[flac-dev] Flac and MQA

[Martin Leese]

Matko Uibo wrote:

> There is new Hi-Rez audio format avaliable - MQA  - Master Quality
> Authenticated
>
> Have anybody looked deeper into this to confirm is it some kind of drm?

Hi Marko,

I had never heard of MQA before, and now
have only read the blog post you included a
link to plus a follow-up post by the same
blogger.  MQA is not a system of DRM but,
instead, uses a watermark to include
non-Nyquist information.  This is used to better
recreate transients in the original audio
waveform.

> Since flac is bsd licenced there should be no licencing issues.

Licensing of FLAC is for the code, not for the
audio content.  FLAC files can and do contain
copyrighted audio content.  Unlike FLAC,
MQA will be proprietary.

> I have
> heard rumors that if flac file contains pcm data with mqa watermark then
> it can be unpacked but mqa data is lost and mqa capable hardware cant
> decode it, since I don't have mqa capable dac I don't know is it true or
> false. I don't know is special playback software needed for playng flac
> with MQA data.

FLAC is lossless so, after decompression, the
resulting audio content is identical to the
original.  Any watermark, MQA or otherwise,
will therefore be preserved.

MQA is unconnected with FLAC, so I am
puzzled why you posted about it to the
flac-dev list.

> Here is screenshot that I found from this article
> https://mrapodizer.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/mqa-what-is-meridian-hiding/

Here is the follow-up blog post:
https://mrapodizer.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/mqa-further-explained/

Regards,
Martin
-- 
Martin J Leese
E-mail: martin.leese  stanfordalumni.org
Web: http://members.tripod.com/martin_leese/