Vorbis
Ogg Vorbis is a completely free and open audio compression (codec) project from Xiphophorous, and is part of the Ogg Open multimedia project. Like everything in the Ogg project, Vorbis is completely free of licensing or patent issues raised by other proprietary formats such as MP3.
Vorbis is currently being tuned before a final release, but the specification has been finalised. The current encoder will produce output from 64kpbs to 350kpbs, although these numbers are only approximate, as Vorbis is inherently variable bitrate (VBR). Quality is currently on a par with LAME, the best MP3 encoder, at medium bitrates, and on a par with MP3Pro at lower bitrates.
The specifications are public domain, the libraries are BSD-licensed, and the tools are GPL'd.
Ogg-Vorbis can be played using this free players:
- xmms (on unix-like systems, GPL license)
- freeamp (Linux and Windows, GPL license)
- winamp (in Windows systems, Freeware, no open-source)
- JOrbis (pure Java, LGPL license)
The BBC has recently experimented with putting out Vorbis-encoded audio streams. See below for more details. The technical experiments are now complete, and the BBC is considering whether to deploy the technology.
Unlike the name "Ogg", "Vorbis" is named after a Terry Pratchett character, High Priest Vorbis in Small Gods.
News update:
- Real Networks has announced in July 2002 that it intends to release substantial parts of their proprietary technologies under an "open-source friendly" licence. This opens the possibility of the integration of Ogg Vorbis' technology with elements of Real's technologies.
See also:
- The Speex speech coder