Greetings everyone, this is my first post. Jason Cartwright wrote: > Of course, this won't happen (it be being popular, IMHO), because nobody > cares what format they consume their content in - they just care that it > works (which MP3 does). As proved by the BBC OGG trial years and years ago.
Isn't the trial becoming dated? The single biggest factor for the success of a codec on Windows PCs is whether Microsoft is willing to include the codec with Windows Media Player. No Ogg (Vorbis or Theora), no AAC, no H.264. Apple saw this years ago, which is why they positioned QuickTime as the reference MPEG-4 platform. Microsoft provides AAC and H.264 in the Zune, but doesn't dare expose its formats and codecs to competition on the desktop. The Dirac codec could possibly be organized in an Ogg container. Now that would change things. David Greaves wrote: > Another analogy that might make sense: audio quality on CDs. > http://www.mindspring.com/~mrichter/dynamics/dynamics.htm > The music is already lost. Seriously. > Even if DRM still works in 30 years - the noise will be there but the > sweetness > of the music is already gone. > Short term profit has destroyed our future heritage. A very interesting analysis. But this was going on back in the day before CDs even. 45rpm vinyl was often mastered 3dB hotter so singles would sound "louder", the idea being that the higher speed and larger grooves allowed more headroom. As for CDs, in the late 80s many major label records were mastered to DAT, ten times or so cheaper than the top-shelf Sony PCM-1630 units which were supposed to be the official digital format at the time. The real question is what format the original mix masters are in. I would be very surprised if such clipping was (is?) common on mix masters. I'm not sure I would call transients like snare drum hits "sweetness" :-) but it's true that clipped transients are a horror. I think People are more concerned nowadays that the 44,1kHz/16 bit and 48kHz/16 bit sampling rates common in the 80s were in fact too limited; today's units routinely offer 192kHz/24 bit. Music radio in general, especially pop radio, has been aggressive with their compressor/limiters for years, so mastering too hot (even beyond clipping) with limited dynamic range could also be a reaction to radio, so people can hear CD music at home that sounds just as bad as it is over the waves. Sean - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
