What about mp4?

[bratpop]

With more players using mp4 (m4a) these days, will Rifftrax ever convert from mp3 to mp4? I don't know how big a difference there is, I haven't seen a huge noticeable benefit, but it would be neat to have a slight bit of stereo separation in the riffs, and a stereo (and less incredibly loud) theme song. The folks on the streets, they tell me that mp3 thing is so "last week."

And I'm not talking about VOD, just the riffs.

[Conor]

No plans to change anything, and I think a stereo file results in twice as big an MP3, or at least less compression on the zip file.  If it ain't broke...

[RoninFox]

Yeah, the files take long enough to download, and I've got decent broadband.  I'd hate to imagine having a slower connection and having to deal with bigger files.  The loud theme song I can see as an issue, but then again I've got Audacity so I can always make a little tweak there if need be.

[bratpop]

Well, I've been remixing the I Am Legend riff into stereo, and it's AWE-SOME. People are really missing out. *shrug*

[mhoke63]

Who, in their right mind, would WANT to use m4a?  People only use it because they HAVE to.  that format and the whole DRM thing is 60% of why I hate apple.

[bratpop]

It's replacing mp3. There's nothing that can be done about it.

[Ortega]

It might be replacing MP3s, in Steve Jobs dreamworld.  The sad truth is, that m4a is a proprietary Apple software format.  I would wager a guess that not all audio players, especially the cheaper ones from Coby, Creative, Koss, and others, could play the m4a format.  The simple fact is that mp3s can be played out of the gate by almost every computer OS, and virtually every cheap mp3 player on the market.  Its not like the rifftrax audio has such a dynamic range in its audio, it three guys in a booth, with an occasional guy with a digital voice mask every now and then.  The relative small size, coupled with the fact that encoding in mp3 is virtually free, makes a switch to a format that not everyone has seem like not a good move. Thre is a big chance that some people don't even have Quicktime on the computer.  I mean, if you enjoy the format, and i assume you do, just re-encode it to mp4 to your heart's content. 

Personally, i re-encode mine to the WAV format, then encode that into AC3, but i wouldn't ask RiffTrax to do the 5 minute encoding job, simply to save time.

[torgosPizza]

Yeah supposedly the sound quality is better and the file size is smaller. I'd have to do some comparisons, but I doubt difference in quality would be noticeable (it's only speech, after all) but the file size difference might be interesting.

But while m4a is "slated" to be the new standard, mp3 is already receiving widespread adoption. As soon as that changes perhaps we'll investigate it more.

[torgosPizza]

There is a big chance that some people don't even have Quicktime on the computer.

You don't need Quicktime to play the format. There's quite a large list of software that supports it - including Winamp, my favorite.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMP4&ei=vmMaSI2oHZvSpgT4voGFCQ&usg=AFQjCNGnB0bE7TAYWC-IiQ2paLxyLn_NSQ&sig2=M2c244LvCKkU8a1wKE80Pw

I think if we were doing things in a stereo field (which isn't always great because , let's face it - the audio signal isn't exactly like music, wherein all of the sounds combine to form a louder, cohesive image. It's just voice. I think "slight" separation would be as far as we would take it, but even that is kind of unnecessary, IMO.

[Ortega]

There is a big chance that some people don't even have Quicktime on the computer.

You don't need Quicktime to play the format. There's quite a large list of software that supports it - including Winamp, my favorite.

[too long link-thingy]

I think if we were doing things in a stereo field (which isn't always great because , let's face it - the audio signal isn't exactly like music, wherein all of the sounds combine to form a louder, cohesive image. It's just voice. I think "slight" separation would be as far as we would take it, but even that is kind of unnecessary, IMO.

Hmm..guess i was wrong.  But still, i say if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  like i said before, its three guys(and maybe a woman) in booth..... not a huge range of sound in that.  Mono gets the job done, and done well.  And again, while there may be audiophiles who like all the bells and whistles, i would gather that a large majority download what you give them, and throw it on their player.  And it being in mp3 format probably is the better solution. 

Plus i reauthor and working with a mono track is loads easier, and it's a bitch to have to split the tracks.

[mhoke63]

http://www.vorbis.com/

It's slowly catching on, just like all Free Software.  Fraunhofer(sp?) is currently the corporation that owns the mp3 format and do not charge for encryption or decryption of the format, but if you sell audio in that format, then you owe them that money, as the mp3 license states.  If and when fraunhofer decides to clamp down on it, people will move away from that format, and eventually fade away.  This has happened in the past with media formats (Intel Video Format, anyone?)

  We are (slowly, albeit) seeing Ogg Vorbis being more and more common now that people are discovering it.  People dont have to pay royalty or paten fees to use it, and it is better audio quality than the other lossy formats.  (128 ogg ~= 192 mp3)  I predict you will start seeing it come to the forefront within 5 years.  I see the same true with Ogg Theora, although that will take a bit longer.  Thats just how Free Software works, just look at Apache, MySQL, and PHP.  Even regular applications such as The Gimp, Blender, Pidgin, etc that are slowly coming around.  People slowly learn about the freedoms they get with Free Software, and slowly change over once they get a taste of the freedom.  The operating system, GNU/Linux, for example is catching on more and more.  (before we get in the debate about weather its ready for the mass market desktop, someone start a thread somewhere and I will gladly throw my two cents in on that)  But again, it slowly eeps along and doesnt die, because the very nature of the GPL prevents it from ever dying because if someone wants to develp for it, they can.  It gains popularity, and becomes the standard in each program's respective area.  Change doesn't happen overnight.


But I digress.  To stress my original point, Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora will be the next audio and video formats to replace the current standards.

[bratpop]

I'm not saying it should be mandatory. It would be easy enough to convert to a mono mp3, but it would be nice to have the stereo option. The stereo m4a at 96kbps is actually smaller than the mono mp3 except when zipped and sounds fine.

Ogg is still a nerd thing at the moment.

[gammer]

But I digress.  To stress my original point, Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora will be the next audio and video formats to replace the current standards.

Actually, satellite companies are seriously looking into, and in some cases already using, MPEG4 formats (like DivX and XviD). And can you blame them? The amount of bandwidth that mpeg2 takes up is huge compared to what some avi containers can do in almost the same quality.

The big drawback to making the switch, is they have to replace all the receivers that their customers currently use...ouch! 

[AmandaGal]

Torgos, Could you guys just encode the rifftrax and shorts into every known format known to man?  That'd be great!  Thanks!!

[MrTorso]

Torgos, Could you guys just encode the rifftrax and shorts into every known format known to man?  That'd be great!  Thanks!!

I would love the shorts in .VIV files!!