 14:FLAC__STREAM_ENCODER_NOT_STREAMABLE"?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<P>
		<B>API</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#api__frame_length"><B>How can I determine the encoded frame length?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<P>
		<B>Project</B>
	<BR>
	<UL>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#project__lists"><B>Where are the mailing lists, forums, discussion areas, etc.?</B></A>
		</LI>
		<LI>
			<A HREF="#project__submit_bug"><B>How do I submit a bug report?</B></A>
		</LI>
	</UL>
	</P>

	<H2>
		<B>General</B>
	</H2>
	<P>
		<A NAME="joke"><B>Your codec seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train.  Why is it so popular?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		Just kidding.  Only real questions here.
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__tagging"><B>What kinds of tags does FLAC support?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		FLAC has it's own native tagging system which is identical to that of Vorbis.  They are called alternately "FLAC tags" and "Vorbis comments".  It is the only tagging system required and guaranteed to be supported by FLAC implementations.
	</P>
	<P>
		Out of convenience, some plugins and implementations allow and also read other kinds of tags.  For example, the official FLAC Winamp and XMMS plugins can also read ID3 v1 and v2 tags in addition to FLAC tags.  The reference decoder knows how to skip ID3 tags so that they don't interfere with decoding.  But you should not expect any tags beside FLAC tags to be supported in all applications; some implementations may not even be able to decode a FLAC file with ID3 tags.
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__software"><B>What software support FLAC?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		This list is so large now it is difficult to maintain and keep up-to-date.  For a partial list of open-source software that supports FLAC, see the "Software supporting FLAC" section in the "links" box of the <A HREF="index.html">main page</A>.  For a partial list of the most popular software used to encode, decode, play, tag, and rip FLAC files, see the <A HREF="download.html">download page</A>.
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__hardware"><B>What hardware products support FLAC?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		<UL>
			<LI>
				Home audio equipment: 
				<UL>
					<LI><A HREF="http://www.request.com/us/">AudioReQuest</A> music servers</LI>
					<LI><A HREF="http://www.sonicblue.com/audio/rio/rio_receiver.asp">Rio Reciever</A> and Dell Digital Audio Receiver via <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/rioplay/">RioPlay</A> client</LI>
					<LI>Turtle Beach's <A HREF="http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audiotron/producthome.asp">AudioTron</A> via <NAME>'s <A HREF="http://file-ext-map.sourceforge.net/">Samba VFS Module</A></LI>
				</UL>
			</LI>
			<LI>
				Car audio equipment: 
				<UL>
					<LI>The <A HREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php">PhatBox</A></LI>
					<LI><A HREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php">Kenwood Music Keg</A></LI>
				</UL>
			</LI>
			<LI>
				Portable audio equipment: 
				<UL>
					<LI>The <A HREF="http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=220&cat=53">Rio Karma</A></LI>
				</UL>
			</LI>
		</UL>
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__native_vs_ogg"><B>What is the difference between (native) FLAC and Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		You can think of an audio codec as having two layers.  The inside layer is the raw compressed data, and the outside layer is the "container" or "transport layer" that splits and arranges the compressed data in pieces so it can be seeked through, edited, etc.
	</P>
	<P>
		"Native" FLAC is the compressed FLAC data stored in a very minimalist container, designed to be very efficient at storing single audio streams.
	</P>
	<P>
		Ogg FLAC is the compressed FLAC data stored in an <A HREF="http://xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/doc/oggstream.html">Ogg container</A>.  Ogg is a much more powerful transport layer that enables mixing several kinds of different streams (audio, data, metadata, etc).  The overhead is slightly higher than with native FLAC.
	</P>
	<P>
		In either case, the compressed FLAC data is the same and one can be converted to the other without re-encoding.
	</P>
	<P>
		<A NAME="general__native_or_ogg"><B>Which should I use, (native) FLAC or Ogg FLAC?</B></A>
	</P>
	<P>
		The short answer right now is probably "native FLAC".  If all you are doing is compressing audio to be played back later, native FLAC will do everything you need, is more widely supported, and will yield smaller files.  If you plan to edit the compressed audio, or want to multiplex the audio with video later in an Ogg container, Ogg FLAC is a better choice.
	</P>
	<P>
		Note that seeking in Ogg FLAC is not yet supported but will be in the next release.
	</P>
	<P>
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