Rockbox Support for OptimFROG

[JbstormburstADV]

As someone planning on getting Rockbox (I'm waiting until I fix up all the metadata tags before I install on my Classic), I've been wondering why you haven't added support yet for OptimFROG, since it is one of the only formats to compete with FLAC in both metadata and compression efficiency.

Now, I'm no scrub, as I noticed that you've said around early 2010 that OptimFROG is not free software.  However, is it just me, or does this documentation found here say differently?  After all, as far as I'm concerned, this is a non-commercial suite under GPL, even with the ability to donate through PayPal, so I'm sure that you are allowed free access.  Additionally, has anyone from the dev team attempted to contact the creator of the OFR codec?

[saratoga]

As someone planning on getting Rockbox (I'm waiting until I fix up all the metadata tags before I install on my Classic), I've been wondering why you haven't added support yet for OptimFROG, since it is one of the only formats to compete with FLAC in both metadata and compression efficiency.

No suitable decoder exists so it would be impossible.

However, is it just me, or does this documentation found here say differently?  After all, as far as I'm concerned, this is a non-commercial suite under GPL, even with the ability to donate through PayPal, so I'm sure that you are allowed free access.  Additionally, has anyone from the dev team attempted to contact the creator of the OFR codec?

Thats a link to a Windows binary decoder.  Rockbox is not windows. 

[JbstormburstADV]

Wait, then what language is Rockbox compiled under?  If I'm understanding the top part of the interface page right, this license also covers several different compilers under C and C++ in addition to the Windows binary, or am I misunderstanding "This interface is simple to use and provides full functionality of OptimFROG...  in the C++ and C languages with BCC, MinGW and VC compilers" (which I wouldn't be surprised by, as I am by no means a programmer at this point)?

And again, has anyone tried contacting the developer?  I'm sure he'd be willing to compile if Rockbox uses something completely different, since he already did plug-ins for foobar and dbPowerAmp, among others.

[saratoga]

Wait, then what language is Rockbox compiled under? 

Your link just a binary decoder compiled for an x86 PC.  Without source code, its completely useless. 

With that said, rockbox is written in c with some assembly.

And again, has anyone tried contacting the developer?  I'm sure he'd be willing to compile if Rockbox uses something completely different, since he already did plug-ins for foobar and dbPowerAmp, among others.

You're welcome to contact him, but having him compile something is not acceptable.  A complete open source decoder is required.  Anything less might as well not even exist. 

[JbstormburstADV]

...I'm pretty sure that most of his plug-in decoder releases come with the decoder's source code.  At least, that's from what I assume after looking at the page here.

And me contact him?  Shouldn't someone from dev do it, since I can't exactly say that I represent the product or know anything about programming, which will likely end up in the conversation somewhere?

[saratoga]

...I'm pretty sure that most of his plug-in decoder releases come with the decoder's source code. 

I don't see any source code, but you're welcome to post it if you find it.

And me contact him?  Shouldn't someone from dev do it, since I can't exactly say that I represent the product or know anything about programming, which will likely end up in the conversation somewhere?

No one here is going to waste their time asking this guy to provide a decoder for some random format no one uses.  If you want it, you're going to have to get a decoder, port it, etc.  Since its apparently been 10 years and this guy is still making it impossible to support his format on portable devices, I'm guessing hes going to tell you to go away anyway.   

[JbstormburstADV]

Well, I'm looking at several different .cpp, .c, and .h extension files (I believe they are used for C/C++ source, if I'm looking up the right resources) when I'm going through the files in the .zip here.  I suggest checking the plugin and test folders.  I could be completely wrong, since my knowledge of programming is zippo, but hey, whatever helps development.

[saratoga]

Well, I'm looking at several different .cpp, .c, and .h extension files (I believe they are used for C/C++ source, if I'm looking up the right resources) when I'm going through the files in the .zip here.

Yeah, theres no decoder source in there, just a bunch of DLLs that can't be used outside of x86 PCs. 

[dreamlayers]

It seems OptimFROG is slow. In this benchmark, OptimFROG default decoding speed is similar to Monkey's Audio extra high. It wouldn't be useful on most targets. On anything which can decode it, the increased CPU power consumption would shorten battery life. I'd love to have better lossless compression, but the benefits of OptimFROG don't seem worthwhile on portable devices.