Slashdot interview re: vorbis

[Geoff Shang]

Hi Chuck:

As the bladeenc site says, they're not about low bit-rate encoding.  In my
personal opinion, lame shits all over it.  Bladeenc reckon they're better
at rates over 128K, but I'm yet to hear it.  Lame is certainly better at
128K and below.

I don't have the August 6 beta, didn't know there was one actually.  Lame
does do an OK job at encoding vorbis streams, but only to a point.  The
vorbis code up until this week from vorbis.org only really supported
encoding at higher bitrates like 160.  Lame will do lower, but I think it
uses it's MP3 engine and alters the output to encode vorbis instead.  Don't
get me wrong, it still sounds better than MP3 even produced by the same
encoder, but I don't think it sounds as good as vorbis will sound at the
same rates.

I'd look out for another version of lame to hit the streets soon as Tuesday
saw the release of vorbis 1.0beta2.  As you may recall from the interview,
this does 128K encoding and might even do 96, haven't looked.  The program
listed on vorbis.com for encoding has changed from an ogg-ised version of
lame 3.84alpha to a program called oggenc.  I haven't tried it yet but I do
intend to.

I might also say while I'm here that if you want a straight player, then
I'd probably recommend freeamp.  But, and it's a big but, you need the
latest available code.  There is a version labeled freeamp 2.1beta5vorbis,
but the vorbis support doesn't work with any other than the X gdk
interface.  freeamp 2.1beta6 will fix this, but last I checked, it hadn't
been released yet.  Until it is, you will have to checkout the CVS
code.  This does work, believe me.  I finally after 4 weeks of chasing it
and E-mails to freeamp developers, have a freeamp that will play ogg vorbis
in console mode.

If you want some content to listen to, check out www.vorbis.com.  There is
a They Might Be Giants song at 96K that sounds quite impressive, and it's
only 1.4 meg.

Geoff.


-- 
Geoff Shang <gshang10 at scu.edu.au>
ICQ number 43634701