Uploading OGG tracks

J has pointed out to me that it would be a good idea if I also allowed Ogg Vorbis tracks to be uploaded to the site.

I think OGG is not so widely known as MP3 and a number of potential listeners may not be able to listen to these tracks. I know for sure it is not supported in the latest Winamp Lite (I had that and had to upgrade to Winamp Standard to play OGGs).

iTunes on the Mac doesn't support it by standard, but a freeware plugin exists for it. Quicktime (PC and Mac) doesn't support it. I don't know about support on Linux and other platforms.

The major thing maybe is that no hardware MP3 players such as iPods or MP3-discmen support it.

Summing up, would you like to be able to upload OGG files, with the risk that some people will not be able to listen to your tracks, but the benefit of having a smaller filesize?

quote:

Originally posted by thechronic I don't know about support on Linux and other platforms.

Nope, you have to download some plugins for linux. don't know about other platforms either.

I think you should indeed allow ogg files to be uploaded. Just add a little text explaining the file extension and post links to the winamp standard update and the freeware plug for iTunes should do the trick. Well worth the upgrade because it kicks the hell out of mp3s.

uhuh for windows, winamp plays it
for macintosh macamp and itunes (i believe) play it
for linux i don't know directly but it's also just a standard mp3 player there ...

about the portable mp3 players i don't know too much, but i don't really think lots of people here are planning to transfer productions here to their mp3 players, but if so they can always reconvert it ...

anyway, i'd strongly advice to make it possible just for listening abillities here, the better soundquality and the smaller filesize ...

it's just a thought

Not gonna do it after all

OGG popularity has greatly diminished since it hasn't been updated much since its invention. MP3 is now definitely the standard judging the abundance of portable & car MP3 players and support in hifi systems and standalone dvd players.

People expect to get MP3s anyway, there is one .wma file on the site and I got loads of complaints about it, even though it can be played with media player.

The smaller file size is not at all an issue anymore since the widespread adoption of broadband, recordable DVDs and 250GB harddisks

The quality of the MP3s is also up to scratch, certainly not worse than OGG if you use a good quality encoder such as LAME.

So it's going to MP3 only for the time being, guess nobody has problems with that