[vorbis] RC3?

[fungus]

Craig Dickson wrote:
 > Most people have no idea what the difference
 > in quality is between 112, 128, 160, 250 kpbs in Vorbis. Most will
 > associate them with MP3's quality at those rates, which is far inferior.
 >

...and *that* is the problem.

If we make it easy to specify the bitrate then everybody
will go right on using 128kbits and nobody will figure out
what the real deal is.

Answer....don't make it easy. Make it so you have to read
the manual to figure it out. Make it so that the only time
they see a bitrate is when winamp plays the file.

<p>All they need to see is:

"2 - ...
"3 - near CD quality"
"4 - ...

Of course you can leave bitrates in for those who
need them, but I might even go so far as to put
that in a separate bitrate-fixing/peeling tool.
I might even take the bitrate management code
completely out of ogg so that the oggshells which
crop up can't do it either without using both
programs - encode first then fix the bitrate.

<rant>

I think this is important because people aren't
going to look at ogg in a techie way, the first
thing they'll do is make two files, one mp3 and
one ogg, then compare them. If they have bitrate
options then they're going to produce two similar
sized files with no audible (to them) difference.
If this happens then their reaction will be "cool,
but what's the point if I already have mp3?"

People who are trying ogg *need* to see smaller
files or ogg will fail. We need to smack them in
the face with the fact that the files are smaller
and that's *not* going to happen if they have
bitrate options *anywhere* in the menus.

No amount of technical brilliance will overcome
this psychology. It would be a shame to see ogg
go down the pan just because 0.1% of the potential
users want to stream audio files. The needs of the
many outweigh the needs of the few, and all that.

</rant>

<p><p>
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