audio/libmad 0.16.4 DragonFly

MAD (libmad) is a high-quality MPEG audio decoder. It currently supports MPEG-1 and the MPEG-2 extension to Lower Sampling Frequencies, as well as the so-called MPEG 2.5 format. All three audio layers (Layer I, Layer II, and Layer III a.k.a. MP3) are fully implemented.

MAD does not yet support MPEG-2 multichannel audio (although it should be backward compatible with such streams) nor does it currently support AAC.

MAD has the following special features:

• 24-bit PCM output
• 100%25 fixed-point (integer) computation
• completely new implementation based on the ISO/IEC standards
• distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL)

Because MAD provides full 24-bit PCM output, applications using MAD are able to produce high quality audio. Even when the output device supports only 16-bit PCM, applications can use the extra resolution to increase the audible dynamic range through the use of dithering or noise shaping.