What Audio Codecs can Zaurus Play?

[TonyOlsen]

This is actually a 2-part question:

1: What Audio Codecs can the built-in SL-C860 player play?
AND
2: What additional Audio Codecs do other Zaurus players provide?

I know that the built-in audio and movie players can play files containing MP3, but can they play anything else?  Also, can the players play VBR (Variable Bit Rate - Meaning the \"kbps\" changes during the course file) MP3, instead of just SBR (Static Bit Rate) MP3 files?

Thanks in advance,

[slocaus]

Ogg Vorbis VBR & CBR 64k to 160k; mp3 VBR & CBR 128k & 192k; and a few voice only .wav files that are mono 8k..

[PsionX]

I used Ogg-Vorbis (80k bitrate / encoding with \"-q1\" preset).  Free and Good. See http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...iewtopic&t=3299

[Stubear]

ogg rocks,I prefer 3 to 5 quality level - better than 144 Mp3 and smaller too

also played some wavs but they\'re too big

[TonyOlsen]

Ah, man!  The Audio player doesn\'t even do 16 kbps MP3s?  How about 96kbps?

I\'ve heard of Ogg Vorbis before, but I honestly don\'t know anything about it.  Is it better than MP3?  Advantages/Disadvanteges?

PsionX, the link you gave is in regards to player skins and doesn\'t appear to say anything about Ogg-Vorbis.  Let me know if I missed it.

ARe there any audio codecs that will work on the Zaurus that are 16 kbps or smaller?

[slocaus]

http://www.vorbis.com/

\"Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.\"

I\'ve found that vorbis at half the bitrate of mp3 has equal sound quality.  I actually rip all my CDs to FLAC on my desktop, and then transcode to vorbis @ 64k for my Z or Rio Karma.  I downloaded and played a 4k vobis file on my Zaurus, though no encoder is currently available at this bitrate.  Have you tried 16k?  Get the vorbis plugin here:  http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=617

[padishah_emperor]

If you use the Cacko QT ROM on an 860, that wonderful chap Maslovsky has included the SL-6000 media player with the OGG codec included.

I\'ve never used 16 or 96 kbps MP3, the quality would be too low, plus I think 32 kbps is the lowest \'legal\' limit for mono mp3. I\'ve used 64, 96, 128kps and VBR fine.

I have (as a total Linux user) decided to go the OGG way and spent the best part of two days re-encoding everything to VBR OGG and they play perrrfect ;-)

I have gone from VBR mp3 to VBR OGG and they seem to be **much** smaller, one album went from 130MB to 50!

Until this ROM, the only other decent player was tkcPlayer, to be honest, it\'s a better product on a 5500, it works and looks better.

I tried XMMS but it was not for me.

The built-in players have the advantage of the remote control, mmmmmh..  must buy one.....

:-)

HTH YMMV

-Francis

[TonyOlsen]

Oops... above I said \"SBR (Static Bit Rate)\" instead of the correct term: \"CBR (Constant Bit Rate)\".

I thought MP3 was completely open source patent free.  Did something happen that I never read about?

Will MP4 audio ever come out?

[slocaus]

Oops... above I said \"SBR (Static Bit Rate)\" instead of the correct term: \"CBR (Constant Bit Rate)\".

I thought MP3 was completely open source patent free.  Did something happen that I never read about?

Will MP4 audio ever come out?

I knew you meant CBR.

mp3 is not free.  To produce a player, you pay licensing of $1.25/unit or $90,000.00; for an encoder, you pay $5.00/unit.
http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html
http://www.chillingeffects.org/patent/noti...gi?NoticeID=464

MP4 is a container for most any audio.  AAC used by iTunes is contained in MP4.

Oh, and let me introduce you to my best friend on the Internet:
http://www.google.com   This d00d is a genius, knows EVERYTHING!  

[TonyOlsen]

ha ha ha...    

[Stubear]

MP3 has never been open source acoording to holder of the patent
http://www.newsforge.com/business/02/08/29...9/1633205.shtml
http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/index.html
http://www.mp3licensing.com/help/developer.html

[TonyOlsen]

So... what is the lowest bitrate anyone has tested on the Zaurus?  Has anyone tested to see if the player will play 32 kbps mono MP3s... or even 16 kbps?  (I used to have 16 kbps MP3s from a while ago, so I know they exist).  4 kbps Vorbis would be the best...

I downloaded and played a 4k vobis file on my Zaurus, though no encoder is currently available at this bitrate.

slocaus, How could that bitrate exist without an encoder?  So... we now know that Zaurus Vorbis plugin can play 4 kbps Vorbis files?

Awesome!

[TonyOlsen]

Hurray!!  Thanks to slocaus\'s comments, I was able to find a site that\'s working on 4kbps stereo ogg vorbis files!

http://sjeng.org/floggy.html

Don\'t knock it off until you\'ve had a chance to listen to them... they are quite impressive, all things considering...  especially:

http://sjeng.org/ftp/vorbis/qnres3.ogg    (3.8 kbps stereo)

I read from other posts elsewhere that the encoder may actually be out now... I\'ll do more searching and I\'ll post what I find here...