Which is the best direct show FLAC decoder?

[gOdiSOnyOuRsIDe]

I have ffdshow installed and I can enable it's FLAC decoder but someone recommended me to use madFLAC 1.10 or CoreFLAC Decoder 0.4, but when I browse audio codecs on codecs.com it says CoreFLAC is obsolete. I see other FLAC decoders but I'm confused on which one to use.

[jagabo]

Since FLAC is losses all decoders should produce exactly the same output. The only difference would be in CPU consumption.

[El Heggunte]

The big problem in the FLAC decoders is to ensure a correct channel-mapping for the multichannel streams.
Apparently LAV Splitter and LAV Audio are the "best" choices regarding FLAC, WavPack and MLP, for now.
In fact, FLAC was created with several deficiencies and design flaws which were avoided by the author of the WavPack compression.

[gOdiSOnyOuRsIDe]

Since FLAC is losses all decoders should produce exactly the same output. The only difference would be in CPU consumption.

I'm running a pretty modern system therefore I'm not too worried about CPU consumption unless it's a problem.

The big problem in the FLAC decoders is to ensure a correct channel-mapping for the multichannel streams.
Apparently LAV Splitter and LAV Audio are the "best" choices regarding FLAC, WavPack and MLP, for now.
In fact, FLAC was created with several deficiencies and design flaws which were avoided by the author of the WavPack compression.

I discovered this guide and apparently they doesn't use LAV audio to decode FLAC but use madFLAC instead.

[Hoser Rob]

You don't need ffdshow or any other silly 3rd party codecs (I won't touch them anymore) at all if you use a player that has native FLAC support. I.e. any good one. If you're using WMP ... well, on my newer machine I've only ever run it by accident.

I prefer foobar2000, even though the learning curve is cockeyed and the docs stink. It just works really well.

Actually, I'd use VLC for audio if they supported ASIO or WASAPI. Windows has an annoying habit of resampling the audio.

If you`re using mac or linux this is not an issue with vlc. Or if you aren`t using an external USB DAC.

[El Heggunte]

I prefer foobar2000, even though the learning curve is cockeyed and the docs stink. It just works really well.

foobar2000 is not a video player alright.

Actually, I'd use VLC for audio if they supported ASIO or WASAPI. Windows has an annoying habit of resampling the audio.

Windows XP never resamples the audio IF the frequency of the stream is supported by the sound card.

[epsilonalpha]

keep using ffdshow, the other two you mentioned is old and doesn't get updated anymore.

[jagabo]

flac hasn't changed in years and it's likely there's no change in ffdshow's flac support in years either. As long as the decoder you're using is working properly there's no need to change.