[vorbis] Time for Vorbis File 1.1? (was Vorbis Comment question)
David K. Gasaway
dave at gasaway.org
Wed Mar 5 12:36:12 PST 2003
Carsten Haese wrote:
> 1) Because Monty says so.
Monty says very little on the subject. :)
> 2) To make backwards compatibility with older players and forward
> compatibility with newer players easier.
Ah. I need to clarify. I don't believe that Vorbis comments should be
changed to support binary data, or otherwise break compatibility. I
simply propose they might be reclassified as "metadata," while the
format remains the same.
> Keep in mind that tags are ultimately designed to be displayed verbatim
> to the user. If you have arbitrary (possibly binary) metadata stored in
> a tag, you have to know which tags are being (ab-)used for this, and
> strip them away before sending the file to an older player that doesn't
> know about these Extra Special Metadata Tags.
On the other hand, a metadata format that allows metadata format allows
arbitrary data is subject to the abuse of developers. I can imagine all
the binary garbage an application might add to the metadata -
unknowingly, since the players ignore the unrecognized tags or the
unrecognized metadata formats.
With Vorbis comments, as you say, I expect to see the data verbatim from
every application (almost - I don't mind that a player skips the
replaygain tags). I like this feature.
Another thing: I'm not quite keen on the idea of having a profusion of
metadata formats. It seems only likely to cause confusion and headache.
As in "I like this handheld player. Does it support metadata format
ABC? Nope, only XYZ. Well, I guess I'll convert all my metadata from
ABC to XYZ or find another player!" As if ID3v1 vs. ID3v2 isn't bad
enough... ;)
<p>
--
-:-:- David K. Gasaway
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-:-:- Email: dave at gasaway.org
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