Ogg Vorbis

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
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It's a method of audio compression that's been around longer than MP3 if I remember correctly. There's still debate on whether it's better than MP3 or not.

Info here: Ogg Vorbis
 

Nemesis77

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2001
7,329
0
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Ogg Vorbis is an audio-compression method comparable to mp3. It's key-difference when compared to mp3 is that it's 100% royalty and patent-free. Meaning: anyone can use it freely, without a need to pay Frauenhofer/Thomson Multimedia one penny.
 

Nemesis77

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2001
7,329
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To my knowledge it's quality is more or less similar to mp3. It does some thing better than mp3, and some things it does worse. Overall, it's more or less similar. The specs are still being tweaked, it hasn't yet reached 1.0 release.
 

DerProfi

Senior member
Jan 11, 2001
912
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The quality of Ogg files can be quite good, and like someone else said it's royalty-free. The huge problem is that AFAIK there isn't a single piece of portable audio hardware that supports it, so forget about playing Ogg files anywhere other than on your PC. IMHO, it will never be more than a niche player compared to MP3, much to the chagrin of your average Slashdotter :)
 

rahvin

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
8,475
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<<Ogg Vorbis is an audio-compression method comparable to mp3. It's key-difference when compared to mp3 is that it's 100% royalty and patent-free. Meaning: anyone can use it freely, without a need to pay Frauenhofer/Thomson Multimedia one penny. >>

MP3 is an open standard on format of a compressed music file. The method of accomplishing that compression is patented. This is why LAME generates MP3's royalty free, they wrote their own compression that is MP3 compliant and isn't based on Frauenhofer's work, and it only took them like 3 years to get something workable with quality that gets better every release.