[osol-mktg] Re: [osol-discuss] Audio File Support

[Richard L. Hamilton]

> I am not a multimedia guru but I just do not see the
> point for encoding to
> WMA/WMV and friends. Neither from a technical
> perspective or from a usage
> perspective: how many people using Solaris in the
> world would make use of
> this?

For playback (and if possible, metadata editing), I would think one would
want support for every common format possible.  For recording, it
depends on the range of other OSs and devices that also support it.
WMA support must be fairly common; I have an MP3-capable CD player
somewhere that I believe can also play WMA files.  Now since it probably
can't play the newer WMA Pro format, and from what I've heard the older
WMA format isn't better than MP3, I don't see why I'd use it - MP3 works
with more stuff. But I can't rule out that it might not be the best choice
for some purposes.

What I don't get is why Sun can't just get their own license for some of
the formats directly.  Even if in some cases they choose to license
someone else's implementation (if they could do so without effectively
paying the format license twice), I would think that would give them more
flexibility.  OTOH, it wouldn't build 3rd-party support, which is perhaps
useful too.

What I don't get even more is what idiot ever thought that _decoders_
should have any license terms other than compatibility with the encoder
for the use of the name.  I mean, 90% of what most people are doing
is decoding (playback), but the real value isn't the format so much as
the content; so paying for an encoder might make sense, but only if
the corresponding decoder is universally available, i.e. free.
 
 
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