What's New 10/31/97
Bug Fixes
We have done a lot of bug fixing in CDDA32 as a result of all the feedback we have received after the release of the first version. The code is not quite ready for release, so we are not making it available yet. If you are having a specific problem, contact us and if you problem is one that has already been addressed, you may be offered the opportunity to become a beta tester.Credit Cards are now accepted!
We can now accept Credit Cards like Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Our sister company Wellesworth Publishing is now taking care of all our registrations.Beta testers no longer needed for new NT4.0 support
Due to the overwhelming number of requests to be beta testers, we have closed the beta program after only a couple of days of looking for testers. We thank all of the people that applied, but we simply cannot accommodate every request.The beta test period is coming to a close shortly. If all goes well, we should be able to release the next version in the next week or so.
Full Windows version with GUI available
We have worked out a deal with another company called BravaSoftware to include a version of CDDA32 in their new product which is a full windows program.No MP3 Encoder Support
Last update on this suggested that we would have an MP3 encoder very soon. This is not going to happen. The company Fraunhofer wants $75,000US up front for the Win32 DLL to do the compression. Needless to say, not a single company has paid it. Microsoft bought a limited version of the license to distribute with NetShow, but the encoder only goes up to 56Kb/s, and most people want to do their compression at 128Kb/s or more.On top of the $75,000, Fraunhofer and Thomson want an additional $25 per copy of the encoder, regardless of whether it is sold or given away! This licensing policy applies to ALL MP3 encoders, even ones they don't write, so don't be surprised if all the other free encoders start disappearing. I'm not even going to get into the fees they want for every track encoded......
We had taken the ISO demonstration source code and done a lot of optimizing (it is about 4x faster than the off the self demo source). We were beta testing a small command line program that will do the MP3 encoding, but it is about 40% slower than the Fraunhofer one. Fraunhofer claims that they have spent 300 man years on their encoder, so I don't expect to get something near their quality in a few weeks.
Unless something happens that causes Fraunhofer/Thomson to change their minds, there will be no additional work on getting an MP3 encoder build into CDDA or CDDA32.
