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Thoughts on the New Crop of Ogg Aware Players?
Steve Andre' asks: " Given the approaching season, I'm wondering if many have used and have opinions about the new Ogg Vorbis capable portable players out there. What I'd like to find is at least a CD/MP3/Ogg capable player which sounds good and doesn't do 'odd' things. What's it like out there? Can I finally roast my Ogg files and take them with me for a walk?"
I've used several commercially available Ogg Vorbis players, and I've not been pleased with any of them. On the other hand, I've used players for both the MP3 and WMV formats and have been very pleased.
Every Ogg Vorbis player I've used complains about the songs being encoded at too high of a bitrate, doesn't play at all claiming the files are corrupted, plays the audio in a very choppy way, or plays at a very poor quality. A ~192 kbps Ogg Vorbis file sounds very similar, played over the hardware I used, to a 64 kbps MP3 file. They're nothing but trouble, in my experiences, and consume batteries at least 30% quicker than their MP3 and CD playing counterparts.
I've been very pleased with the MP3 players I've used, which provide the same quality as I expect from playing such files on my computer.
But the winner has to be the WMV files which play at an exceptional quality and I've had absolutely no trouble. If I was recommending a format to someone to buy a player for, it would have to be WMV.
I respect the ideals of the open format that Ogg Vorbis is, but at this point in time, Ogg Vorbis players are worthless. Your money is much better spent on a MP3 or WMV player.
... I won't get one until it supports OGG Vorbis.
1) Ogg vorbis is only of relevance if you are a Linux user.
2) Linux is free, therefore it must be used by poor people.
3) Poor people do not buy hardware.
Therefore, since ogg vorbis is only relevant to people who do not buy, there is no point in implementing it.
Anyone else see the problems here ?