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"OGM" is a spin-off of Ogg from some time ago which hacks together Ogg (a great stream container format) and FourCC (the codec identity field from AVI) to easily add proprietary codecs (ie, DivX, XviD, other MPEG derivatives) to Ogg. Obviously, this is not endorsed by Xiph, the creators of Ogg and Vorbis, as they don't support patent-encumbered codecs.

Also, Ogg is not an acronym, so capitalizing every letter is incorrect. This is a common mistake. :-)

It seems odd that they'd use a patent-encumbered format. You're required to use a licensed encoder and player. So the information is still not "freely" accessible to the general public. I'd like to see them switch to Ogg Vorbis.

So then we can infer that there is some sort of "re-imbursement" incentive to send in Windows Media Format or RealPlayer? Windows Media format is too locked into the Windows-only cult and looks to be getting even more that way. The client for RealAudio has been getting more unstable and has too many spyware characteristics.

I'd prefer to see the NPR use QuickTime or Ogg, especially Ogg. The BBC seemed to have a successful trial with Ogg.

From the article:

If it goes through unmodified, the EUCD would make it a criminal offence to break or attempt to break the copy protection or Digital Rights Management systems on digital content such as music, software or eBooks. As it stands, the EUCD may lead to a rerun of Dmitri Sklyarov's prosecution, prevent teachers copying materials for their students or other legitimate uses of copyright material, opponents believe.

...

Since it is illegal to circumvent copyright protection, developers would be forced to sign licenses with the creators of a format in order to develop playback tools. This means that a creator could control the market, Cox warned, creating antitrust concerns.

It never ceases to amaze me how companies who claim to be technology companies, or corporations who adopt technological representations of their media cry when all of a sudden they have to deal with a new set of rules that comes with the new medium. If you're unprepared to deal with the ramifications of the technology, then don't invent/publish/distribute using it. Period. End of story.

If you're concerned about copy protection, invent something that works. If you don't have the resources to do that, then investigate new paradigms of reimbursement. The fact that corporations are lobbying for regulation this strict is a clear admission of failure on their part to be smart enough to add value to a huge demand already presented by end consumers.

Thank God for the almighty dollar!

In the end, I hope OpenSource technologies and licenses will be continue to be developed, published and used by individuals. If it is prohibitive to use a particular proprietary file format, then we as consumers should demand that it shouldn't be used, and alternatives be made available instead.

• Vorbis audio is higher quality than MP3 at equivilant bitrates
• I can hear artifacts in MP3s encoded at 128kbps (haven't tried Ogg Vorbis @ 128kbps)
• Fraunhofer's (et al.) patent(s) on MP3 technology put a significant hurdle in front of free and commercial software writers, as well as developers of portable digital audio hardware, such as this device.
• Xiphophoros's Vorbis libraries are licensed BSD-style, and the rest is licensed under the GPL.
• If you don't like the licenses, the standard itself is 100% open, and you can create proprietary implementations that don't credit Xiph.

Ogg Vorbis is superior, save it's not as wide-spread as MP3. And it's free in both of the cliche senses. I'd recommend reading the FAQ.

Would you say Linux and BSD geeks just think that they are nonconformist when they don't use Windows?

I see your point, and I have to agree.

I think the word 'vorbis' sounds pretty cool though, and that is the name of the audio codec. Other multimedia codecs will be given other 'ogg xxxx' names. Check the OGG Homepage here

It sounds beautiful!

Please could you put up links to program material so that it is simple to compare RealAudio against Ogg. Also how about some stereo Radio 3 so that we can compare the formats with hi-fi program material?

Pity the sex lesson about snails is censored just at the crucial moment. Most frustrating!

XMMS-1.2.5 won't start playing a URL correctly unless it is launched from a link on a web page.

As far as I can tell so far Ogg appears to be a huge improvement over RealAudio!

Maybe this can be used to kick start Ogg Tarkin. It'd be nice if they had a working implementation sooner than later so developers had a reason to start supporting it which will only help more when they come up with their own nifty codec.

MP3 finally has a video counterpart - a file-compression algorithm that makes it possible to send large multimedia files over the Internet on demand. VP3 is the first open-source video codec to truly support VHS-quality video at bandwidths as low as 200 kbps.

isn't MP3 a patented, non-free algorithm? isn't that why Ogg Vorbis exists? so the only reason Intel is comparing VP3 to MP3 is marketing crap, right?

either that, or they are hoping people will compress millions of DVDs into VP3 and set up giant file-swapping services, that would be a video counterpart to MP3.

in other news, are there any side-by-side comparisons of VP3 and DivX? and how does Ogg Tarkin fit into all of this, now that there is an 'open source' codec?

-sam

Check this page on the web site.

There's Ogg Tarkin as was mentioned in the main post. Its by no means finished, but there were some pretty neat ideas banded around before it left the vorbis mailinglist for its own one (and I hence stopped reading about it..)

Its not ready now, but keep an eye on it, it could well be what you're after.

Let's see... For $20,000 US, I can buy:

1. Terabyte Fileserver: $5000

2. Turtlebeach sound card with optical out (SBLive won't do it; it resamples the data for no reason): $400

3. 'Ultimate Linux Box 2001'= $3200-$7000

4. Choice of storage formats: WAVs (Free[as in beer]:1250-1750 cds:lossless) MP3 (done proper) (Free[as in beer]:12,500-17,500 cds:lossy) Ogg Vorbis (Free[as in speech]:12,500-17,500 cds:lossy), and FLAC (Free[as in speech]:2500-3500 cds:lossless)

All this, 2.54*10^24 times more storage, and a set of components guaranteed to be better than what is in that POS that's being sold. Oh, and lets not forget the $7000 or so you'll be saving.

I'll pass.

Toodles

There is an alternative in development. Right now they're finishing 1.0 of vorbis and ogg, the audio and wrapper formats respectively. Tarkin, the video codec, is not really ready to do anything yet, but check here for more info.

Ashes of Empires and bodies of kings,

For all the popularity of MP3, remember that Fraunhofer holds patents on it, making the creation of a legal, legitimate, Free encoder impossible.

Support Ogg ... use Ogg Vorbis for your audio encoding/storage needs. ;-)

Most of the algorhythms I play with only use 8 bits, so they would have to be some pretty dumb terrorists. :)

So you play around with encryption that can be trivially broken? How does that enhance people's privacy? It seems like it would just give naive users a false sense of security. I hope you don't plan on releasing your code.

My point is that one of these things (encryption) is really designed to enhance people's privacy while the other (the codec, at least at this point) is designed to take away intellectual property.

This kind of attitude makes me very sad. This attitude is why the MPAA is winning.

If this were a battle between the artists who create great movies and the pirates who would deprive them of their source of payment, I would side with the artists. But it is not about payment; it is about control. And it's not even about control by the artists; it's about control by the large movie studios. If they succeed in getting the U.S. government to grant them that control, then the studios' shareholders will benefit, and everyone else will suffer -- artists most of all.

If we do not have a free video codec, then we will have only a proprietary video codec, legally playable only using commercial players made by the big studios, or by companies who have signed a strict licensing agreement with them.

I don't know if "Divx Deux" will amount to anything; personally I'm more inclined to place my bets on the Ogg project. But someone needs to do it, and it needs to happen as quickly as possible, before MS MPEG-4 becomes too entrenched.

For more on this topic please read my essay on digital media and the DMCA.

Well, it looks like we're going to be increasingly cut out of legally participating in the current media standards (DVD/CSS, Real, MP3) by software patents and the DMCA.

Worse, this is extending into hardware. We're nearing the point where it will be illegal to write open-source video drivers, because the connection to the monitor is encrypted in a CSS-like fashion [before you call me paranoid, Intel and a group of other corporations are already developing just that and more -- do some research on HDCP, the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection spec, and its application in e.g. DVI].

The only compelling argument (for most people) against such draconian hardware measures is the existence legitimate Free alternative technologies (and unencumbered content to go with it!). Of all the boats, let's hope we don't miss this one.

All those that can, hit ogg.org and similar projects, and see what you can contribute. Myself, I plan on working on the content side of things.