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Ogg Vorbis Portables On The Way

Posted by timothy on from the when-when-when dept.

Emmettfish writes "According to this release on Xiph.org, it looks like the Neuros player will support Linux users, and also give them the ability to play back Vorbis files on the move, starting in late May. Go Ogg! Remember, donating a few bucks to Xiph may not make the world a better place, but it'll definitely help it sound a lot better." For those of us craving a portable that plays from cheap CD-Rs rather than flash media or a hard drive, Emmett says by email that an agreement for development of firmware for a CD-based Ogg player is in the works, too.

6 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Nice, but I already have one... by tjansen · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nice, but I already have a portable Ogg Vorbis player: tkcPlayer

  2. Low bitrates - vast improvement! by Frodo420024 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Recently, I've experimented with Ogg vs. MP3 for streaming voice (lectures, not music), and I find that at the low end of the bandwidth spectrum, Ogg is much better than MP3.

    An MP3 file at 32 kbit/second sounds muffled - high frequencies largely removed - while an Ogg at 23 kbit/second (16 kbit nominal) has a much better tonal balance. The Ogg stream is not pristine quality, but much better than the MP3.

    If you're interested in packing many hours of low bitrate material, Ogg is the way to go.

    --
    I'm in a Unix state of mind.
  3. Nex II player by N8w8 · · Score: 5, Informative

    FYI, Frontier Labs expects to have ogg support ready for their Nex II player in Q2 2003.

  4. There is already a Zaurus media player plugin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have built the plugin for the Qtopia media player on the Sharp Zaurus SL5500 myself a few weeks ago. You can also find someone else's build as an IPKG on http://www.killefiz.de/.
    And the Zaurus could accomodate a CF harddisk (1gig)... I'm not saying that it would run off the battery for long tho.
    Also, I heard that the integer only decoder (Tremor) used less power than the built-in MP3 one, so battery life as affected by that is supposed to be longer (10 percent I read someplace).

  5. the transmitter by raygundan · · Score: 5, Informative

    It has a *very* limited range. Like you, and maybe the car next to you, if you both have your windows open and the other driver has a good antenna. Hell of a lot cleaner than a tape adapter, and easier than pulling your stereo out to add an RF modulator so that you can plug the thing directly in.

  6. Ogg on SonicBlue's Pearl by figa · · Score: 5, Informative

    SonicBlue's Pearl plays Ogg. It was demoed at CES this year, so it should be on the streets by this fall. A SonicBlue employee reported on RioWorld that it supports Ogg. It also has an ethernet base, which is unusual and forward thinking.