Real Will Include Ogg Vorbis Support 328
Skuto writes "Following the example of AOL with Winamp, RealNetworks has decided to give Ogg Vorbis their sign of approval and will be including support into their player software. The press release has more information.
Meanwhile, independent listening tests are being set up to determine how well Vorbis fares against its competitors WMA, AAC and MP3Pro. You can help by signing up for the tests here." A couple of comments (1, 2)
in our previous story provide the best description of what Real is doing, if you missed them.
Hardware Acceptance (Score:5, Insightful)
the more the better (Score:2, Insightful)
now all that's left is for iTunes to support it (Score:5, Insightful)
talk to Apple if you want to see it happen: feedback page [apple.com]
Day late. Dollar short. (Score:2, Insightful)
The only company whose support would make any difference is... MicroSoft. If they blessed Ogg, you might see players ship that can handle it. Otherwise, it's just a nerd's pipe dream. If fraunhoffer ever gets serious, maybe you'll see some games and similar things ship with Ogg's instead of mp3's. But this race is already run.
Re:Day late. Dollar short. (Score:3, Insightful)
The only company whose support would make any difference is... MicroSoft. If they blessed Ogg, you might see players ship that can handle it. Otherwise, it's just a nerd's pipe dream. If fraunhoffer ever gets serious, maybe you'll see some games and similar things ship with Ogg's instead of mp3's. But this race is already run.
I beg to differ. Although MP3 is firmly entrenched, the vast amount of encoders available ensures that an MP3 cannot be judged by bitrate. I know of several people who would be overjoyed to see a "real" standard for audio, with an official encoder. Just one encoder. Not an official one and lots of spinoffs. If the encoder is done right, and is free, open-source, and open to outside contribution, then there are no reason for spinoffs. This ensures identical quality across the board.
Why is this important? File-sharing networks. I HATE downloading a 192 kbps MP3, and finding it to sound like a 96 kbps one made by LAME.
Re:Day late. Dollar short. (Score:5, Insightful)
What matter to me is wether I'm using ogg or not and at the moment the answer is yes. All of the cds that I rip are ripped into ogg.
And when I download music I don't care the slightest bit wether it's in mp3 or ogg because if I really like it I'll go buy the album and then I'll rip it into ogg. If I don't like it enough to buy the album then I don't like it enough to want it in a better format either so it doesn't matter.
The only thing I would like to see regarding ogg is portable ogg players (that also support mp3 of course) and other devices like dvd players etc. But with Real and AOL blessing ogg maybe that's not a pipe dream afterall?
Just because I prefer a certain format doesn't mean other people need to prefer the same.
--
Garett
Re:Day late. Dollar short. (Score:1, Insightful)
Heh. Maybe it was a few years ago, but it's been several years since I encoded a MP3.
You've failed to understand that the most common use for CD ripping is so that the person who is doing the ripping, can listen to the music. Most of the time, when you encode, you don't care whether or not someone else can listen to the result. You just care if you can.
So just about everyone is free to use the best tool for the job, that they know of. That's why MP3 pretty much died and Ogg took over about two years ago.
Re:Open Source wins again (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Anybody (Score:1, Insightful)
In my observation, Real is just another MS Borg type operation - they don't want to give you generalized utilities and leave you alone to make the decisions - they want to own internet audio, eliminate all other choices, lock everyone in and collect data on them.
For me and audio, it's been WINAMP all the way for years. Elegance, flexibility, extesibility and ease of use. It whips the Real Llama's posterior. But I am worried that AOL will spoil Winamp (CRINGE "You've Got Audio!" /CRINGE) as they get more involved. I haven't tried Winamp 3 and their video support yet. And I'm not mentioning Media Player because I was taught not to swear.
Re:Day late. Dollar short. (Score:3, Insightful)
Additionally, I've heard the comparisons of
Re:I'd try Ogg Vorbis ... (Score:2, Insightful)
"The medium is the message." -- Marshall McLuhan
New news for me (Score:2, Insightful)
get over it (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, since only about half of the mail we get is about the name 'Ogg Vorbis', it's clearly time to karma-whore a popular subject and open this can of worms one more time.
Our "The Name Sucks!"/"The name Rulez!" mail ratio is about 50/50. Some of you have threatened to kill us if we change the name, some of you have threatened to kill us if we don't. So you're gonna hear what I think about it. I'm not going to waste the opportunity my minor fame gives me for a healthy round of peer-mockery.
I Like The Name. I Wrote the Software. The Name Stays.
But there's more to this story than 'nyah nyah'. The 'rename Ogg!' forces have provided me with some of my favorite mail ever. I recall fondly the guy who went on, in great detail, why 'Ogg Vorbis' sucks, and that I must adopt 'a cutting edge, truly kick-ass name like "FreeMP3"!!!!!'
As for 'Ogg Vorbis', I hadn't really meant the 'Vorbis' part to get tacked on. The name of the format is Ogg. Just Ogg. Vorbis happens to be the first codec. Had 'Vorbis' been perhaps one more syllable (like, say 'Sorensen'), we wouldn't have this problem. People would just call it 'Ogg' like God (that's me) intended. Of course, particularly obsessive people *do* occasionally say 'QuickTime Sorensen', but they don't get invited to parties much, and when invited, they are shunned. 'Course they're usually just arguing with the punch bowl so shunning is easy.
I don't want my users to be shunned at parties, so I'm gonna help you out here. Just call it 'Ogg'. Ogg is a good, simple, very satisfying word.
It makes a good noun, a better verb and can even be used effectively in a curse. It is a real word and contains no numbers. It has only two unique characters, making it simpler than mp3. It is only one syllable, making it shorter to say than mp3. If you still can't handle it, try reboot-reinstall.
Monty
xiph.org
Re:I'd try Ogg Vorbis ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Once people get used to it, it will be ok.
At least it's a word, and not an acronym.
What about MS? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'd try Ogg Vorbis ... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Is that a CD?" (you probably could have said the same thing about CDs too, but I won't)
"No, it's mp3"
"What is an mp3?"
"Mpeg layer 3, it's compressed audio"
"Oh, aren't those illegal?"
"Some of them, not all of them"
"Oh, then can I have some?"
"Sure"
"I put it in my CD player and it didn't work."
"No, you need an mp3 player"
[continues]
Those were back in the days when you got all your mp3s searhing on altavista and doing http transfers. Even before the ratio FTP servers. It was hardcore.
Don't like ogg vorbis? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Day late. Dollar short. (Score:3, Insightful)
there is NO reason Ogg can't take over as the de-facto standard. especially if it really is a better format.
sure, it might not be tomorrow but with the increasing ease of switching (i.e. with all this new software support), mp3 is _anything_ but entrenched and could be uprooted with half of users not even knowing what file type they are playing.