[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [ProgSoc] Better than an iPod shuffle?



On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 00:02 am, 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
 ] in any meaningful way, its just used by people like you to complain
 ] for no good reason.

 So it fails for two reasons, neither of which is technical.  Just
 because something is popular doesn't mean it's good - look
 at VHS, Cadbury, Friends or Britney.

 My reasons for complaining about iPod's crappy quality may not
 be a good reason in your view, but that doesn't mean it's not a
 good reason (in a normal person's view, say).

 ] Hrm, well actually, they probably *would* -but my point is get
 ] over the failed format that is Ogg. The future is AAC.

 AAC?  The future of proprietary / DRM-enabled music may well lie
 with AAC, and the future preferred format on your preferred and
 relatively low-quality media player may well be AAC, but again I'm
 not sure if that equates to reality, or rather, the future that I'll
 be living in.

 I'm seeing more new models of media players coming out with
 ogg/vorbis than with AAC.  I speculate that this is partly because
 the latter is burdened with patents and has accompanying licence
 costs, and that the former is being bundled primarily because people
 are asking for it.  The fact it's a small cost to implement probably
 helps sway the manufacturers.  (Also speculative.)

 ] Also, if you had bothered to read my email, you would have realised I
 ] was talking about the delay in accessing song information. i.e. Track

 Ah, yes, indeed.  I just thought it was a nice segue.

 On a related note, I should apologise for the factual error in my
 previous post.  There was in fact at least three, and maybe as many
 as seven extremely drunk women at that particular Irish pub out at
 Parra.  It's rare that I venture west of Leichhardt, but if that's
 how the poor people live, it's no wonder ... (they have so many
 kids / always have a smile on their face / have so many car
 accidents / insert your own pithy observations here).

 ] Name, Artist, Album, etc, because the player has to access each file
 ] individually rather than say parse an XML file with all the pertinent
 ] data. Big difference there.

 Indeed.  And I'm willing to wear that cost in order to not have to
 install software on any machine I'm attaching my 'transparent
 USB drive' device to.  There's any number of solutions to this problem
 (such as index the file as it lands on the drive - hooks into the API
 should be easy when you own the API - and if you're powered from
 the USB cable, the cost is negligible here - as one example).

 ] You make the assumption that I'm so old fashioned and stupid to use
 ] something as retarded as LAME MP3. How very 10 years ago. I like
 ] playing my music through my stereo (digital connection via Airport
 ] Express/ TOSlink), so I encode at 320kbps in mpeg4-aac, which by the
 ] way has a future in the HD-DVD format arena. I don't seem to recall
 ] Ogg there, but correct me if I'm wrong.

 You seem to be under the belief that I'm so old-fashioned as to
 think that just because a number of people find something acceptable,
 that I'll somehow, magically, acquire the belief that it's optimal.

 Just because you've considered the technical and ethical aspects of
 your decision and concluded that AAC is the way to go, doesn't mean
 that thinking people will necessarily arrive at the same conclusion,
 or even that they share the same premises and requirements that
 you had to start with.

 For my own part, these days I rip my CD's in as FLAC's, from which
 repository it's straightforward to create various formats and quality
 sub-repositories to suit different devices - eg, back to WAV for
 burning to original-quality CD, dropping down to 64kbps ogg for
 sensible flash devices, etc.

 Correct me if I'm wrong, but the HD-DVD format has yet to win
 over BluRay?  I'm sure AAC sits well with the people who are about
 to engage in the laudable pursuit of making all their customers re-buy
 all their multimedia all over again.  But that's a whole other holy
 (and pointless) argument.

 And there's plenty of examples (Beta anyone?) of popular beating
 superior by a combination of marketing and ignorance.  The happy
 thing with this technology is that there's no physical limitations
 (eg. I have to buy one VCR or the other), only logical (software),
 and that makes the decision infinitely easier.

 Jedd.

-
You are subscribed to the progsoc mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a
message containing "unsubscribe" to progsoc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If you are having trouble, ask owner-progsoc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for help.