Speex Goes 1.0, Xiph Goes 501(c)3

Emmettfish writes "Hey, folks! We've posted an announcement this morning; Speex (the free and open voice compression codec by Jean-Marc Valin) has gone 1.0, and the Xiph.Org Foundation is now officially recognized as a charitable non-profit organization by the IRS. Donate to help us write more Free Software and get a tax break. Thanks!"

Comments

What's the difference between Speex and OGG?

[zero0w]

What's the difference between Speex and OGG?
Any comparison on that?

Will it benefit game developers in delivering voiceover game speeches?

http://www.xiph.org/mgm/

[Anonymous Coward]

wtf?

This is good

[Quixote]

OSS needs a low-bitrate codec. I've been looking to put toether a netmeeting-type open-source app that works on both Linux and Windblows, for use over low(er) speed dialup lines (like 9600bps or thereabouts). This would be the missing piece.

On a related note: if there are any other active projects for a netmeeting-type application (I'm aware of Gnomemeeting, but I'd like to avoid the whole directory/ILS business, and just do simple person-to-person calls, with possible encryption if desired), please post a link.

Re:This is good

[IcePic]

Do *NOT* make the same mistake that H323 and SIP has
done and make a protocol that can handle NAT.
With the shortage of ipv4 addresses (or the silly
admins that NAT anyhow) today, you can't use any simple
net-audio no more. People seem to be able to do
most anything, including GameVoice and stuff, but
all the standardised, "serious" software is designed
by people on univerisities or other places that never
heard of NAT so they constantly design the protocols
to send your ip inside the protocol.

Of course, some 2-bit hack kernel module for
ip--filtering for linux appears
in 6 months, but everyone doesn't want to modify
kernels with random modules and unproven code just
because netaudio folks seems to think NAT doesn't
exist.

I'd love for NAT to go away and die, but unfortunately
it wont, so please, if you make an audio app, make
it able to survive a simple port forwarding so I
can 'call' through my $100 cheap-o-matic SOHO-firewall
box.

Codec progress is great, but we need content

[matthewg42]

It's good to see some open codecs appearing/ reaching some level of maturity, though I'm not sure if we'll ever be free from fear of the IP clans in this area...

The main problem I see now is getting some media available exclusivley in these formats. I have to confess it's an awfully big incentive to use proprietary format players when the alternative is not to listen/watch at all.

How did they manage?

[millwall]

It would be nice to know how the managed to get registered as a charitable non-profit organization by the IRS.

The article doesn't mention what they claimed in all those million pages of documentation and those billion phonecalls....

What i'm curious to know is

[SolemnDragon]

Can they get ties in to other nonprofit organisations? Because i can think of a whole lot of nonprofits that have been LOOKING for software development buddies, especially anything working better than current speech software. It becomes particularly relevant in issues such as advanced neuromuscular diseases. What they need is free, open-source (read: adaptable) voiceware, so that people who are already on disability don't have to pay for it... And i'm thinking that the amount of publicity that they could get by tying onto something like one of the many ALS foundations out there, or the MS etc foundations.... would be good for everybody...

of course, i could be completely offbase, because i was a bad slashdotter today and didn't read all of the material, just enough to think about. On a monday morning, thinking is limited... *sigh* right. In the words of they might be giants: "More coffee for me, dear, 'cause i'm not as messes up as i'd like to be...."

questions

[koekepeer]

hey /. readers/experts (i hope)

how does this translate into RL applications? i would *love* to be able to caal a friend over the internet. but:

do you need hardware (other than pc)?
can you connect to windows computers?

this could seriously reduce my phonecosts, i'd be quite pleased to use it and donate some money if i could get this working with my (not able to run linux because of company policy and low geekness factor) friends abroad.

can someone point me to some good links for info?

tnx

Sourceforge next?

[dnoyeb]

I have always wondered if I could write off the time I spend on OSS projects as charitable donations. I'm not getting paid for it and it does contribute to the global society. I wonder if sourceforge could not become a charitable organization? At least the software side, the adverts could be a different company that pays the charitable org.

What sort of speed processor do we need?

[91degrees]

A low bitrate audio codec is useless if it can't compress in real time. Will my 300MHz Linux box be able to compress my voice in real-ish time?

tax deductible

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep in mind, currently, charitable donations are only tax deductible if you itemize. I suspect most slashdot readers 1) Aren't in the US or 2)Don't itemize or 3) Are dependents (aka live in parents basement).

This rocks I love speex

[Sir_Stinksalot]

I have been investigating the feasability of moving my church into digital recording instead of to tape. I thought with ogg vorbis I could archive older sermons in mass quantities without too horrible of sound. But alas ogg vorbis sux with plain voice because it still needs the higher bitrates to sound good like 64 or so. But then I found speex. And I found that a good sounding (not taxing to the ear but noticeable compression) could fit forty 45 minute sermons on one cd (assuming the compression I got on small samples would pan out on 45 minute sermons) Then I could archive a lot of sermons to a 5 cent cd instead of 2 sermons per tape. So now I need to setup my latptop and try it one sunday. If the laptop gets decent sound then I assume that a desktop system with a decent sound card will only do better. Has anyone done things similar to this? What compression settings do you like? what program you using (linux or windows) to record before compression?