MP3 versus FLEC and OGG (in Off-topic)

I'm thinking about converting all my music files to a new format, something open source perhaps. I have the proper software to do so, I'm just wondering if I should take all my 128kbs MP3's and convert them to either FLEC or OGG format.

I understand that OGG does not maintain every scrap of sound the way FLEC can, but considering the source of the music I'm thinking that going OGG will help me save drive space without any penalty over the status quo.

Any thoughts from people who might understand better then me?

(Please add FLEC and OGG to the spell checker.)

I'm pretty sure you mean FLAC.

Remember, any re-coding should be done from original material; transcoding from mp3 will give you WORSE oggs than the mp3s you started with.

also, mp3 is basically the global language of the music player world -- anything else and you're trading compatibility away from l33tness. ipods, for example, don't play ogg.

"Remember, any re-coding should be done from original material; transcoding from mp3 will give you WORSE oggs than the mp3s you started with."

Jon beat me to it. We've all seen the movie Multiplicity and learned our lesson right? You don't make copies of copies!

Yeah I meant FLAC.

As for OGG, when I went to make this post I originally didn't even consider it. I figured it would be a bad idea. Didn't think I would get flamed so quickly about it though.

My problem with MP3 currently is it's license. If you are ever asked to make an audio renderer then you would (or should) know that making anything that plays MP3 format is not legal unless you pay money to the license holder. The amount of software that legitimately supports MP3 is fewer then the legitimate ones I believe. Also MP3 converters are almost always placed as optional add-ons which annoys the heck out of me.

In some respect I think the open source alternative would be more portable.

I think converting from anything to FLAC doesn't lose much if any quality as its a lossless format. (Someone geekier than I could back me up or discount me.) The issue with FLAC files is that they tend to be huge, I originally made my classical music FLAC, but it took far too much space. So everything is MP3 on my computer now (not that quality matters much to me anyway, i tend to only listen to these things on my laptop and car stereo).

"making anything that plays MP3 format is not legal unless you pay money to the license holder"

Are you sure about that? Open source players like XMMS will play mp3s right out of the box and there isn't anything in their faq or user guide that says the app is encumbered that way.

I think it's actually just the encoders that get charged a license fee.

Yeah, it's the person who writes the program that plays the MP3 who is in danger. It's safe to simply use these programs, so don't start freaking out about it.

maybe just getting a bigger hard drive would help :)

Or you could avoid encoders that use the Fraunhofer code, for which there is a license, and use an encoder based on LAME, which is released under open source. lame.sourceforge.net gives a list of software using LAME

And going back to your original question ogg vorbis will be smaller than the quality equivalent mp3. FLAC is lossless and so bigger. But what's the cost of storage nowadays? And Jon is exactly right about player support.