[flac-dev] encoding complexity

[Declan Kelly]

On Mon, Feb 06, 2012 at 07:26:19PM +0400, lrn1986 at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Make a specification for storing this kind of data in app-block, then
> devise a way to measure encoding complexity of existing FLAC stream -
> and you'll be able to put these block in FLAC files that didn't have
> them originally.

What we're looking for is a measure of the expected decoding complexity,
not the encoding complexity. The 2 are probably always going to be
closely related, but they are different things, and complexity will
depend on the data being compressed (aswell as on the encoder settings).

There was a request last year for something similar, so that an embedded
player using a CPU with adjustable clock speed (for power management)
can anticipate how much CPU power will be needed for the next track or
stream, before decoding begins. The idea being to adjust performance
(CPU or memory) in enough time to meet demand.

For known data (a music playlist using files, for example) the required
metadata could be stored on the playback device, ready for the next time
each track was played. For unknown data (streamed live audio) this would
not be much help.

-- 
-Dec.
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"Mosaic is going to be on every computer in the world." - Marc Andreessen, 1994