Developers of the MP3 Have Officially Killed It
 

Developers of the MP3 Have Officially Killed It

My favorite format :D

I wonder what that mean? Hopefully not that my various mp3 files will no longer play.

It means you can't use an MP3 decoder in new devices (until the patents run out - which should be pretty soon. . . )

Of course, existing contracts may still be fufilled, depends on teh wording of teh contract, plus non US hardware makers may ignore it and install MP3 decoders anyway. . .

They are no longer licencing it because the patents have expired.

It does seem odd the way tech sites have been reporting this stuff with them mostly parroting the spin of the Fraunhofer Institute on the matter, mp3 is not dead, it is patent free and thus could see a resurgence in use if anything.

This. MP3 is not dead. It probably means it's now more accessible without the patent restriction.

I'll stick with ogg vorbis on my dap and flac for archiving. Although I'll admit having a memory stick with MP3s has been nice in my truck. (Wish the truck's system supported o.v.)

Exactly.

What's "dead" is Fraunhofer Institute's revenue stream. They want MP3 to now go away to give more support for other codecs for which they still hold patents and still have a licensing revenue stream. I am surprised at the mindless parroting by the "news" sites of FI's spin. Extreme Tech seems to get the issue right: https://www.extremetech.com/computin...otwithstanding

So ... since I have all my audiobooks and music backed up as mp3 files, should I format shift?

I doubt mp3's will disappear overnight. so shouldn't be necessary at the moment

I think MP3 is likely to be on pretty much all players for years to come. Some old formats become standards and this is one of those. Other examples are GIF and FAT (or FAT32) and AVI. These are all outdated formats and nearly everything that can support them does.

Last year I found a site that had a lot of very old TV shows that I hadn't seen elsewhere in .rm format. I hesitated to download them even though I wanted the shows but I did and sure enough I have players all over the place that'll play them just fine. Probably the only thing more out of date than .rm are moons cut into the doors of outhouses. :)

Barry

Oh dear, my video files are mostly backed up as avi files!

Most of mine are too. I'm not really worried about avi files. They were the standard for so long that every player still plays them.

If that starts to change it's so embedded it'll change slowly and we'll have lots of warning. I sure hope I'm right. :)

Barry

I imagine that some have said the same thing about old style records. True not a lot of records are probably being made now days but many people still listen to them and there is likely still a thriving old record business out there if you know where to look. And even though VCR's are no longer the prime players of movies there are still many movies on VHS in used good stores. For that matter I imagine there are still plenty of 8 track tapes as well. Each is probably a small market but each has its followers.

My primary sources for paid music and videos are rental streaming services - Spotify and Prime Video. I no longer buy this content, so I'm not concerned about the format.

The only files I routinely make backup copies for are audiobooks because I buy them and I have no desire to lose something I pay for if a store should go under. My format of choice here is MP3.

As to ebooks, I no longer make backup copies because I only buy free books and I really don't care if I lose access to them.