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Xiph.org Releases Theora Alpha One

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the soon-my-pretty-soon dept.

Pajama Crisis writes "Xiph.org, the crazy guys behind Ogg Vorbis, have released the first alpha version of Ogg Theora, an open video codec. Downloading, hacking and smashing into little pieces is cheerfully encouraged. Theora has been mentioned on Slashdot before. Also, Xiph has been working with a couple different companies to bring Vorbis to a portable near you; stay tuned."

11 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. We demand benchmarks! by YellowSubRoutine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How well does this thing compare to stuff like mpeg4? How well does it stream?
    If we need a killer on video formats, it better be a damn high compression ratio...

  2. File Extensions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If Ogg Vorbis are .ogg files, what are they going to call Ogg Theora files?

    Are we gonna have to change them to .vog and .tog?

    Or, are they going to make all decoders smart so you send all .ogg files to it and determines whether it can read it or not.

    (And yes, I know..very FEW operating systems base their file associations on the extension. However, it does happen.)

    1. Re:File Extensions by ncc74656 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      If Ogg Vorbis are .ogg files, what are they going to call Ogg Theora files?

      If they're smart, .avi. Make it a codec that plugs in alongside XviD, Huffyuv, etc., and you'll have a sizable amount of capture/editing/playback software that'll be able to use it right off the bat.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  3. They never actually say... by Spazholio · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...whether or not it's better than DivX/MPEG4, only that that would be its main competition. Does that mean that they're banking on the fact that they'll never start charging licensing fees, but they're not *quite* as good as DivX? Or that they're just as good, if not better, but are going to let the people make up their own minds?

    Either way, I'm stoked. Ever since I discovered Ogg Vorbis, I haven't regretted it and haven't looked back since. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same about Ogg Theora.

  4. Re:Killer App by utexaspunk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    likewise, OGG could stand a better chance as an audio codec if an insert-and-be-done program were made. Windows Media Player (and iTunes) has this feature for CD's. You stick it in, it gets the track names and rips it. Match that with a P2P client, and it could get adopted just for downloading ease. If everyone were using the same program, files that were the same would have the same names, which would make it much easier to download a whole album, or switch from one peer to another mid-download, thus reducing download time and bandwidth usage.

  5. IRivers Response by emolitor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Thanks for your suggestion. Actually iRiver have listened to our users' need and start working with Ogg Vorbis format, ManPower have been allocated to develop the Ogg Vorbis, let's give our engineers more time to develop this format. Some users suggested to give a schedule on this issue. However, it is really difficult to tell at this moment, let's just hope it to be released as soon as possible."

    http://www.iriver.com/user/user_view.asp?page=1&id x=1268&mode=Àüü&strque=&field=1

    Thats clipped from their forums.

  6. obscure by Lovejoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yet another name to insure that Ogg is completely unmarketable!

    --
    Yes, it's a blog. Sorry if that offends you.
  7. mplayer/mencoder by peter_gzowski · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Evidently oblivion exists at www.mplayerhq.hu. They have an encoder that lets you rip your dvd to DivX4 using 1, 2 or 3 pass encoding. Instuctions are here. Is three lines at a command prompt simple enough?

    --
    "Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
  8. Re:How does he know? by Frag-A-Muffin · · Score: 3, Interesting


    I've been talking to the Xiph guys, it's true, I believe Monty himself will be starting work on a flash for the NEXII/IIe within a couple weeks, if it turns out to be technically possible.

    Sweet! I don't see why it wouldn't be technically possible though? What's in one of those NEXII(e) anyways? Or is it possibly the firmware size won't fit? Anyone know how big the flash ROM for the firmware is?

    --

    AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
  9. VP3 background by imsabbel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The vp3 video codec was released to open source by on2 technology mainly because its image quality was noticable worse then (divx 5.0, Xvid ,wmv8).
    They tried to get some publicity while selling the succesor.,vp4 (or 5), which isnt open sourced.

    Any improvement to bring it on the same level as xvid or divx would just retrace on2's steps of progress.
    How can OGG be sure that they wont violate patents in this process?

    --
    HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
  10. Re:Wow, this is like watching mainland Chinese new by Compuser · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think the parent is a troll, but in case he is
    serious:
    What does a square wave do to your speakers?
    We have some decent peakers down in our lab,
    because we do vibration testing before real
    experiments run and we run all kinds of sharp
    looking waveforms thru them and we don't see
    any problems. This is in fixed setup, inside an
    acoustic room with acoustic level meters and
    accelerometers. Doesn't get any more precise than
    that. Our speakers are fine after 5 years.
    What's supposed to be the problem?