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ffmpeg: Free Software's WMA decoder
mmu_man writes "This morning, after the usual spams, I got this from the ffmpeg-devel mailing list:
Here it is, something we waited for long. Now we have a FreeSoftware (LGPL) WMA (Windows Media Audio) decoder. WMA is the highly proprietary audio codec M$ is pushing along with its user-locking tools like DRM. this will free us from the ugly DLL hacks required to play DivX until now.
Note there isn't any encoder yet, but who would like to encode into WMA while we have better and more open solutions?
With this new codec, ffmpeg really proves itself as the most complete audio/video grabbing, convertion and streaming solution, for Linux, but also FreeBSD, Windows and even BeOS. Note ffmpeg codecs are used in a lot of other FreeSoftware projects, like mplayer."
Also interesting is the ad I just saw for Helix(RealPlayer) and their version of Open Source code. Here's the link.
A big advanage this offers is the ability to now hear content from scores of websites that selected WMA as their audio format of choice - all without needing Media Player.
Did I mention I dislike that program?
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Very simple. DivX uses an audio codec to encode audio. A large number of DivX files use mp3 for audio (ogg is also possible, though not many players support it), and the rest use wma. Now, you won't need the /usr/lib/win32 directory full of Microsoft DLL's in order to play those Invader Zim episodes encoded using wma audio, assuming players take up this code. You could always re-encode them into mp3 audio at a greater loss of quality, but I like this solution better.
Is your browser retarded?
This is presumably a decoder compatible with the classic "WMA" codec. This bitstream was locked down with WMA2, although they have made progressive enhancements to the encoder all the way through WMA9. It's really a very good codec for stereo 44.1 16-bit kinds of applications.
.wma files out there today, although that percentage might start dropping as WMA9 Pro gets traction. It is certainly a welcome effort!
Not that there are two NEW WMA codecs introduced in Windows Media 9 that aren't backwards compatible.
WMA 9 Professional aims for higher bitrates (48-768 Kbps) and multichannel (stereo with matrixed support or six discreet channels). And it can do deeper than 16-bit. If the old WMA was a competitor to MP3, WMA9Pro is a competitor to AC-3/Dolby Digital. And like WMA v. MP3, it has about a 50% advantage on compression efficiency.
There is also WMA9 Voice, which is a really good narrowband codec. Despite its name, it does a surprisingly good job with music as well. It operates from 4-20 Kbps.
WMA9 Voice is replacing the ACELP.net voice codec, which Microsoft licensed binary code for, but doesn't have the source code. Thus they couldn't get it for MacOS X or PocketPC.
Anyway, this decoder should handle 95% of the
My video compression blog
Do note this is only the audio codec. While there are already decoders for the older MS MPEG-4vX codecs, most .wmv files will use the Windows Media Video codec, which AFAIK don't have any kind of open source solution.
.wma files.
This is mainly useful for playing
My video compression blog
Actually no.. I suggest you read up on dynamics before you just knee-jerk like that.
Adding compression is along the lines of adding an effect, it has nothing to do with perceptual coding. Compression doesn't always make music sound better. It can result in a muddy mix, or, sometimes, outright destroy a mix. Sure it makes pop rock sound better, and really loud and overpowering like FM radio.. But it's a little annoying when the volume on your Mozart or selected ambient works 2 is pumping up and down with every single sound. The subtlety in the original mix is lost. Other perceptually coded formats leave this component of the audio alone, and let the original producer decide what sounds right.
--
Maciek
-- Maciek
Because, for example, many internet radio stations use WMA as codec. With the help of this decoder you could listen to them (and maybe don't even break a law while doinng this).
WMA isn't the codec of choice for encoding your CD and movie rips, but there is content that's only available in WMA for whatever reason. What's so tough about that?
Sorry to be picky but it's a decoder not an encoder/decoder (codec). Mark
The project from what I see is mostly (if not all) done by non-Americans. So the DMCA does not apply to these people, nor to more than 99% of the countries in the world.
Sure, it's hosted on sourceforge servers, which I assume is located in the US, but hosting can be obtained elsewhere just as easily.
So quit naysaying and just accept the fact that not every open source project is an attempt to defile MS's (or the American legal system's) supremacy.
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
That would require breaking the DRM, not simply ignoring it, this would clearly be a violation of the DMCA (in the US).
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html
Only DivX 3.11 was a hacked Microsoft coded.
4.0 and onwards were developed from scratch.
I dunno, I've seen a good chunk of WMA audio tracks in DivX avi files to this day. The thing is, 'divx audio' sounds so enticing to people they select it, even if mp3 is an option, they mistakenly think that 'divx audio' works better with divx video simply because of the name.... At last, my PowerPC linux system will play them...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
As far as I can tell, this code doesn't deal well with protected WMA content. Attempts to convert some of the 30-day-licensed WMA files available to download from winamp.com proved fruitless.
I do not claim, however, to know what the hell I'm doing. This was just my first attempt.
Anyone know any differently?
rOD.
Rod Begbie done this, and he's not
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
I've never understood what the != thing was all about. It obvisouly means the first part really isn't equal to the second part, but where did it originate?
/. as well.
The C programming language uses != as an operator in test expressions. It != means not equal to and == means equal to, that's also why you see == used a lot on
http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html
DivX has nothing to do with WMA. DivX is a video codec, WMA is an audio codec. ;-) (with the smiley, also known als DivX 3.11) was a hacked version of MSMPEG4v3 (there were also hacked versions of MSMPEG4v2 around, but they aren't called DivX and are incompatible with v3). Although MS calls it "MPEG4vX", they are really incompatible with MPEG 4.
DivX
AVI has also nothing to do with DivX and WMA, it's just a container format. It just happens that some AVI files contain DivX video and WMA audio, but it may just as well be Indeo video with MP3 audio or whatever. You can put video and audio made in almost any codec in an AVI container.
Because DivX and WMA have nothing to do with AVI, you can, for example, also create Ogg files that contain DivX video with MP3 audio, Theora video with WMA audio, etc.
AVI is old, very old, and it should be replaced. No error detection, not streamable, difficult to support VBR codecs, etc. I hope one day, people will just stop encoding AVI files and switch to Ogg for MCF instead.
The system sucks, but they do have the term "Windows" tied up trademark wise, and have actively defended that in court.
1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
Hopefully they can pull it off, but all that Lindow's won so far is a denial of a preliminary injuntion against them; they've still got a ways to go (including appeals and whatnot). And if they lose or run out of $$$, MS gets the term Windows tied up with a ribbon.
1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
It still can, you just need to use a special version of it.
AAC-LC better than Vorbis? No way. Full complexity AAC is a long way behind Vorbis according to recent listening tests - AAC-LC is far worse.
Sure Vorbis has it's weaknesses - it performs exceptionally well for electronic sounds in particular, but loses out on classical stuff (which, according to some tests and against what I would have expected, MP3Pro does quite well on, especially in the high stress 64kbps range) - arguably, one should use lossless codecs for classical stuff though. Certainly at 64kbps, Psytel aac is bloody awful compared to Vorbis - even WMA8 usually ranks better in ABC/HR tests. Vorbis rules supreme at 128kbps (at the moment). It could scale better to high bitrates, and work is ongoing to improve the encoder's performance further. AAC just doesn't cut the mustard, especially with the licensing terms.
It is false. I posted in a previous article that WMA fooled people by increasing the volume by 3 dBA and it was modded to +5 Informative. Unfortunately I was wrong and did not do my research.
It turns out that the 3 dBA thing was just made up by someone as a joke.