[vorbis] xml stream formats

[Ralph Giles]

> On Wed, 5 Jul 2000 robert at moon.eorbit.net wrote:

> > I just checked out RDF (Resource Description Framework) which intends to
> > describe resources available on the net. I could see us using RDF as the
> > format inside the metadata stream, instead of using a full blown XML
> > DTD. I haven't used RDF -- Jack, is looks like you've used it. Do you
> > have any feedback on using RDF? 

Having taken a look at the spec, I'm really liking RDF, both as an
interface to the online disc metadata database, and as a format for
metadata *and* stream identification in Ogg. In fact, I think we can
easily combine the two Ogg cases. RDF can say whatever we want about each
included logical bitstream, about the collection as a whole, and by
referencing a disc id or equivalent, describe the original work from which
the streams come, neatly solving the album vs. track metadata issue.

In response to the "we won't get an xml parser into winamp" argument, I'd
suggest that we don't have to. A simple, audio-only ogg player could just
ignore the metadata stream; the info in the Vorbis comment header provides 
plenty of room to identify the essentials of the song. If one wants to
read the production notes, one can download another plugin. In the future,
it may also be possible to feed the xml to an external engine or an
embedded browser component (like mozilla) which won't take much code at
all.

In the meantime

> > In any case, to answer Ralph's original question, the current TrackInfo
> > dtd does not take video into account, but it should be easy to extend
> > for use with video as well. But, it sounds as if we need to answer a few
> > other questions before we delve into the details of creating the overall
> > metadata solution.

> Agreed. I was mostly asking for your position in terms of designing the
> next iteration of the cdindex db to handle more-than-cd metadata. 

I would urge you to design your database to handle music and movie 
metadata on equal footing in the next incarnation. AFAIK, the DVD format 
encodes *no* textual metadata at all, so there's just as much of a need
for that as for the CD database.

Cheers,
 -ralph


--
giles at ashlu.bc.ca
What makes you think graduate school is supposed to be satisfying?
                                -- Erica Jong, "Fear of Flying"

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