[vorbis] Comparison Between MP3 and Vorbis

[Monty]

> Hello All,
> 	I realize that I am using pre-release code. I realize that the
> bitstream format will change in a couple of days. I realize that at
> this point comparisons between MP3 and Vorbis still don't mean much.

OK.  At this point, you're entitled to be curious.

> BUT I couldn't resist. I ripped a random track off of one of my CDs
> and did some comparisons between Vorbis and MP3. I thought you guys
> might be interested in the results.
[..]
> Summary: OGG looks and sounds good. File size is smaller than
> similiar sizes resulting from the method with which I usually encode
> MP3s. CPU time for playing is much, much too high. There may be
> inefficiencies in the XMMS plugin or in the libvorbis library. I do
> not know which to blame.

Partly libvorbis and partly the 'wrong tool' effect.  Top and other system
utils undersample and as such a process can consistently slip in under the
radar, so to speak.  I'd be a bit surprised if MPEG playback is really only 3%
or so.... run something else mildly processor intensive at the same time and I
think you'll see the mp3 playback usage mysteriously jump.  A better way to
measure is to do 'fastest possible decode' to /dev/null or such and compare run
times.

That said, libvorbis playback is currently poorly optimized and way too slow.

> Is the efficiency playing Vorbis/.ogg files expected to improve? Is
> that just an artifact of being pre-release, unoptimized code?

Yes, entirely.

Monty

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