Gapless playback
Seamless playback (sometimes gapless playback and English gapless playback or Seamless Playback ), refers to the uninterrupted playback of audio files, for example on a portable MP3 player.
Without " Gapless Playback" interruptions between tracks are perceptible in continuous recordings. When listening to music tracks that merge seamlessly into one another, for example between successive sets of a symphony ( Beethoven's 5th Symphony at about ) or take pictures of live concerts, the short break between the pieces or songs is bothersome.
These breaks are not part of the original recording, but arise from the fact that audio data formats on data blocks of fixed size (in time, ie fixed length ) are based. Ends an audio recording in such a file before the end of the last data block, the remaining bits of the block are filled with zeros, which are then heard as silence.
Must be distinguished from additional perceptible pauses in some portable MP3 players. These are caused by insufficient buffer memory management, that is, the next track is loaded too late to play in the memory.
Earlier audio formats dominated no -free playback. These include the first MP3 codec of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and AAC. The first audio codec " Gapless Playback" support, ATRAC was. The proprietary format was originally developed by Sony exclusively for the Mini Disc.
In the open-source encoder for the LAME mp3 a function is implemented, the files generated information about it adds up to what the file contains user data. Suitable players or software, for example, foobar2000, VUPlayer or mpg123 can skip the stuffing of the last data block and so omit the interruptions using this information.
Newer audio formats such as Vorbis, Musepack, Speex, and Windows Media Audio support for gapless playback of the house. Lossless compression methods such as FLAC are of a systemic disruption. However, it is also necessary in these formats that the playback device " Gapless Playback" support.
On the hardware side have the fewest devices, whether mobile players or DVD players from the home video area, a solution for audio formats, seamless playback of house do not support. Some models support gapless playback by using alternative firmware like Rockbox. The same applies to the TrekStor Vibez, however, belongs to a higher price range. Cheaper devices often have at most one barely usable over function. The gapless playback of AAC and MP3 files on an iPod is realized by processing in the land used for transfer software iTunes.