This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 07:54:03 -0800
To: svlug@svlug.org
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
Subject: [svlug] .ogg format and related stuff
Last night at Harry's Hofbrau, I mentioned a non-patent-encumbered,
technically superior replacement for MP3 format -- and realise that
the list at large may be interested. First off, see: http://www.xiph.org/
These guys are geniuses, but they're slightly nuts. The names! The
audio format is called Ogg, the codec is Ogg Vorbis, and the group that
is doing all this is named Xiphophorus. Oh, and the collective name for
their multimedia projects is OggSquish.
Information on the related audio software is here:
http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/
FAQ here: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/faq.html
Background here: http://www.xiph.org/about.html
Related site: http://www.vorbis.com/
The software is already available precompiled in Debian-unstable
("woody").
This is particularly significant because the owners of the MP3 patent
have announced that they're going to start pursuing royalties towards
the end of this year.
Also, when they have their audio work finished, they're expected to turn
their attention to video (including streaming), and _that_ could be
spectacular.
Oh, and Xiphophorus's Moaning Goat Meter must be seen to be believed:
http://www.xiph.org/mgm/
===
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 14:06:05 -0800
To: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] how to re-encode mp3 files?
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
begin hvrietsc@yahoo.com quotation:
> any hints on which program i can use to re-encode my mp3 files
> to a lower bitrate (say from 128 to 64 or 32 or 16)?
oggenc will re-encode MP3 files to Ogg format very nicely, with output
bitrate specified using the -m or --mode option, with modes as numeric
arguments from 1 to 6 (default = 3), corresponding to the following:
Mode | Bitrate
1 | N/A
2 | 128 kbps
3 | 160 kbps
4 | 192 kbps
5 | 256 kbps
6 | 350 kbps
You can get oggenc at http://www.vorbis.com/download.html .
You'll of course want to start converting to Ogg format because of the
rapidly worsening MP3 patent situation:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/10/13/vorbis.html
===
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 14:33:17 -0800
From: Don Marti <dmarti@zgp.org>
To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
Cc: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] how to re-encode mp3 files?
On Thu, Nov 09, 2000 at 02:06:05PM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> You'll of course want to start converting to Ogg format because of the
> rapidly worsening MP3 patent situation:
> http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/10/13/vorbis.html
http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/broadcast.html says that Internet
broadcasters will have to start getting licenses at the the end of the
this year, not the end of 2001.
If you have a net radio station, or want to start one, start
experimenting with Ogg Vorbis now.
===
From: "David E. Fox" <dfox@tsoft.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 19:01:37 -0800
To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Re: [svlug] how to re-encode mp3 files?
Cc: svlug@svlug.org
On Thursday 09 November 2000 14:06, you wrote:
> oggenc will re-encode MP3 files to Ogg format very nicely, with output
> bitrate specified using the -m or --mode option, with modes as numeric
> arguments from 1 to 6 (default = 3), corresponding to the following:
Currently, though, it won't read mp3 files directly (hence the need to
decompress with mpg123 or similar) and it doesn't seem capable of reading
from stdin. Thinking that it might recognize a '-' as standard input, it
doesn't, it thinks it should be a filename. For those strapped for temporary
space to store the decompressed files, this is not nice.
Also, the supported bitrates (while nice) aren't very helpful for people who
like lower-quality stuff (i.e., 32 kbps is fine for old-time radio programs,
for instance) and encoding them in ogg format at even the lowest bitrate
would produce very large files by comparison.
And for us who still have underpowered computers - ogg seems to require more
CPU horsepower than mp3, all else being equal. With mp3 being a relatively
widely known standard, there are many available players, with mpg123 being
one of the possible good choices for players that don't need a whole lot of
CPU. So far, with ogg there is only one player available. I expect that to
change soon as the deadline for mp3 royalties comes to pass.
When is the "burn all MP3's" day? :)
====
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 10:21:25 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
To: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] how to re-encode mp3 files?
begin David E. Fox quotation:
> Currently, though, it won't read mp3 files directly....
Um, yes it does. On the download page for the Win32, Linux x86, and
BeOS encoders: "An encoder will create Ogg Vorbis files (.ogg) out of
wave format audio (.wav) or MP3 (.mp3) audio files."
> ...it doesn't seem capable of reading from stdin.
Incorrect. Use "-", as explained in oggenc -h.
> And for us who still have underpowered computers - ogg seems to
> require more CPU horsepower than mp3....
Which you no doubt understood when you read the fine manual: It hasn't
yet been optimised, and has debug code. Remember that all the user-level
software to manipulate this stuff is brand new and beta-ish.
Fortunately, the data format is not.
> So far, with ogg there is only one player available.
Nope. Plug-ins for several popular players.
===
From: "David E. Fox" <dfox@tsoft.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:30:22 -0800
To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Re: [svlug] how to re-encode mp3 files?
Cc: svlug@svlug.org
On Friday 10 November 2000 10:21, you wrote:
> Um, yes it does. On the download page for the Win32, Linux x86, and
> BeOS encoders: "An encoder will create Ogg Vorbis files (.ogg) out of
> wave format audio (.wav) or MP3 (.mp3) audio files."
That's what it is supposed to do but it won't work. I tried several times to
get it to read from stdin, but that didn't work either.
> Nope. Plug-ins for several popular players.
Well yes, I'm aware of that. The xmms plugin is one, among many choices, but
there's only one encoder. Perhaps that is what I meant. That'll likely change
once it becomes a more popular file format, which is likely going to be
inevitable.
===
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:42:14 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
To: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] how to re-encode mp3 files?
begin David E. Fox quotation:
> That's what it is supposed to do but it won't work. I tried several
> times to get it to read from stdin, but that didn't work either.
Try again under strace. If you still think your problem is real, report it
to the developers.
===