OGG Rocks!! We just need some hardware Vorbis players, which I'm sure will appear, as there is no licencing to pay...

It sure does, Mark. And I sure *do*. (Want hardware support).

I really have to stop doing this.....multi-tasking is going to be the death of me. I'm compressing a dvd to mpeg-1 in the background with TMPEnc (it's at over 90% now); encoding the Rolling Stones' 'Hot Rocks' album to ogg vorbis format in a minimized DOS window; surfing A/D & replying in here; and I'll likely be downloading some music tracks momentarily via 'Download Accelerator' while all/most of the above is going on.

Am I looking for a Win-98 crash or *what*? <ggg>

This is what happens when one has too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it in. :)

Anyway, back on topic.... I'm glad that Tord Jansson is honest enough to admit that his Blade is really outdated & inferior now. An honest admission from an apparently very honest gentleman. And quite a boost too, for my favourite audio compression format. I've noticed something else too, which may or may not be happening: I see fewer independant .mp3 files offered for download nowadays, and those I do find, seem to be a bit harder to retrieve. (mp3.com for instance).

I don't suppose this has much to do with any widespread waning of mp3's popularity, but more to do with Fraunhofer's now-infamous download-fee requirement$, which I assure you, in light of ogg vorbis' totally free & unpatented, unrestricted nature -- (not to mention that Vorbis is *no longer* in beta stage) -- is going to deal a *horrific* blow to mp3 in general.

I still download mp3 files though, because my new Sony standalone dvd player handles self-made mp3 data discs better than any other player I have ever had the pleasure to own. (Sony has finally gotten off it's ass and made their recent machines totally compatible with self-made cdrs and cdrws - i.e. red-book cdrs, music data cdrs, video-cd cdrs), something they took their freaking time getting around to, but personaly, I would gladly have paid a high $ premium to have .ogg format compatibility, instead of mp3.

Sony could have done this at no cost.

Reasoning: They've already incorporated .mp3 circuitry into my player - using ogg circuitry instead would have been no more expensive, *plus*, they paid a fee to the Fraunhofer folks in Germany to use the mp3 format, when they *could* have used .ogg for FREE.

But as usual, I am beginning to ramble..... I will have to scoot off to see what Mr. Jansson has to say about ogg vorbis.

Thanks as usual, for the update!

-- KlingonAgent --

P.S. Just a quickie question: Do you suppose mp3lizard.com would be willing to consider (accept) .ogg uploads?

[absolutely NO fees involved, guys] ...just a thought...

- KA -