[vorbis] Re: Debian mp3->vorbis transcoding

[Vance Roussin]

>The only two reasonable advantages of transcoding are...

...Irrelavent. Can you say that every time trancoding comes up it concerns
one of those two issues? Those that want to transcode for those reasons can
and will manually do the decompress/recompress. And put the files onto said
hardware or delete the patented software from their systems.

>Why bother?  How will this help?

People keep requesting programs to do the transcode, and I'm not talking
the kinds that will recompress a dozen or so songs for said hardware/patent
issues. I'm talking about idiot mass-converters that will churn hundreds,
if not thousands, of crappy mp3s into even crappier/bigger oggs and flood
P2P networks with them. And like it or not, with all the good press of
vorbis people are and will continue to use mp3 for their encoding means
until the point of "first contact". When a hard-headed mp3 user first
pirates a song off the net. And says "What's this? This must be what all
the people are raving about." -click. This helps by tricking all those who
would into believing they did.

>Why not just use the licensed software directly?

You should be saying that to the people just itching (or will be) to turn
their collection of mp3's into "better quality" oggs.

Is it not the 1st commandment of engineering:
Never under-estimate the stupidity of your user(s).

In any case, It's not because I would personally prefer such a feature. I
brought this up only as a clever fix to the transcoding issue that NEVER
seems to go away. Personally, on tuesday morning I lit a candle and said a
prayer for our favourite and soon to be departed patent-restricted audio
format. I forget now which stages come before "Acceptance" and wonder how
long it'll take the public to get there.

-vance (professional devil's advocate at large)

[Do you believe in Ogg/ ><Vorbis> ?]

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