RadLight APE DirectShow Filter

[DAvenger]

Initial release compiled against 'MACLib 3.98a1'. It's based on the same model as our MPC sourcefilter so do not expect to use this to mux APEs into video files *right now*. No tags support yet.

Binary (110KB) (http://developer.RadLight.net/download/ape/RadLightAPE_1.0.0.0.exe)

As usually, any feedback is welcome! Just one more thing ... seeking with 3.98 encodes is extremely slow (caused by the alpha MACLib).

[Sirber]

IMO, AC3 --> APE has no uses, so what can APE be good in a container?

[Atamido]

Well, off hand I would say that at least it will be useful audio-only storage. Storing audio formats in a common container can help with player integration. Instead of needing to make a new subsystem for each type of audio format, you just have one for a common container. You could pull all audio information from the container and greatly simplify many processes.

At least, that is one of the ideas behind MKA.

Other than that it may be useful for capturing to.

[RadicalEd]

Originally posted by Sirber
IMO, AC3 --> APE has no uses, so what can APE be good in a container?

Personally I think when lossless audio with video catches on (so far we have working wmv9+wma lossless, not yet working realaudio lossless, and working flac in mkv) it'll be great for stuff like AMVs. APE is the best lossless out there, so yeah, this is a good thing.

[Sirber]

oh, I haven't seen it that way :( Sorry!!! :)

[DAvenger]

I like to have a choice - and now it's possible to use player other than Winamp, foobar etc. for APE playback ;)

Still, only very few people are using lossless :rolleyes:

[arman68]

Good job, although the only time I use APE is when I want to convert them to MPC ;)

One thing I have found, is all the APE files I have downloaded were 1 single file with a CUE; and this seems to be the way people like to use APE, since they can easily restore their original audio CD. Does your filter support cue files?

[DAvenger]

It does not support CUEs yet but I like the idea. Thanks

[Atamido]

I'm not really sure why that filter would support CUE files? Do you mean to make chapters/titles appear file load? You could also just put the APE into MKA with the CUE data.

[mf]

The single file with CUE index thing is meant to work like this: Decompress your ape to .wav and then open the cue in daemontools. The CUE file itself references to the .wav, not the ape. Myself I haven't been able to use this, as some crazy japanese APE file crashes as well the official Monkey's Audio thing as well as winamp. My suspicion is shift-jis metadata, but I could be wrong.

[arman68]

Originally posted by mf
The single file with CUE index thing is meant to work like this: Decompress your ape to .wav and then open the cue in daemontools. The CUE file itself references to the .wav, not the ape.

That's right. But you can also edit the .cue file to reference the .ape rather than the .wav

Using this method, in foobar2000 the .ape file is seen not as a single file, but as a list of individual tracks which support next and previous song. I am not sure, but I suspect it might work in winamp as well using the mp3cue plugin.

@DAvenger
What would be great is if your filter looked for the presence of a .cue file when loading an .ape file, and automatically did an on-the-fly replacement of WAV to APE if needed.

This should be possible since VSFilter (DVobSub) loads external subtitles automatically based on the filename.

[DAvenger]

Originally posted by arman68
@DAvenger
What would be great is if your filter looked for the presence of a .cue file when loading an .ape file, and automatically did an on-the-fly replacement of WAV to APE if needed.

I got your point. TODO list updated ;)

[Liisachan]

Tested APE 3.97 and APE 3.98,
Both versions play fine with this Filter :) even with unicode characters in the file/path name.

Just wondering, does this anything to do with this "DS Monkey Audio - DirectShow Filesource Decoder Filter"?
http://dsp-worx.de/index.php?pg=projects&tid=18

Originally posted by Sirber
IMO, AC3 --> APE has no uses, so what can APE be good in a container?
For instance, you might want to rip a whold music CD as one big WAV file with .cue, convert it into one big APE and CUE, then, finally, one MKA file with a menu. Then, you'd see something handy like this (http://www.faireal.net/image/2003/matroska/mka-cue.png),
lossless compresion being great for, say, classic music fans...

[Sirber]

hum... I will always love WinAMP 2.x :D

[Atamido]

@Liisachan: I am surprised in your choice of music. Not that I expected anthing in particular, just surprised. (Its a good thing)

[DAvenger]

Originally posted by Liisachan
Just wondering, does this anything to do with this "DS Monkey Audio - DirectShow Filesource Decoder Filter"?
http://dsp-worx.de/index.php?pg=projects&tid=18


Apart from that both can decode APE, no. DCoder's filter is Delphi written and our is C++ thus does not require external MACLib.dll ;)