It looks like Andrea got good results -- will wait until Monday to see if he thinks Flac 1.4.0 should go in.
Meanwhile, I decided to do a much bigger test and here are the results:
Old: 671435 frames in 274.260 secs / 2448.170 fps / Size=2834313874
New: 671435 frames in 244.648 secs / 2744.494 fps / Size=2786770407 (Compression=0)
New: 671435 frames in 354.841 secs / 1892.214 fps / Size=2400810590 (Compression=5)
Would it not be better to put the default compression level at 0? That would be the most consistent with the old version in speed and in size. I do not think it is a good idea to change what the user is used to seeing -- especially since the speed of the new version is better than the old once Andrew's patches are applied. What do you think?