Regarding MP3 support

[Temlakos]

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 17:51:27 +0000, Jim Higson <jh at 333.org> wrote:
> Viraj-
> 
> I realise it's not what you asked (other posters have already seen to that),
> but maybe you would consider storing your music in a freer format, such as
> Ogg Vorbis?
> 
> These formats are not subject to software patents in the US, and as such
> RedHat can distribute the decoders.
> 
> Of course, it depends if you are making the files or not, what you want to
> play them on and who you share them with. Just thought I'd outline the
> alternative to mp3.

If I might be so bold: the problem might be that he is /acquiring/ MP3
files from servers that won't release them as Ogg/Vorbis. It's all
very well for us to decide to rip our audio CD's to Ogg/Vorbis instead
of MP3. But that doesn't help the user who acquires MP3's that are
distributed by certain multimedia Webmasters who, AFAIK, are the
original owners or have themselves acquired full distribution rights.
An example would be the excellent recording of the Soviet Army Chorus
singing the Hymn to the Soviet Union, available on the Web site
dedicated to that song's history.

The problem, of course, is that MP3 is a lossy compression scheme, so
that converting from MP3 to Ogg/Vorbis will cost the user in the
quality of the recorded sound.

That said, I solved the problem by downloading the RealOne Player for
Linux. It will play MP3's without a problem, and Real Media charges
nothing. Evidently they have a long-standing MP3 license, and their
business model allows them to distribute, free-of-charge, a player
that supports MP3, even on an open-source platform like Linux.
-- 
Temlakos <temlakos at gmail.com>