Re: [playogg-discuss] playogg/faq: unclear phrase

[ineiev]

Hi, Jeff!

Jeff wrote:
> Yes, you are correct.  All of these players 1) have their own format, 
> and 2) play multiple formats,

Thank you, it helps a lot; that is, it was probably something like
"RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, iTunes own formats,
and other popular formats require people to use non-free software:
controlled by companies, not by the users."

> however, I don't think any of them play open source formats without 
> hacking.

Not quite sure what "open source formats" are. propably it is not
the same as "formats decently supported by some open source
software," since VLC officially declares full MP3 support,
and all those unethical things play that format, too.
(also, there is partial support of Real Audio and full support
of WMA 1/2 and WMA 3 in VLC.)

As of Ogg,

* Windows Media Player can play Ogg Vorbis
with a codec (www.vorbis.com/setup_windows/)

* RealPlayer has a plugin for Ogg Vorbis/Theora provided
by https://helixcommunity.org/projects/xiph/news/116
(very old news: 2004-06-18 13:45; it is likely that
the plugin is out-of-date)

* http://xiph.org/quicktime/ suggests there is a way to play
Ogg Vorbis with iTunes.

On the one hand, I can't check how seamless those plugins are,
on the other hand, I don't think searching for and
installing a plugin really counts as "hacking".

It can be said that I almost never listen to any formats,
so I know little about these matters, but my first pass suggests
that the statement tends to oversimplify the situation.