[Xiph-Advocacy] Xiph.Org releases libao 1.0.0, libVorbis 1.3.1, and vorbis-tools 1.4.0

[Monty Montgomery]

Xiph.Org announces the release of libao-1.0.0, libvorbis-1.3.1 and
vorbis-tools-1.4.0. This is a coordinated update of the audio
libraries and tools to deploy improved surround-sound support across
the libraries and toolchain.

libao improvements:

 - AO returned to active development
 - Added surround channel mapping API and capability
 - Updated all drivers on modern installs
 - New config file options
 - Driver options may be specified in config file
 - Support for MacOSX updated to 10.5 and later
 - Build in WMM driver rather than using dlopen()
 - Added Roar Audio driver
 - Added OpenBSD SNDIO driver
 - Workaround for ESD non-4096 byte write bug
 - Workaround aRts server crash bug
 - Workaround for VIA82xx click/crackle bugs under ALSA
 - Remove dead/unused drivers (solaris, alasa05, mmsound)
 - Numerous patches from multiple downstreams

libvorbis improvements:

libVorbis 1.3.0 was briefly available and an unreleased staging
snapshot. This official release bumps the version number to 1.3.1 to
avoid any possible confusion.

 - Optimized/coupled surround support for 5.1 encoding at 44.1/48kHz
 - Added encoder control call to disable channel coupling
 - Corrected an overflow bug in very low-bitrate encoding on 32 bit
     machines that caused inflated bitrates
 - Numerous API hardening, leak and build fixes
 - Correct bug in 22kHz compand setup that could cause a crash
 - Correct bug in 16kHz codebooks that could cause unstable pure
     tones at high bitrates

vorbis-tools improvements:

vorbis-tools 1.4.0 is the first official release of vorbis-tools since
1.2.x.  1.3.x was never offered as an official snapshot, though
various versions were widely deployed as patch-sets by distributions.

 - Implement corrected channel mappings for all input and playback file types
 - Correct an possible infinite loop in WAV input reading code when
header is corrupt
 - Implement "disable_coupling" option for oggenc
 - Fix Ctrl-C lockup bug in ogg123
 - ogg123 directory playback in sorted order
 - Add WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE support
 - More translations
 - Add '-' as stdin/out filename in vcut
 - Add -lnetwork check for socket in configure
 - Remove 'extra' F parameter from ogg123 remote output
 - Numerous code and build fixes

Downloads:

The libao 1.0.0 release is available from:
http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/ao/

The libvorbis 1.3.1 and vorbis-tools 1.4.0 releases are available from:
http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/vorbis/

Happy hacking!

Monty
Xiph.Org