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Ogg Vorbis

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See also: Xiph.Org | Audio Formats | OGG | FLAC

Home Page: http://www.vorbis.com

A free audio compression technology and software growing quickly in use. It's open-source audio encoder and audio streaming system is an excellent alternative to MP3 both in terms of better sound quality and its nature as a patent-free software with no license restrictions. MP3 and other systems have a variety of restrictions.

OGG is Best?

According to most tests, Ogg Vorbis is the Best Compressed Audio Format and for most applications/music types. It is under continual development and future versions are expected to continue to improve sound quality to file size ratio. Many other services have been criticized for producing a great format and then sitting on it.

However, OGG may not be the best choice in every circumstance. For instance, it is not very good at encoding low-bitrate audio (something its sister project Speex will address).

Ogg Vorbis can encode files at a wide variety of bitrates from sub-16kbps to 256kbps, and in stereo, mono, or 5.1 surround sound. This includes both Variable and Fixed Bitrate Compression for streaming.

What plays .OGG files?

Creating OGG files

Due to its ease, quality, and freedom from license issues, Ogg Vorbis is becoming one of the most common available audio encoding options.

This list is not exaustive

Also see Ripping CDs.

Who distributes OGG files?

There are a few ways to get hold of OGG Vorbis files as well as places dedicated to trade these files.

  • Grab a lossless source (e.g. CD, WAV, AIFF, FLAC) and encode this to OGG Vorbis.
  • Search the Internet (e.g. the Usenet group alt.binaries.sounds.ogg).
  • Visit the 'OGG Vorbis' or 'OGG' chatrooms on P2P networks.

Hardware OGG players?

Some MP3 players are known to play OGG Vorbis by default. Others need a firmware update. The majority just doesn't play OGG Vorbis at this time of writing. Here are a list of players supporting OGG Vorbis files:

This list is not exhaustive.

  • COWON IAUDIO -
    • FLASH MP3 - U3, F1, G3, G2, 5, CW200, CW100s, CW100
    • HDD MP3 - X5, M5, M3
  • iRiver - H320, H340, IHP 120, IHP 140. PMP120, IFP 790, IFP 795, IFP 799.
  • MPIO - HD200, FG100.
  • IOPS - MFP 325, MFP 350.
  • JOS - MP130.
  • VICTORY - Musicbox.
  • SAMSUNG - YP-T5V. YP60V.

Note: do not convert OGG vorbis to MP3, WMA or visa versa. The conversion process is lossy and each conversion degrades quality. Converting an OGG Vorbis file to a MPEG 1 Layer 3 (MP3) file or vice versa always means a loss of quality and is discouraged. You must chose when the file is first taken from its original source and not after.

Sister Projects

Vorbis is the first in a series of planned Ogg multimedia coding formats as part of Xiph.org's Ogg multimedia project.

Technical Details

Vorbis targets general-purpose compression for mid to high quality, (8kHz-48.0kHz, 16+ bit, polyphonic) of audio and music at fixed and variable bitrates from 16 to 128 kbps/channel. Sound quality is considered to be superior to MPEG-1/2 audio layer 3 (MP3) at all bitrates. Vorbis competes with latest WMA, MP3Pro and with MPEG-4 audio (AAC).

Links

Related Topics

This article is based on a public domain infoAnarchy article: Ogg_Vorbis iA