What's with all these new lossless codecs??

[Roj]

OK, I’ve observed a number of things in PC audio of late and it’s time for a rant. ;)

What is it with all these new and completely unnecessary lossless codecs? We have Monkey’s Audio and FLAC – the standard bearers. They’re mature and pretty much bulletproof. Wonderful things, they are. There’s Shorten as well, but that’s largely a footnote to history – it does however have lineage and a few still use it.

But now we have OptimFROG, .mkw files (Shorten Remixed, perhaps?) and from the standard bearers of the I'm-a-wannabe-and-don’t-know-squat-about-audio-but-just-HAVE-to-jump-on-the-bandwagon camp ("One day, at band camp... "), we have WMA lossless (Microsoft) and even one from Apple. Both codecs are of course poster children for mediocrity and bloat (what a gargantuan surprise - I was shocked beyond the ability of words to express).

So Why?

Why is this nonsense happening?

We don’t need these newbies.

We have solutions in place that work, are cross platform and best of all are free.

Why bother with this new "fashionable" dreck?

[teedoff087]

I agree. There truly is no point to it. I guess it's just for variety even when we really don't need any more codecs. :ermm:

[Psy]

I think that the point to any propietary codec is to sell it into commercial solutions, say Microsoft Encoder, Quicktime, whathever, grab as many users as you can and then sell them more software that only you can develop. Of course, it seems more easy to include the free and already tested standard, but he firms that have the power to develop their own codec, well, they actually do it and end of question.

[jkrzok]

Can you say Digital Rights Management? That's my guess for the Microsoft and Apple entries to the lossless world.

I'd also guess that with the capacity of hard drives and digital music players going up and the continuing spread of high speed internet access larger file sizes are no longer such a drawback.

As an end user I have to agree with others here. There is no use for the new codecs from MS and Apple. It's up to us as consumers of digital music to let the corporate suits know what we think of their proprietary dreck.

As for shorten, FROG, et al, as long as there's a QCD plugin, it's all good.

[Roj]

I think that the point to any propietary codec is to sell it into commercial solutions, say Microsoft Encoder, Quicktime, whathever, grab as many users as you can and then sell them more software that only you can develop. Of course, it seems more easy to include the free and already tested standard, but he firms that have the power to develop their own codec, well, they actually do it and end of question.
Oh, I recognized the MS and Quicktime "offerings" for the obvious attempt to milk the consumer that they are - hence my sarcasm.

It's the new freeware crap that I find perplexing / annoying. Why annoying? We don't need a plethora of "psuedo-standards".

[Roj]

I'd also guess that with the capacity of hard drives and digital music players going up and the continuing spread of high speed internet access larger file sizes are no longer such a drawback.
Coming soon to an iRiver player near you - FLAC support. :)

[Psy]

It's the new freeware crap that I find perplexing / annoying. Why annoying? We don't need a plethora of "psuedo-standards".

Oh, this fellas, well, I think that many of them have a real interest to make a good codec, and others just whant to say "Look, I have a better code than you!". :silly:

[acushla]

OK, I’ve observed a number of things in PC audio of late and it’s time for a rant. ;)

What is it with all these new and completely unnecessary lossless codecs? We have Monkey’s Audio and FLAC – the standard bearers. They’re mature and pretty much bulletproof. Wonderful things, they are. There’s Shorten as well, but that’s largely a footnote to history – it does however have lineage and a few still use it.

But now we have OptimFROG, .mkw files (Shorten Remixed, perhaps?) and from the standard bearers of the I'm-a-wannabe-and-don’t-know-squat-about-audio-but-just-HAVE-to-jump-on-the-bandwagon camp ("One day, at band camp... "), we have WMA lossless (Microsoft) and even one from Apple. Both codecs are of course poster children for mediocrity and bloat (what a gargantuan surprise - I was shocked beyond the ability of words to express).

So Why?

Why is this nonsense happening?

We don’t need these newbies.

We have solutions in place that work, are cross platform and best of all are free.

Why bother with this new "fashionable" dreck?

I think it probable that, given what's on the horizon in terms of home entertainment and MICROSOFT'S seemingly ever increasing foray into this area (based on their demonstration at the Las Vegas Electronics show) that they recognize the benefits of lossless encoding and by having their own format means they can then have the decoders built into players and avoid paying royalties. Just a thought. I do NOT know the following for a fact but I have heard it said that every dollar that goes into McDonald's stays in McDonald's as they manufacture and produce everything they use. Seems as if it might be a trend.

[BALTY]

I think it probable that, given what's on the horizon in terms of home entertainment and MICROSOFT'S seemingly ever increasing foray into this area (based on their demonstration at the Las Vegas Electronics show) that they recognize the benefits of lossless encoding and by having their own format means they can then have the decoders built into players and avoid paying royalties. Just a thought. I do NOT know the following for a fact but I have heard it said that every dollar that goes into McDonald's stays in McDonald's as they manufacture and produce everything they use. Seems as if it might be a trend.

I've been into Speech Rec products of late. Think this may be another reason?