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Ogg Vorbis RC3 Released
xercist writes: "Let's start 2002 off with some good news! The long awaited RC3 release of the Ogg project's Vorbis codec is now out. Major changes include much improvement in the quality to bitrate ratio, ability to specify a hard bitrate min/max to the encoder (good for streaming), and an entirely new bitrate management engine which can emulate CBR, do constrained bitrates, and will accept quality settings via the -q flag from 0 through 10 in .00000001 increments (currently only tuned for 44.1 KHz modes). Vorbis has kicked MP3's, WMA's, and Real's asses for a long time now, hopefully this release will change the minds of anyone yet undecided. Download RC3, then show your appreciation for all their hard work and dedication by making a donation to support the project."
Depends on how badly Microsoft and other major players fumble the ball, and forget who's actually buying their software. If they keep going in the current direction, I can see Ogg Vorbis becoming a standard almost overnight.
A few months ago a friend of mine, a staunch Microsoft supporter, converted his entire collection of MP3's (about 150 CD's—he'd ripped his whole library) to WMA format. The quality was fine, the files were smaller, and off he toddled. A few weeks later he upgraded his operating system, and WMA's Rights Management kicked in and told him he couldn't play any of those files anymore. Ouch! Weeks later, he'd re-ripped his collection to MP3—and ripped a friend's as well. Needless to say, he's not as staunch a supporter as he once was.
If WMA continues apace, and MP3 becomes co-opted, Ogg Vorbis may well step in. The name is odd, but who cares? The MP in MP3 stands for "Motion Picture" after all! I can see it getting abbreviated to "OVA" for "Ogg Vorbis Audio" and spawning a multitude of egg-shaped players. I can even see the slogans:In the interim, and in the grand tradition of hacker jargon, I'd like to propose the following terms:
- Ovum: (Ogg Vorbis Unit of Media) An Ogg Vorbis audio file. "I have an ovum of the EFF speech that I can send you."
- Ova: (Ogg Vorbis Audio) Any number of Ogg Vorbis audio files, or a quantity of Ogg Vorbis audio. "Do you have any classical ova with you?"
- Oval: Of or relating to the Ogg Vorbis format. "Does your oval player have a spectrum analyzer?"
- Ovulation: The process of converting audio to Ogg Vorbis format. "Just a few more minutes of ovulation, and I'll be MP3-free!"
- Ovangelism: The process of converting audiophiles to Ogg Vorbis format. "I let him borrow my oval Walkman and a couple gigs of jazz ova, and he traded in his Rio the next day. Big ovangelism win!"
I'm not very clever at 5AM (or at noon, for that matter), so I hope this makes some sense.You're still going to get fuckups now and then because Joe 6 pack is encoding from a poor source (e.g. his disc is fubared, or he records from crappy analog first instead of ripping the CD, etc...)
There's only so much an encoder can do. Stupidity in sufficient quantity will rule the day.
... then show your appreciation for all their hard work and dedication ...
By Slashdotting them! Bwuahahaha!!
[Yes, I am hung over.]
No, audiophiles are the main problem. Mind you, the good thing about audiophiles is that they don't matter to anyone else.
:wq
I'm still waiting for those properly conducted and documented double blind listening tests....
Don't you mean double deaf listening tests...?
Lump lingered last in line for brains, and the ones she got were sorta rotten and insane.
"Away ... from ... computer"? What is this of which you speak? Your words fall strangely on my ears, good sir.
"What do 100% of net types use, every single day? 1) base OS, 2) web browser, 3) music. Whoever makes 1-3 a better thing deserves my hard-earned cash."
I just donated $300 to Microsoft for helping to improve all three.
:-)