Xiph.org Releases Free Fixed-Point Vorbis Decoder

volsung writes "A lot of us want portable music players with Vorbis support, right? Well, Xiph.org has decided to help speed the process by releasing their integerized Vorbis decoder, named "Tremor," under a BSD-like license. Tremor is a Vorbis decoding library written for CPUs without floating point hardware, like most handheld devices use. It was previously a proprietary library--licensed by theKompany for their Sharp Zaurus player, among others--but now it's available for everyone to use. The release page also gives contact information for many of the popular hardware manufacturers. If you want Vorbis support in your hardware, now is the time to send some emails! (Also, please say thanks to the Xiph.org crew with a donation if you can.)"

Comments

this is crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do I need this? I already have MS Media Player.

good, but

[Anonymous Coward]

This is good news. However, they still haven't released a complete specification for the file format, or the audio format. Don't get me wrong, having 2 free reference implementations is nice, but a spec is important if anyone else wants a clean-room implementation, and to prevent errors in the reference implementation from becoming "standards".

Re:good, but

[Anonymous Coward]

I read the spec when it was released. It's not a formal specification, and is vague about quite a few points, or skips over them entirely. It's a good companion for the reference implementation, but it's not a formal spec. Until they do release a formal spec, I'm advising client so use the mpeg II layer 3 format, which is well documented and free of potential licensing issues.

Tilting at windmills

[Anonymous Coward]

All ten vorbis users jump for joy.

Hey all you 1000 million mp3 users, follow us!

How long has the for-pay version been around?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just curious, because for the longest time the standard troll response to "why is there no OGG for my [device]?" had been "because there is no fixed-point decoder algorithm yet". But if this has been around (even for money) I'm suprised nobody ever brought that up or pushed it harder to companies. You'd also figure that it would have made it's way into a lot of portable devices (you and I are poor, but big companies making Rio's and iPod's are doing it to sell $$$ and the little bit of software addition for the ogg decoder probably wouldn't have been that much trouble or added much to the price).

Re:Nice, but I hope they stick around

[GalionTheElf]

Secret Xiph plan to make money:

1: Release free decoder
2: ???
3: Profit!

Re:Does it matter at this stage of the game?

[TheWickedKingJeremy]

... but isnt it a bit like pissing in the ocean after the boat already set sail?

Not really, no.

Quality

[Reality Master 101]

Have there been any REAL double-blind tests as well as equipment tests of quality comparisons between MP3 and Ogg Vorbis yet? They never seem to get done. All the tests so far are of the form "Hey! My music sounds really l33t !!!!!"

Anybody know of some honest testing across a wide variety of music (particularly instrumental / classical / baroque) that is not just one person's subjective opinion?

Everyone seems to think that doing a lossy music compressor is just a "matter of cranking it out", but it's an extremely difficult problem. I'm not going to trust a bunch of amateurs until I see some real evidence that they know what they're doing. And no, "test it out yourself" is not an option. I have better things to do with my time, particularly since MP3 is free.

yay for BSD

[Anonymous Coward]

This is great news. Now if they would just port the Zaurus to FreeBSD, it could only get better.

uh, come again?

[British]

A lot of us want portable music players with Vorbis support, right?

Uh, no, seeing is that I haven't heard of Vorbis until now.

Might as well ask "A lot of us want full SVG support on our Vectrex game consoles, right?"