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Xiph Releases Ogg Theora Alpha-3
ArcRiley writes "For more than a year Xiph hackers have been working on Ogg Theora, an improved version of On2's VP3 video codec. Alpha-3 includes several bitstream changes, VP3 to Theora "upgrade" utilities, and is now supported by Xine, MPlayer, and Real's Helix Player. We're nearing Beta-1 where the format will be frozen, fully documented, and it'll be ready for everyday use."
The #1 thing about open source compression standards is how unwilling most of the brand name players are to support them.
:-(
I've got a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox 3 and Ogg Vorbis is still not supported and I'm beginning to wonder if it ever will be.
If OV supported on the iPod?
The unwillingness by the major brands to support all standards really leaves the consumer in the bind. I've got OV encoded music tracks and just can't listen to them on my Jukebox 3.
OK, Developers got my attention, because I am one.
I understood the word "Releases".
And that's about it, from that title.
All I can think of is Gary Larson's comic strip where it has the "what you say" vs. "what they hear" when you speak to a dog...
Blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah GINGER...
Check out the best P2P sharing website: MEDIACHEST.COM
I'm happy to announce at long last the release of theora alpha 3. This incorporates all the bitstream changes we wanted to make both for future encoder improvements and to permit lossless transcode of VP3 content. This is an important milestone for us on the road to a stable release.
As this is an alpha release we are again providing sources only. See the files section of downloads. This version requires libogg 1.1 or later and libvorbis 1.0.1 or later.
Also new in this release are a set of experimental tools in the win32 directory contributed by Mauricio Piacentini. This includes a transcoding tool for avi-encapsulated vp3 video which also works on linux.
We hope to not make any further incompatible bitstream changes, but this is still alpha code. Don't use this for content you're not ready to re-encode!
Thanks to everyone who contributed!
Why leading companies (eg. Creative, Apple, etc.) consistently fail to support, or even downright ignore the Ogg format - it's a good, clean, relatively non-lossy, and compact compression system. Why isn't it supported by the mainstream audio hardware manufacturers? With further enhancements, Ogg could be set to draw level with MP3 on a usability and listenability basis (is that a word? it is now!), only sadly not on a compatibility basis. We can only hope that Ogg will grow in popularity and so become a more prominent feature in the audio market.
While I'm sure this is a great codec, hasn't DivX pretty much sewn up the market on video codecs?
It's established, popular and gives tight compression. Can new codecs such as Theora break into this market to any significant degree?
Patriotism - the last resort of scoundrels.
Remember when MP3 was gaining popularity, Frauhofer just let everyone do whatever they wanted with players, encoders, etc... but once they realised they had something worth charging for they cracked down and their lawyers started sending everyone ceise and desist orders.
Ogg Theora is not encumbered by patents. It is, and will always be, royalty-free. To my knowledge it is the first video codec that can be implemented in truly Free Software.
If the subject is so domain-specific, perhaps this particular story doesn't merit posting on the front page of Slashdot.
Great, sad, point. But remember that as these devices get more complex, the time when some smart fella or lady throws linux on it get more near. Eventually, it won't matter that The Man doesn't support OV. As technology improves, the open source community has more places to innovate and use the best compression music among other things. It's only because of open sourcers creating such things as OV that arent the most useful now that we will ever have hope of such things being useful ever. I'm just glad they are ironing out wrinkles before I need their stuff to work.
On Monday morning, before 3 mountain dews? Very dumbed down.
:)
"Company releases beta stuff" would suffice.
Check out the best P2P sharing website: MEDIACHEST.COM
"People wo write files containing instuctions telling a computer what to do: the Xiph.Org Foundation releases (that is, allows the world to see) the 3rd alpha ("this will crash") of their strange named video ("moving pictures") encoding and decoding format Ogg Theora"
That dumbed down enough do you think? I'm worried about "encoding and decoding"....
The VP3 codec has one major drawback in my opinion. It's designed to keep a constant quality without paying attention to the file size. You can do constant bitrate on it, but you can't use multiple pass encoding with variable bitrates to get that balance of quality while having strict file size control (as with xvid). Is this something that is being added to Theora, does anyone know?
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
We're nearing Beta-1 where the format will be frozen, fully documented, and it'll be ready for everyday use.
Not only beta... but beta-1. And I assume that means there'll be a beta-2 and maybe a few more, before we get to RC1, and perhaps a few of those too. So, what decade is Release 1.0 planned for? And what exactly will happen with the "frozen, fully documented" codec between beta-1 and release?
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
My Rio Karma works just fine with Ogg. In fact, all I have on the thing is Ogg.
It works incredibly well, and with 20gigs for $250 shipped, and a Java-based interface program (which runs on FreeBSD and Linux), I'm very happy with it.
I've seen Theora be streamed with Icecast (check out the last Ogg Traffic), I've seen decent quality Theora video at 80kbps (320x240@30 even), and I've seen how well it works in an Ogg container, vs Quicktime/AVI which (unlike Ogg) were not designed for streaming.
But don't take my word for it, try it out for yourself! That's one of the reasons the Alpha releases are available to the general public. See what it can do, and prehaps, drop us a donation through Paypal or Affero to help the Theora hackers spend more time hacking.
Slashdot used to report on Ogg Tarkin (next-generation, wavelet-based video codec) a lot in the past, but since Theora showed up as a stop-gap solution, nobody's mentioning Tarkin. Is this project still alive?
"Company releases beta stuff" would suffice. :)
Hmmm a tough one, I guess there's a trade off going on here between "simple" and "true". Xiph is not a company, and this is an alpha release not a beta release. On the plus side, the word you liked before "release" is still valid.
You are right that the 'brand names' don't support these formats very well. This is why you should probably look past the brand names and check out the little guys...
You forget that the idea of these devices, are to do one thing, and do it well. To keep things efficient and cheap, they design the device to be built from well engineered specifications.
You CAN (And they do) make more general hardware devices, driven by software, but ultimately the need for that extra juice is all cost that will be passed to you, the consumer.
I, for one, dont wants a "do everything" device that is overcost and underpowered. I just want an mp3 player that is affordable, that plays Mp3's really good.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
There was nothing more frustrating over the last year than trying to get either Xine or MPlayer working on my Linux box. That was an utter headache.
Linux has many well put together packages, Multimedia is not one of them.
Ultimately I gave up on those players and just play movies on my windows box with Media Player, Quicktime, and a host of installed codecs. I suppose the college kids need a few more years to work with MM on Linux before it matures.
That's Creative Labs for you. I'm still waiting for them to make release quality (i.e. not beta ones a year after the fact) Windows 2000 drivers for my DXR3. It works great under NT4, but I haven't used that for years. This issue and their crappy drivers for the Soundblaster Live on SMP systems has convinced me never to buy their products again. They don't fix known problems with their existing products - your only hope is that splashing out more money for the next generation will resolve the problem. They're a very poor company.
I have a positive feeling about Ogg Theora. Three days ago I installed binary only DivX for linux (closed source), and I am not very happy about it. I want video codec at top performance, optimized for CPU and maybe even 64bit platform later this year, not a 32bit binary pentium-only crap with possible vulnerabilities.
There you are, staring at me again.
- Rio Karma is probably the most popular OGG portable.
- Roku Soundbridge is a great home player that supports both OGG and Itunes DRMed AAC.
There are a bunch of other devices that support OGG, but those two are my favorites.you can always download redchair's software. that translates Oggs to MP3 on the fly, saving hassle. Not ideal, but until someone releases an open source version of the firmware....
Media is too important to use proprietary standards. All the formats should be open. They probably will be. Why use a proprietary standard when an open standard is as good or better?
Unfortunately, we are currently in a position where we have WAY TOO MANY media standards. You can load a ton of CODECs for Xine, and some site is going to use a bastard format or a "new and improved" version that doesn't work. What a hassle.
>> My ultraviolent Linux switch video.
instead of earlier when it was Xiphias, and they went and made a bloody movie using it.
back then it was impossible to avoid fakenickers.
Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
These things are not implemented yet, and will probobally not be useable on earlier Beta releases either, but as of Beta-1 the bitstream will not change in future-compatable ways. That is, while some optimisation fields won't be supported yet, no new fields will be added. Future players will always be able to play media encoded by the Beta releases. The same is not true for movies encoded with the Alpha libraries, so Beta-1 is really the first point where it should be used for distributed movies.
The 1.0 release will include support for atleast decoding these optional fields, it'll likely use them all too for encoding, and should be considerably higher quality than the VP3.2 codec from which it started with. It'll always, however, be able to upgrade VP3.2 media to Theora and, again, always be able to play media encoded with the Beta releases.
If you get Anapod Explorer (Red Chair Software), well Anapod is for the ipod but they make a creative version too..
It can convert your ogg files to mp3 on just your player on the fly during a transfer...keeping your OV files on the pc and the mp3 on the player..
It's a pretty decent feature, I think it's called audiomorph..
"It'll destroy you if you try to make it mean anything to anyone but yourself." - Henry Rollins
Do you have a reason to use the commericial DivX for Linux? I bet I'm not the only one wanting to know it..
Or you just haven't heard about lavc mpeg4 of ffmpeg? Or XViD? Those two are both much better options, not only because of their opensourceness but better quality IMHO -- especially lavc, although it's pretty unknown. lavc is used in xine and mplayer at least as main decoder, also ffdshow for windows is based on lavc [video] codecs. At least mencoder supports encoding with lavc, with some neat advanced options. AFAIK lavc is used as the main decoder (for mpeg4 atleast) because it's the fastest there is.
What you are descriping is the old divx3.1 codec that noone uses anymore.
The modern 4.0 and 5.x codecs are perfectly legal mpeg4 implementation, and divx-nextworks pays the licensing fees.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
WOW! This TV has words on it!
Linux on the iPod.
The Soundbridge does not support Apple's DRM, only unencumbered AAC files.
That thing looks pretty huge, so no thanks. And besides, if I wanted something with geek-appeal, I would buy Rio Karma
- Supports Ogg Vorbis
- Supports FLAC
- Has _Ethernet_ plug
- Has 20GB HDD
Neuros might have a Linux-version of it's software, but if the player appears as a regural HD to the OS, why would you need dedicated software?
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
1) Amount of legacy content for it, i.e. size of the addressed market to be weighed against 3)
2) One wants to establish a codec/format in the marketplace by injecting lots of devices out there (chicken and egg; no devices vs. no content)
3) Licensing and implementation cost (in licensing fees, silicon, man moths, etc.)
4) IPR risk
While on the surface, Ogg Vorbis sounds like a lucrative choice due to 3), there are other 3 points. Since no company or individual is taking responsibility over 4), it still remains as a risk to manufacture a device that includes OV. When licensing a codec from a company, the licensee gets an insurance that in case there are IPr issues, they will not get dragged down with it, but the IP licensor is.
So if OV gets widespread in terms of the sheer volume of content floating around, it solves only a part of the puzzle. It's much more likely that an unknown manufacturer takes 4) lightly than somebody like Apple or Creative, especially since Apple considers also 2) for their chioces.
- 4r0g
I was about to post the same thing, except I was going to add that this limitation can be easily overcome by a quick Google search for m4p2mp4.exe. Apart from that, the only formats I'd want supported that this doesn't handle are .ape (could just convert all my .apes to .flacs though) and .ac3 (for rips from music DVDs, I don't like to transcode them if I don't have to). I think I may have just found the digital-music-in-the-den solution for me, thank you (to the grandparent post)!
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
In reality, the royalty requirements of these formats makes GPL'ed software undistributable by anyone but the copyright holder (since it's the copyright holder's responsibility to enforce the copyright they're not going to sue themselves).
For both commercial and non-commercial uses, royalty-free codecs (such as VP3/Theora) will always top proprietary formats such as DivX.
open4free
Virgin Radio has been broadcasting in 96k ogg vorbis for quite a while nowe n/ogg .html
;))
http://www.virginradio.co.uk/thestation/list
The advantages for them are quite clear: no patent costs and more listeners who just want to support ogg (ok, maybe not many, but still
Ogg Vorbis supports arbitrarily many channels, as does AAC. Oh, and then thre's AC3, which natively understands how to optimally store 5.1 channels.
Too little, too late, and completely irrelevant.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
But you have to admit, the FFMPEG project guys are pretty fucking hardcore.
I give them all my love, despite the shaky legality of their work. And I will hoard their releases for various ISO MPEG standards as I have DeCSS for years to come so I can play with my oh-so-blasphemously encoded and decoded media.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
1) Some enterprising math/CS graduate student could probably try a drop-in replacement for some simple wavelet transformations instead of DCT. They might even create a block-level estimater that picks the correct wavelet/DCT kernel to use. I suspect you wouldn't have to touch too many other parts of it.
2) Arithmetic encoding is patented by Samsung. (gak!) And it's not like it's hard or anything. Huffman coding was shown to approach arithmetic encoding efficiency as the number of symbols increases, which usually means that distinction is not something to cry about. So we can deal with huffman vs. arithmetic coding for now until the patents expire, at which point everyone (info-zip, IJG, bz2, xiph.org) will switch to it to gain that extra 1-2%.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
FreshRPMS/a. is your BEST friend.
I'm 100% serious. And if you're lazy, install yum, point it at FreshRPMs, and "yum mplayer", "yum xine", "yum ogle" away.
That looks vaguely sexual. Sigh.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Has anyone managed to configure and compile any version of FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) after having installed all the prerequisites like ogg* and theora*? I get the errors below despite having the recommended version of ogg devel installed and despite having tried various versions of FLAC from 2001 tarball thru to current CVS FLAC.
./configure /usr/bin6/ginstall -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes /usr/i486-slackware-linux/bin/ld /usr/i486-slackware-linux/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r /usr/bin6/nm -B /usr/bin6/sed checking whether ln -s works... yes /usr/bin6/nm -B output... ok .libs ./configure: line 8616: syntax error near unexpected token `have_ogg=yes,' ./configure: line 8616: `XIPH_PATH_OGG(have_ogg=yes, { echo "$as_me:$LINENO: WAR
cd flac
checking for a BSD-compatible install...
checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for ld used by GCC...
checking if the linker (/usr/i486-slackware-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for
checking for BSD-compatible nm...
checking for a sed that does not truncate output...
checking how to recognise dependent libraries... pass_all
checking command to parse
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking dlfcn.h usability... yes
checking dlfcn.h presence... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for strip... strip
checking for objdir...
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.lo... yes
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... yes
checking whether the linker (/usr/i486-slackware-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
creating libtool checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes
checking for getopt_long... yes
NING: *** Ogg development enviroment not installed - Ogg support will not be bui
lt" >&5'
yes, it is
dnl check for ogg library
XIPH_PATH_OGG(have_ogg=yes, AC_MSG_WARN([*** Ogg development enviroment not inst
alled - Ogg support will not be built]))
AM_CONDITIONAL(FLaC__HAS_OGG, [test x$have_ogg = xyes])
if test x$have_ogg = xyes ; then
AC_DEFINE(FLAC__HAS_OGG)
fi
Scroogle
Subject pretty much says it all. It also works with linux via the rio music manager lite java program, and I've seen some free software ports but haven't tried them yet. The base has an ethernet port and the device is smaller than an ipod, 3x3. It's pretty nice.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
Rob Lanphier
Developer Support Manager
RealNetworks
I have an iRiver 20gb HD player (ihp-120) and it supports the OGG format. Awesome player too. Think iPod. It costs the same, holds the same, does everything the same, except supports OGG whereas Apple does not.
who was commenting on how MP3 is now in surround sound.
THAT'S what I consider too little too late.
God, the mods around here go off at the flip of a switch, without checking context.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Neuros might have a Linux-version of it's software, but if the player appears as a regural HD to the OS, why would you need dedicated software?
Because the Neuros as an on-board database of what songs are installed. Startup times are on the order of just a few seconds while that database is read instead of minutes while it does a search of the entire HDD.
You can drop non-music files on the Neuros as well and it will act as a portable drive.
Neuros might have a Linux-version of it's software, but if the player appears as a regural HD to the OS, why would you need dedicated software?
You can put the files on the harddrive or ramdisk, but if you want them to show up in the UI, you have to build the appropriate databases. The DB schemas are documented and there are a few different implementations:
- The windows-only one included with the Neuros
- Positron, a command line utility in Python.
- A Multi-platform GUI in Java, whose name escapes me.
As for size, it's larger than an I-Pod, and probably too big for most people's shirt pockets, but it's not all that big, and is fine in a beltcase, purse, or in the car, etc. Depends on how you want use it, I suppose. I chose the Neuros over the Karma mostly because of apparent company support: Digital Innovations actually seems to care if it works with Linux or the Mac, while Rio's support is pretty haphazard.I'm sorry but FLAC is not "off-topic" in an article about Theora. Theora is meant to be able to work with FLAC. FLAC is actually an important part of the Xiph.org project. If you haven't heard much about them, have a look at Ogg and FLAC
Scroogle
The Xiph.org project is producing some amazing software including Theora. One of the components of the Xiph.org multimedia architecture is FLAC - aka the Free Lossless Audio Coder. Could someone kindly moderate up the interesting question about how to configure FLAC? I'm not the only person who'd like to be able to start using Theora with FLAC but being prevented by configuration difficulties but right now the poster's question is languishing at -1 Off-topic when it's really totally on-topic.
Why oil price increase equals economic trouble (Score: Interesti
I thought the deal with IP was supposed to be that if you didn't defend it, you lost it. (Isn't that the excuse given for companies c&ding fan sites?) Shouldn't that prevent companies from pulling the trick Frauhofer did? I realise US courts are corrupt, but why didn't the European courts tell them to screw off?
Samsung's patent
Further information from the JPEG FAQ
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Samsung's patent
Each stakeholder has patented a method or slight spin on the basic technique, and so certain claims in each patent could possibly be applied to your arithmetic coder if they wanted to go after you.
You may need to wait 5-10 years before bundling an implementation in a package with high-visibility that isn't designed for educational or experimental use.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Please would a moderator kindly up-moderate this comment about FLAC configuration problems which has been wrongly moderated to -1:Off-Topic. FLAC is on-topic in an article about Theora because Theora is meant be able to work with FLAC . FLAC is actually an important part of the Xiph.org project. If you haven't heard much about them, have a look at Ogg and FLAC and please re-moderate the -1 comment so it might get some replies.
It is impressive to see an MPEG4-compliant codec being developed under the GPL-license that is of such a high quality that it rivals most commercial MPEG4-implementations.
The people working on XVID must be really talented and motivated to deliver such high quality code. In my opinion, it's a shame that these developers don't put their efforts in the Theora-project instead, because of the patent-related restrictions involved with the MPEG4-standard.
Couldn't it be possible to merge all NON-PATENTED technology from the XVID-project into the Theora-project?
That way, the Theora could benefit from XVID as much as possible, while remaining free from patent-restrictions.
"Oooh, does that mean we get to kick some puffy white mad zionist butt?"
My brain refused to continue parsing the patent text approximately here:
Hmm the link to http://www.riokarma.com/parishiltonsexvideotapedow nload.htm at the bottom of that page isn't at all suspicious.. who runs that site exactly? I hope not rio..
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
I've got a bit of a surprise for y'all... have you tried the incredible 'Internet TV' (real-time video streaming) available in the Media Library feature in winamp? The quality is really good; the streams are relatively low bitrate, and they stream beautifully. Well, Nullsoft's NSV format is really just MP3 + VP3. So that's what VP3 looks like, and I think it's pretty damn good -- this is by far the best streaming video I have ever experienced. If Theora is an improvement on this, looks like they're heading in the right direction for streaming video.
They already have your money. What incentive is there?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Or CNN/HNN, NBC/CNBC, FoxNews, and ABCNews TV blurp compatible: "New Open Source DVD format released! More after these messages" and ten minutes later "Open Source DVD ready to strike down Microsoft! More after these messages", then minutes later "Open Source DVDs in shops soon? More after these messages", and later "Would you buy Open Source DVDs? Go to our website to participate in our on-line poll. We have the results after these messages", and "Motion picture industry unsure about open source DVDs. We have an interview with a representative of the MPAA after these messages", and "Will open source DVDs reduce the amount of junk email on your computer? More after these message", etc., etc., never actually getting to the details and facts...
(btw, MPAA, is that like the AAA but then for movie breakdowns, or is it the motion picture division of AA?)
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
Since VP3 is a thrown away codec which was donated to open source community, how does VP3 compare to VP5 which On2 licensed to Chinese for their own DVD replacement EVD not long ago?
VP3 seems to be a very old technology. How does it compare to VP5 quality vice?
Hey, I've been waiting forever for Theora to pan-out like many others here, but I'm looking for stop-gap measures now...
Does anyone know of a program that will run on Unix machines, that will allow for encoding of video into VP3.2 format? Sure, the Dlls for Window, and the plugins for Quicktime work on the two big platforms, but what about the rest of us? I'd like to make some nice royalty-free videos right now, and perhaps convert them into Theora in a few years. Then again, based on the pace of development, maybe I won't get that chance.
Anyhow, many players can handle VP3.2 video playback (that includes MPlayer), but not encoding. Why haven't there been any simple encoders?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
The list of players that support Vorbis is fairly extensive and growing all the time. The iRiver iHP series all support .ogg off the shelf and IMHO are better (and cheaper) than iPods.
The Neursos of course supports it too. It is only slightly bulkier than the iRivers and iPods but has one awesome feature: it can transmit to any FM radio. It also has software to identify a song being played.
Here is a constantly updated list of supported players.
Oops, yeah, I forgot that that goody is Windows-only. But it might run under Wine. You could also authorize a friend's Windows box, copy your files over, convert, then deauthorize his box when you're done. Probably more trouble than it's worth.
Alternately, if you don't mind the possibility of a few compression artifacts, you could burn your iTunes to CD and then rip to unprotected AAC (or MP3, or whatever) on any platform (of the two which run iTunes, of course).
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Let's all calm down, apparently this was just a misunderstanding and the parent post was put in the wrong topic. ;)
I've just been doing a quick comparison of XviD and Theora at really, really low bitrates - like 40kbps - and Theora is far superior. It doesn't get very blocky, just fuzzy. And with XviD, even when parts of the image are static for several seconds they don't get any clearer like they do with Theora.
Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)