[olug] $10 / 2GB MP3 player for Linux

[Christopher Cashell]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Eric P <eric.maillist at gmail.com> wrote:
> Christopher Cashell wrote:
>> However, I did notice that their i.Beat sonix does support Ogg.  And a
>> few days ago, SanDisk released an updated firmware for their Sensa
>> Clip media players that adds support for Ogg Vorbis.  Hopefully
>> they'll both continue with that, and increase their Ogg support.
>
> I was for several years a die-hard Ogg Vorbis man, and I have the Oggs to prove it.  Everything went to Ogg... out of
> principle.
>
> Then I finally swallowed the reality pill.  MP3 has long won this battle; Ogg was simply way too late to the scene.
> Virtually all portable audio devices, DVD players, car CD players, etc. support MP3.  Of the aforementioned Ogg is only
> supported on *some* portable audio devices.  I don't know of any DVD players or car CD players that support Ogg.  They
> may exist, but I'm sure it's a real small minority.

Who says the battle is over? ;-)

I'm not in this for a quick win, I'm in it for the long haul.  It's
true that mp3 is the de facto standard audio format right now, but
that doesn't mean it always will be.  As I mentioned above, I'm seeing
more and more devices that are starting to include Ogg support.  Yes,
it's still less common than mp3 support, of course, but it's
improving.  And as devices become more and more capable, Ogg support
becomes an easy feature to add.  Heck, lots of the higher end devices
are starting to add FLAC support, too.

As for the non-music player devices that you mention, I've seen very
few that support AAC or WMA, either.  At least, right now.  But give
it time.  As the hardware improves, new stuff comes out, new features
are added, in a few years I expect lots of DVD players and car CD
players will play multiple formats.

> I wish it weren't this way, but that's the sad truth.

I see media players still in an early, pre-convergence phase.  I think
that 5 years from now, all of the current major audio formats (mp3,
Ogg, WMA, AAC (non-DRM, anyway, since Apple sucks with it's refusal to
license their DRM), and FLAC) will be supported by most media playing
devices.

> Eric

-- 
Christopher