For simplicity, the MPD core should not have to deal with packing. It
is rarely used, and those plugins that need it should use the
pcm_export library instead.
This patch prepares support for floating point samples (and probably
other formats). It changes the meaning of the "bits" attribute from a
bit count to a symbolic value.
After we've been hit by Large File Support problems several times in
the past week (which only occur on 32 bit platforms, which I don't
have), this is yet another attempt to fix the issue.
When using wave encoder with httpd audio output mpd can input this stream via http and audiofile decoder.
This for example opens simple way to configure lossless audio streaming port(like jack or pulseaudio does but without overhead).
Another possibility can be using it for gathering raw data for visualization plugins (If sync issue will be resolved)