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posted by martyb on Thursday May 04 2017, @01:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the lets-party-like-its-1999 dept.

MP3 decoding was already free and got recently included in Fedora. But now, encoding is also free according to Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS: "On April 23, 2017, Technicolor's mp3 licensing program for certain mp3 related patents and software of Technicolor and Fraunhofer IIS has been terminated." The Wikipedia MP3 article confirms that.

So, do you still use an MP3 library or have you switched to another format or means of listening to music such as (spying built-in) streaming services?


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:08PM (7 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:08PM (#504402)

    And since over 95% of people listen to their music collection on the go (car, gym, run, work), and on basic playback devices, it doesn't freaking matter...

    You can keep spouting nonsense about what perfect people with perfect hears in perfect listening situations might be able to distinguish, or just realize that most "music" and listening situations make every codec sound identical, but only MP3 is universally supported.
    Convenience over perfection, people ... Can't you learn from Apple's success?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:47PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:47PM (#504431)

    Nobody is talking about "perfection". And what the hell does Apple has got to do with anything here?

    Some of us care that lossy compression degrades audio quality, and we would like to strike a decent bargain between file size and audio quality.

    If you don't care, then be happy and kindly bug off.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 04 2017, @06:01PM (5 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday May 04 2017, @06:01PM (#504445)

      Did you read the first two posts of the thread, or was your Monster Oxygen-free-silver triple-shielded directional audio cable in the way?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @08:03PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @08:03PM (#504506)

        Go learn something about information theory and signal processing. Maybe then you won't come across like an ignint knucklehead.

        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 04 2017, @09:46PM (3 children)

          by bob_super (1357) on Thursday May 04 2017, @09:46PM (#504549)

          ... the god of irony is having a good day, as most of my screen real estate is code and debug for my real-time JPEG2000 decoder, including PSNR measurements.

          When I point out that nitpicking about barely audible compression differences is absurd, because very few people could potentially notice in their daily listening (which cannot be contested), assuming that I don't know what I'm talking about is both an absurd jump, and a good reflection on your own narrow-minded approach to the question. Did I trigger you?

          • (Score: 2) by Zyx Abacab on Friday May 05 2017, @03:54AM (2 children)

            by Zyx Abacab (3701) on Friday May 05 2017, @03:54AM (#504667)

            I hate to interrupt the bitch-slapping festival, but there is a lot of [coresv.net] actual [hydrogenaud.io] data [ietf.org] on this subject.

            Opus - and several other modern codecs - perform measurably better than MP3, end of story. Even if MP3 is somehow "good enough", the alternatives are still demonstrably superior according to hard data.

            And, of those alternatives, at least Opus and Vorbis are unencumbered by patents.

            This is a technical discussion site, for god's sake. Shame on you both.

            • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 05 2017, @06:08AM (1 child)

              by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 05 2017, @06:08AM (#504707)

              Why shame on me?
              up the thread:
              epitaxial: 9 out of 10 people can't tell 192kbps mp3 from straight .wav files.
              bob_super, concurring: most people are not listening in conditions where codec differences are noticeable.

              Those docs you link: those curves are all pretty darn close at 192kHz and above. Thank you for supporting our point.

              • (Score: 2) by Zyx Abacab on Saturday May 06 2017, @01:33AM

                by Zyx Abacab (3701) on Saturday May 06 2017, @01:33AM (#505262)

                The AC was certainly more belligerent, and said some nasty shit, that's true.

                But saying things like:

                [W]as your Monster Oxygen-free-silver triple-shielded directional audio cable in the way?

                isn't exactly becoming of a constructive discussion, no matter how much of a jerk he or she may be.

                Calling the AC narrow-minded—after he or she says that, if MP3 is good enough, you should be happy and not complain about what other people choose to do—is not called-for, either.

                If I can hear compression artifacts in the sound of a hi-hat (or applause) on consumer-level equipment, in a double-blind test, having used the best-available MP3 encoders, then the format really does matter to me. Evidently it matters to AC too—whether or not we're in a 5% minority.

                MP3 works for you, and that's great! If I don't dismiss your situation, will you do me the kindness of not dismissing mine?

                [I]t doesn't freaking matter... [y]ou can keep spouting nonsense...