madplay - MPEG audio decoder and player
 Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Robert Leslie

 $Id$

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INTRODUCTION

  `madplay' is a command-line MPEG audio decoder and player based on the MAD
  library (libmad). For details about MAD, see the libmad package
  distributed separately.

  After decoding, `madplay' sends the output to an audio output module. The
  following audio output modules are provided:

    - an Open Sound System interface module (for Linux, et al.)
    - a Sun audio interface module (for Solaris, NetBSD, et al.)
    - a Mac OS Carbon audio interface module (for Mac OS X)
    - a Win32 audio interface module (for Windows 95/98/NT/2000, et al.)
    - an ALSA audio interface module
    - a QNX audio interface module
    - an EsounD interface module
    - a CD audio output module (*.cdr, *.cda)
    - an Audio IFF output module (*.aif, *.aiff)
    - a Microsoft RIFF/WAVE file output module (*.wav)
    - a Sun/NeXT audio file output module (*.au, *.snd)
    - a raw PCM output module
    - a hex output module (for debugging and compliance testing)
    - a null module (for timing the decoder)

  `madplay' will also read and display ID3 tag information, and further
  supports the relative volume adjustment information (RVA2) in such tags,
  as written by tools like `normalize'.

Audio Quality

  MAD produces output samples with a precision greater than 24 bits. Because
  most output formats use fewer bits, typically 16, `madplay' implements a
  dithering algorithm when truncating samples for output. This produces high
  quality audio that generally sounds superior to the output of a simple
  rounding algorithm. However, dithering may unfavorably affect an analytic
  examination of the output (such as compliance testing), and therefore it
  may optionally be disabled at runtime.

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BUILDING AND INSTALLING

  Before you can build this package, you must first build and install the
  libmad and libid3tag packages distributed separately.

Windows Platforms

  `madplay' can be built under Windows using either MSVC++ or Cygwin. A
  MSVC++ project file and workspace can be found under the `msvc++'
  subdirectory.

  To build `madplay' using Cygwin, you will first need to install the Cygwin
  tools:

      http://www.cygwin.com/

  You may then proceed with the following POSIX instructions within the
  Cygwin shell.

  Note that by default Cygwin will build an executable that depends on the
  Cygwin DLL. You can use MinGW to build an executable that does not depend
  on the Cygwin DLL. To do so, give the option --host=mingw32 to
  `configure'. Be certain you also link with MinGW versions of libmad,
  libid3tag, and any further dependent libraries (such as zlib).

POSIX Platforms (including Cygwin)

  The code is distributed with a `configure' script that will generate for
  you a `Makefile' and a `config.h' in each of the subdirectories that
  require them. See the file `INSTALL' for generic instructions.

  The specific options you may want to give `configure' are:

      --disable-debugging       do not compile with debugging support, and
                                use more optimizations

      --with-alsa               use ALSA for default audio output

      --with-esd                use EsounD (Enlightened Sound Daemon) for
                                default audio output

  Support for the EsounD output format type (esd) is enabled automatically
  if the EsounD library (libesd) is available, however it is not made the
  default output format unless --with-esd is given. To disable EsounD
  support completely, use --without-esd.

  If you have installed libmad and/or libid3tag in an unusual place or
  `configure' can't find them, you may need to indicate where they are:

      ./configure ... CPPFLAGS="-I${include_dir}" LDFLAGS="-L${lib_dir}"

  where ${include_dir} and ${lib_dir} are the locations of the installed
  header and library files, respectively.

Experimenting and Developing

  Further options for `configure' that may be useful to developers and
  experimenters are:

      --enable-debugging        enable diagnostic debugging support and
                                debugging symbols

      --enable-profiling        generate `gprof' profiling code

      --enable-experimental     enable code using the EXPERIMENTAL
                                preprocessor define

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COPYRIGHT AND AUTHOR

  Please read the `COPYRIGHT' file for copyright and warranty information.
  Also, the file `COPYING' contains the full text of the GNU GPL.

  Send inquiries, comments, bug reports, suggestions, patches, etc. to:

      Robert Leslie <rob@mars.org>

  See also the `madplay' home page on the Web:

      http://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/mpeg/

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