Ogg Vorbis audio encoding and streaming technology

[k4kyv]

Has anyone tried this?

How does it compare to Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Quicktime, etc?

Is it a memory hog?  Does the player automatically start a bunch of processes that slow down bootup time?

Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is a completely free, open, and unpatented professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.

http://www.vorbis.com/

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I've tried it. It's not new. Been around for something like 3-4 years. Works OK. Seems to compress more for similar sound quality in comparison to MP3. But that isn't surprising. MP3 is getting quite old and should be replaced with MP4 AAC which sounds better and compresses far more.

I have an Ogg plug-in for Quicktime, so no new player required.

[John Holotko]

It's been a favorite of Linux and Open Source geeks for quite some time.Most Open Sourse players tha tcan play mp3, wav, and video formats can play ogg just fine. As Steve pointed out, it's  on a par with mp3, it's not bad. Unfortunately not much media floating around out there is encoded in ogg. However, there's nothing to stop you from encoding your own stuff in ogg. Expect it to be pretty  much the same as mp3.   

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Don - I too have been using it for a few years. It's not bad, but it does have a bit more compression than I'd like.
Regards,
Joe N3IBX

[k4kyv]

Then what's the point in using it unless you just want to tinker with it?  I have seen it offered as an option by some streaming audio media, but they have always offered the same material in the mainstream formats as well.  I suppose I might download it if I wanted access to something and Vorbis were the only choice.

I prefer not to bloat my computer with software I will never or very rarely use.  I have plenty of disc space, but it's too easy to create conflicts between progs and other computer problems, especially since so much software contains unpredicted bugs as well as unwanted and/or undesirable hidden features.

[John Holotko]

Then what's the point in using it unless you just want to tinker with it?  I have seen it offered as an option by some streaming audio media, but they have always offered the same material in the mainstream formats as well.  I suppose I might download it if I wanted access to something and Vorbis were the only choice.

It's open source.  You can modify the code, build software that reads, writes in Ogg format and not have to worry about being hauled into court for a patent violations. Pl;us it's another format  available when and if needed. The more choice the better.

I prefer not to bloat my computer with software I will never or very rarely use.  I have plenty of disc space, but it's too easy to create conflicts between progs and other computer problems, especially since so much software contains unpredicted bugs as well as unwanted and/or undesirable hidden features.

It's not much bloat. Most players have plug-ins (code that links to your existing player app to add functionality) that can be used to make the player app Ogg capable. Installing the plug-ins requires very little disc space and you have a player capable of hanndling Ogg if and when needed. The Ogg files themselves are  no more bloated than mp3's.  Additionally there is a lot of Ogg related stuff, players, recorders, media that is written as open source and released  under  licenses like the GPL, LGPL, etc, The open source  community is pretty reliable as far as  releasing software that  can be downloaded for free, is reletively stable, and is generally free from undesireable features such as adware, spyware, scumware, rootkits etc.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

What is bloat? You can by 160 GB drives for 30-40 bucks.  Most RAM is super cheap. I don't get it.

[John Holotko]

What is bloat? You can by 160 GB drives for 30-40 bucks.  Most RAM is super cheap. I don't get it.

Exactly. With inexpensive high capacity storage solutions available these days it's hard to "bloat" a system.  A couple years ago I setup a bual boot Linux/Windows desktop box for  my dad. It came with an 80 Gb drive and I added an additional 200 Gb. Two years later the heaviest used partition on that machine.is only 22% filled.  I had a spare 200 Gb disk that I put into one of my servers.  Other than some backup files I have yet to find anything to store on it.  This is not to  mention RAID storage arrays, Flash driuves, external USB hard drives, DVD+R and DVD+RW. It's pretty hard to bloat a machine up to full capacity these days.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

To me, regardless of the amount of drive space or RAM available, bloat is needless/useless stuff. If it's software I need and use, it's not bloat. I never understood the fear of computer users to have more than one application of a particular genre (i.e. video player or audio player, etc). Guess it goes back to the old DOS days when you could only run one program at a time?

[k4kyv]

I don't worry about filling up disc space.  My main internal HDD is 120 gb, plus I have an external 100 gb for backup. I think I am presently using less than 25% of my internal HDD.

But more than once I have installed software and then right away one or more of my other programs that had never given any trouble would start freezing up or otherwise quit working right.  On occasions I searched the web and found patches to fix a known specific bug, but other times, like my typical radio problems, it is something weird that no-one else has ever heard of, and I end up uninstalling the software (and even that doesn't always clean out all the offending files).

I once used McAfee anti-virus, which was costing me about $35 a year.  I used it until it started getting buggy and half the time I had to disable it to make something else run, and other times I would discover that it had disabled itself.  I was spending hours on their website troubleshooting the A-V program and keeping it going.  Other people were reporting the same problems I was having.  When the last subscription ran out, I uninstalled it and now use Avast free version.  Right away it caught several virus files that had escaped Mcafee.  But now it's been  almost a year since I uninstalled Mcafee, and I still ocasionally find a remnant McAfee file on my machine.

Plus a lot of software ends up having spyware, trojans, etc deliberately embedded.  And that's not just in stuff you download off the web.  Installing questionable software is about the same as surfing porn sites.

So I nevert install software that I am not certain I'll have a use for.

One of the best things I ever did install was a custom HOSTS file.  It keeps more rubbish out of my computer than all my security software combined.

[John Holotko]

Simple adding applications software to the system should not break other software unless either the operating system is poorly designed, defective, or, the application(s) being added are  loaded with viruses, trojans, and other malicius applications which usurp the systems resources and prevent other apps from accessing them.

This is one of the reasons I don't (or very rarely) run Windows. I prefer to use Linux or BSD and open source applications. I have never had any problems with trojans, viruses, ot spyware using open source software. Additionally, the source code is included with the application so it's entirely possible to examine it,or have someone in the know examine it, to look for hidden malware or insecurities before compiling and running it.  This is not to say there can't be problems with open source but, I've been running open source software since the early 1990's and never ever had any problems or headaches commonly associated with Windows. This is not to say Windows is all bad. I thinkl they have made some vast improvements with XP. Hopefully Vista will address and fix even more  problems but I won't hold my breath.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Excactly what I thought John. Get rid of that crappy OS and your problems will descrease drastically and maybe vanish.

[John Holotko]

Excactly what I thought John. Get rid of that crappy OS and your problems will descrease drastically and maybe vanish.

I agree totally. Most people who have never been exposed to any operating system but Windows fail to realize how well a computer system can work when run with a well designed operating sytem and well written software. `The frequent need for reinstallation, reboots, frequent episodes of crashes and instability,and the ease in which spyware can be implemented should not be a part of a good operating system.  I have Linux, BSD, and Solaris machines that have been connected to the Internet and have been running for years without ever needing a reboot much less a re-installation of the OS.  And back in the late 70;'s early 80's when I was primarilly involved with VAX/VMS machines they would run and were rock stable and everhardly ever required to be rebooted.  This is why I frequently say,. the problem is not the hardware, it';s Windows.