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How about releasing an OGG stream?

davekdavek
edited August 2007 in GeekNights
Every time I want to broadcast Geek Nights on my radio station, I have to convert the commercial and lame MP3 to a nice, open OGG. Besides taking time, the quality also takes a hit. Any chance we could get an open source version of Geek Nights on OGG released along wth the MP3?
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Comments

  • m16 elitestm16 elitest
    Do you really expect them to spend twice as much a month in bandwidth?
  • davekdavek
    yes
  • SailSail
    The only reason they don't release the podcast in an open source format, they would most likely go for FLAC over OGG, is because most portable media players don't support it.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited August 2007
    If Srym could find their way to a FLAC torrent stream it would be much appreciated.
    Problem being that when you go lossless the quality is then limited by the recording and playback equipment. I probably wouldn't see that much noticeable improvement even though I run my PC through a decent HiFi.

    How about some FLAC in the experimental feed? I'd like to test as to whether the extra size gives a noticeable improvement.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • AprecheApreche
    While we personally prefer the awesomeness of file formats like flac, for its quality, and ogg, for its openness, it's just not worth it for us to release the show in other formats at this time. If I could snap my fingers and have the whole world use ogg and flac, I would do it. The reality is that almost nobody out there has the ability or knowledge to play ogg and/or flac. Also, since a large portion of podcast listeners use iPods or other portaple digital audio players to listen to the podcast, a format like ogg or flac will not work on the vast majority of those players.

    We do keep a flac archive of every episode here in our house, but releasing episodes in any format other than mp3 is just infeasible. Even with the most expensive plan on libsyn, releasing an ogg and an mp3 of every episode would fill our quota almost immediately, and would have basically 0 effect on listenership. We spend enough money on the show as it is, we figure that you people would rather have us spend that money on swag and more episodes rather than existing episodes in different formats.

    Also, having the show available in multiple formats would be confusing for new listeners who are new to podcasting. Most stupid people out there have no clue what an ogg is, but they know what an mp3 is. I think that using a commercial, yet ubiquitous, file format for the show is a small price to pay if it means we can bring more people in.
  • GreatTeacherMacRossGreatTeacherMacRoss
    yes
    Then you pay for it, smart guy.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited August 2007
    We do keep a flac archive of every episode here in our house,
    So Flac files for the DVDs?
    Also, would the merchandise be enough to subsidize a flac feed? (Not that fussed about ogg as long as you got flac)
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • RymRym
    Also, would the merchandise be enough to subsidize a flac feed?You do realize that the first season alone of GeekNights would require a PILE of DVDs were it in FLAC form.  Even at 128kbps mp3, it takes two FULL DVDs.  Whenever we actually print the DVDs, they will include higher-bitrate mp3s created from the original lossless flacs.
    A flac feed would be MASSIVE.  Flac compresses well enough for being a lossless method, but the files are still very, very large.
  • AndrewAndrew
    I'm still trying to figure out why we need a second feed...
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Aww mans. I lieks teh losslessness.
    Well could you put a test flac file up on rapidshare or similar for testing. If the improvement is worth it would I be ok to send you a hard drive and return postage?
    For those of you wondering how big flac is, a 3min song is about 3mb in mp3 and 20mb in flac. If geeknights in mp3 is 2 discs then flac would take this up to... wait for it.. 14 Discs.
    The Geeknights Year 1 Deluxe Flac Box Edition. Yours for just 40GBP (^3 isn't working for some random reason.) but seriously, much good stuff (52x5=260 episodes x 30mins = 130 hours) in flac I honestly would buy it.
  • davekdavek
    One more note then I'll let this one ride:

    My stuff is on OGG only. Why? Because everything is mpeg, and mpeg is 0wned. Its commercial. Its not that I'm so anti-commerce, its that if I use mpeg, then some company somewhere can decide to impose massive restrictions on my signal at a moment's notice. In my opinion, its effectively giving some boardroom somewhere the right to say "this speech is not fit to be broadcast on our format, you can go take a hike" or "we now declare that all previous versions of our format are null and void; use of which is a violation of law and copyright. Have a nice day."

    There. I've said my peace. That's why I asked for an OGG signal from Geek Nights.
  • rhinocerorhinocero
    One more note then I'll let this one ride: My stuff is on OGG only. Why? Because everything is mpeg, and mpeg is 0wned. Its commercial. Its not that I'm so anti-commerce, its that if I use mpeg, then some company somewhere can decide to impose massive restrictions on my signal at a moment's notice. In my opinion, its effectively giving some boardroom somewhere the right to say "this speech is not fit to be broadcast on our format, you can go take a hike" or "we now declare that all previous versions of our format are null and void; use of which is a violation of law and copyright. Have a nice day." There. I've said my peace. That's why I asked for an OGG signal from Geek Nights.


    Quite sorry, but I'm really not too great at tech stuff, and I don't understand a lot of things.  Can you explain how this would work?  I don't really understand how an entity could look at your file on your website and somehow change that - but again, I don't really get technology.
  • AprecheApreche
    I guess there might be some sort of infinitesimally small risk of every company with mp3 ownership pulling back all their licenses so that all of our mp3 players and encoders became illegal. Because the situation with mpeg and mp3 patents has been so murky with Fraunhofer, Thompson, etc. any court case that is going to ruin the current mp3 landscape would take quite a long time. If anything were to happen to mp3, we would have plenty of time to convert everything to ogg along with everyone else.

    But again, the chances of that happening are effectively zero. mp3 may not be open, but I can guarantee that there will always be ways to play and encode mp3s as long as mp3 is still a relevant digital audio file format. Also, the patents all expire in 2011, which is not too far off. IN 2011, mp3 will be just as legally free as ogg. There really isn't all that much to worry about. Now, with AAC or WMA, there you've got some worries.
  • cosmicenemacosmicenema
    I'd seed an archival torrent of some FLAC or OGGs. We could make The Geeknights Year 1 Deluxe Flac Box Edition available for download that way maybe? You know . . . for all of use media cataloger's with our TBs of RAID and stacks of DVDs.
  • AprecheApreche
    I'd seed an archival torrent of some FLAC or OGGs. We could make The Geeknights Year 1 Deluxe Flac Box Edition available for download that way maybe? You know . . . for all of use media cataloger's with our TBs of RAID and stacks of DVDs.
    Even with bittorrent, it's still a shitton of bandwidth for us.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Just to expand on that, where do you plan to keep (14x5=70)gb of geeknights?
    Though I like the idea of a flac box set I doubt there would be enough demand for it to make printing it worth it.
  • cosmicenemacosmicenema
    I'd seed an archival torrent of some FLAC or OGGs. We could make The Geeknights Year 1 Deluxe Flac Box Edition available for download that way maybe? You know . . . for all of use media cataloger's with our TBs of RAID and stacks of DVDs.
    Even with bittorrent, it's still a shitton of bandwidth for us.
    Just think of it like an off-site backup. ~-^
  • SailSail
    No offense, but I would have no use for a box set of GeekNights. The show is good, but nowhere near being that good.
  • AndrewAndrew
    No offense, but I would have no use for a box set of GeekNights. The show is good, but nowhere near beingthatgood.
    Also, other than extras, why would you ever need a box set? You already have access to all of the episodes whenever you want them..
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    No offense, but I would have no use for a box set of GeekNights. The show is good, but nowhere near beingthatgood.
    Also, other than extras, why would you ever need a box set? You already have access toallof the episodes whenever you want them..
    It may be fine to download 10gb of episodes for someone with a desktop and a lot of spare time but as I have a laptop I would rather pay than have to manually download every show (unless I could get 1 page with everything on it and use downloadthemall) and then burn them. Plus some people just like the higher audio quality.
  • KieyKiey
    I don't think there is a point in a box set considering you'll never have the time to listen to all the old episodes while also listen to the new ones.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited August 2007
    It would take a year or two but two a day plus some at weekends would suit me fine. What about anyone else?
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • JukeBoxJoshJukeBoxJosh
    I think I'll just use my Mp3 player. Now that school's starting I can't use the radio on the metro bus that takes me to school, which means I'll get a lot of Geek Nights/Fast Karate listening will get done in the mornings and in the afternoon.

    And a box set would just be kinda lame for me. I'm not interested in every single episode, or every category, or anything like that. I kinda wander in what I listen to here. It would be a waste of space.

    All that, and I'm saving up for the new Homestar Runner DVDs I want. :P
  • AprecheApreche
    If you want all the episodes you can always write a simple bash script using wget.
  • BronzdragonBronzdragon
    I think that Omnuntia is the only one who is really interested in a box set or similar. Nobody else cares so, why don't you drive by scrym's house and bring a external HD? I think you can work things out (not an actual suggestion)
  • cosmicenemacosmicenema
    We could just collect them all and torrentz them ourselves. AH HAH!
  • AprecheApreche
    We could just collect them all and torrentz them ourselves. AH HAH!
    Go nuts.
  • JukeBoxJoshJukeBoxJosh
    I don't know much about torrents, but I have a feeling something would die with all those torrents...

    Maybe computers or something. Who knows.
  • NeitoNeito
    I don't know much about torrents, but I have a feeling something would die with all those torrents...

    Maybe computers or something. Who knows.
    There are huge torrents with zillions of files. It's not out of the realm of ability, but why would you do it? Everything's for free on the site?
  • JukeBoxJoshJukeBoxJosh
    I have not heard of them... I thought they only had music and porn. Musical porn?
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