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Re: [ProgSoc] Better than an iPod shuffle?



On 7/11/05, arp <arp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 11, 2005 at 12:02:49AM +1000, Andrew Halliday wrote:
> > >  Yes, but the iPod fails on several fundamental levels - it fails with
> > >  oggs,
> >
> > ogg is a P.O.S Not enough people use it, it's not being used by anyone
<snip>
> Your argument (that ogg is a POS) will get a whole lot more believable
> when you learn to seperate popularity from merit.
> 
> arp

OK, I'll pay that. I should also be clearer - we're talking about ogg
vorbis vs. aac. ogg is just a container (which could hold aac if some
programmer rolled over in his/her grave). </bleedingobvious>

If I encode my music, which is no easy task considering the amount of
music I have, I want to make sure I can use it on any device and
anywhere that I want. AAC can guarantee me that. It's supported by
virtually every portable music player I've seen so far, it's supported
in the next generation HD-DVD format, and it is supported natively by
the media players in Mac (my main OS) and Windows and the players I
use under linux.

Sure, Ogg-Vorbis will beat AAC on bitrate, but if I'm encoding at
320kbps AAC, do I really care that much? I like my audio much like CK
likes his video -maximum quality using compression that's as non-lossy
as you can get for the space-saving trade off. Ogg might be better,
but AAC is close enough to be good enough for me, especially
considering the support for the format.

I think the problem is that Ogg missed the boat. It was a long time
before a version came out that didn't need an FPU to decode an
ogg-vorbis file, and as such in many devices it's either difficult, or
not at all possible to integrate support for the format into a
firmware update for the device because of the hardware constraints.

Ogg might be better that AAC in bit rate usage and some other ways as
well, but for me, if it isn't supported widely enough, and if it isn't
going to become a dominant format (I do not want to re-encode my
collection anytime soon) then I really don't see the point. It'll
perpetuate its own existence much like Betamax did compared to VHS
through evangelists such as yourselves who like the technology and
encourage people to use it, but for me, unless something really makes
it take-off, and that is something I just can't see happening, I don't
see the point thinking about it too hard. ogg-vorbis lost, AAC won.
(this battle anyway. we'll see what happens in the war over the next
few years)

-Andi.

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