@(#)README	6.185 04/01/02

README
------

Xmcd is a full-featured CD player and ripper utility package including
xmcd, a CD Player/Ripper for the X window system using the Motif graphical
user interface; and cda, a command-line driven, text mode CD Player/Ripper
which also features a curses-based, screen-oriented mode.  Both utilities
transform your computer's CD or DVD drive into a stereo CD player,
allowing you to play audio CDs on your computer.  On many platforms
with capable hardware, these utilities can also perform digital audio
extraction (DAE) from audio CDs and play the CD digital audio (CDDA)
stream real-time, save it to file in various compressed and uncompressed
formats, as well as pipe it to an external program for other processing.
More than one CDDA operation can even be be done simultaneously on systems
and peripherals with sufficient performance.

The following is a summary of xmcd/cda documentation files.  Please
read these before installing and using the software.

Many of these files refer to the XMCDLIB directory, which is the
directory under which all the xmcd/cda support files are installed.
This is configured when you install the xmcd package.

The documentation files are located in the docs_d subdirectory in the
xmcd source code distribution, and are copied to the XMCDLIB/docs
directory during installation.

README		This file
INSTALL		Source code compilation and installation instructions (*)
INSTALL.VMS	Special instructions for the OpenVMS platform (*)
FEATURES	Software features
RELNOTES	Important release notes
PLATFORM	Supported platforms and platform-specific notes
DRIVES		Supported CD drives and drive-specific notes
CDDB		Information about the Gracenote CDDB(R) service and its use
PRIVACY		Gracenote CDDB(R) service privacy statement
WEB		Xmcd's wwwWarp and other web-related information
FAQ		Frequently Asked Questions, and answers
CHANGES		Revision log
COPYING		GNU General Public License (for xmcd and cda in general) (*)
PORTING		Porting xmcd to other platforms (*)
ACKS		Acknowledgements

You can view these files directly, or use the xmcd's help system.
The files denoted with (*) are included only in the source code
distribution of xmcd.

After installation, you can use the man(1) or xman(1) command to read
the on-line manual entry for xmcd(1) and cda(1).  Also, you may also
view the xmcd man page using the xmcd wwwWarp system on your web browser.

This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software.  OSI Certified is
a certification mark of the Open Source Initiative.  For information
about the Open Source Initiative, visit: http://www.opensource.org

This distribution is released under the GNU General Public License.
Please see the COPYING file for details.  The GNU GPL does not apply
to the Gracenote CDDB� interface library, nor does it apply to the
LabelHack widget from John L. Cwikla.

Xmcd and cda uses the LAME encoder software for CD ripping to the MP3
format.  Similarly, the FAAC encoder software is used for the MPEG-2,
MPEG-4 AAC and MP4 formats.  Please note that due to patents pertaining
to the MP3, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 technologies, it may be illegal to
download and use the LAME and FAAC encoder software without incurring
licensing royalties in some countries.  MP3 is currently licensed by
Thomson (http://www.mp3licensing.com), while MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AAC are
licensed by Via Licensing Corporation (http://www.vialicensing.com),
a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories.  It is for this reason that LAME
and FAAC are not included in xmcd's source code or pre-compiled binary
kits.  You must download and install them separately in order to enable
the MP3, AAC and MP4 file formats in xmcd.

Likewise, xmcd and cda uses the Ogg Vorbis and FLAC encoder libraries
for these respective formats.  However, since these formats are fully
open, patent-and-royalty-free; the pre-compiled xmcd binary kits from
the official xmcd web site have the appropriate libraries statically
linked.  You do not need to download and install these libraries when
using the xmcd pre-compiled binary kits to get enable these formats.

If you are compiling xmcd from the source code, you must download and
install the Ogg Vorbis and FLAC library packages.  See the INSTALL file
for details.

Please refer to the official xmcd "Downloads" web site for links to sites
that offer source code and pre-compiled binaries of LAME, Ogg Vorbis,
FLAC and FAAC.