@(#)README	6.181 02/11/18

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 CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW 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 distribution is released as free software 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 .mp3
capability.  Please note that due to software patents pertaining to
the MP3 format (held by Fraunhofer-IIS and Thomson Multimedia), it may
be illegal to download and use MP3 encoder software in some countries.
It is for this reason that LAME is not included in xmcd's source code
or pre-compiled binary kits.  You must download and install LAME on
your system in order to enable xmcd's MP3 functionality.

Likewise, xmcd and cda uses the Ogg Vorbis encoder libraries for CD
ripping to .ogg file capability.  However, since Ogg Vorbis is fully open,
patent-and-royalty-free; the pre-compiled xmcd binary kits from the
official xmcd web site have the Ogg Vorbis libraries statically linked.
You do not need to download and install these libraries when using
the xmcd pre-compiled binary kits to get Ogg Vorbis functionality.

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

Please refer to the xmcd "Downloads" web site for links to other source code
and pre-compiled binaries of LAME and Ogg Vorbis.

