Playing MP3s

[Temlakos]

Patrick W. Barnes wrote:
> On Tuesday 11 July 2006 13:32, Temlakos <temlakos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>The issue with MP3 files is not technical at all, but legal.
>>
>>MP3 is a patented algorithm, and therefore, closed-source.
>>
>>Fedora /will not/ distribute anything that plays closed-source stuff. In
>>some jurisdictions where Fedora is accessible, that would be illegal.
>>
>>So what many of us end up doing is either (a) installing a third-party
>>module to enable XMMS to play MP3 files anyway, or (b) do what you did:
>>build XMMS yourself, with the MP3 capabilities preserved.
>>
>>Now anyone else here will likely tell you to search the archives of the
>>Fedora Users' list for the full context of the discussion of MP3 files.
>>And I will say that perhaps the MP3 issue has been "talked to death."
>>
>>But before I send you to the archives, I'd like to say a few words about
>>something that's simply missing from the MP3 debate, and that is: /where
>>do MP3 files come from/.
>>
>>Some contributors to this list impress me as having the opinion that
>>most, if not all, MP3 content comes from individual users who convert,
>>or "rip," Audio CD content into this closed-source format, "just because
>>all the players out there play MP3." I wouldn't know about the reality
>>of that situation. I have never played /any/ music on any device other
>>than my computer or an Audio CD or DVD player. (Am I the last remaining
>>non-adopter of iPod or iTunes? Maybe. I don't really care.) My musical
>>tastes are somewhat more limited than those of most people here, so that
>>I am more likely to tune in a radio station that plays "my kind" of
>>music than to try to record single tracks from CD albums to another
>>medium. So this "format war" doesn't really affect me.
>>
>>My advice to anyone who /does/ have Audio CD content that they would
>>like to play "on the road" is to /abandon/ MP3 as a format and instead
>>look for devices that use the /OGG Vorbis/ format. Now /that/ format is
>>another "lossy compression format," and a lot of software I have seen
>>that will read MP3 will also read OGG Vorbis. The difference is that OGG
>>Vorbis is open-source, while MP3 is closed. OGG Vorbis is just as good
>>as is MP3 for the purpose of copying Audio CD content to a more
>>"portable" format. So if /you/ have the original, uncompressed (or
>>compressed by lossless compression only) sound content and want to know
>>where to rip it to, rip to OGG Vorbis. You'll save yourself a lot of
>>headaches.
>>
>>The problem is that a lot of /original multimedia content/ is in the MP3
>>format. Users who want access to /this/ kind of file have a problem:
>>they often can't access the content in any other format. MP3 is all they
>>have access to. And if they /could/ convert MP3 back to WAV (which is
>>the uncompressed format) and then to OGG Vorbis, they're going to lose
>>some parts of the file that they can't afford to lose--because MP3 and
>>OGG Vorbis differ /significantly/ in those parts of the original sound
>>that they discard. (I'll give you an example: some years ago I acquired
>>an excellent recording of the Red Army Chorus singing the State Hymn to
>>the USSR. That's an MP3 file. Now if I choose not to get an MP3-friendly
>>routine for my copy of XMMS, then what do I do with that file? Play it
>>only on a Windows box? Somehow I don't think that's exactly in the
>>spirit of Linux.)
>>
>>That problem isn't going away any time soon. The resolution, if it
>>happens at all, will come /only/ when open-source devotees become a big
>>enough "market share" that multimedia Webmasters will at least make
>>their content available in open-source formats--say, "Click here for the
>>MP3 and there for the OGG Vorbis file." And of course it illustrates one
>>of the last hurdles that the open-source movement now faces: the
>>overwhelming prevalence of closed-source multimedia formats on the
>>Internet today.
>>
> 
> 
> This is among the best answers I've seen to the MP3 question.  :-)
> 
> For more on Fedora's stance, there are some new pages up on the wiki:
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia
> 
> 

Thanks for the link. I used it, and followed the link to xiph.org.

They do a good job describing third-party /software/.

But Audie Audiophile needs a directory of third-party /hardware/ that 
will play open-source files. And anyone who makes such hardware would be 
well-advised to get a listing on such a directory--or if no such 
directory exists, to create one.

While I'm on the subject: where are the tools for creating your own 
(perhaps non-encrypted) DVD from video content that you have created 
yourself or acquired elsewhere--including the Web? Why should Windows 
users have all the tools, and open-source devotees have none?

Temlakos