Re: OT: Re: Starscapes/Real audio rant

[sine@zerocrossing.net]

Uh, why not just mp3?  MPEG is a mature and robust format.  MPEG4 is quite
amazing IMO.  The beauty of the Quicktime format is that it encompasses 
most of
the major codecs, including MPEG4.  Windows Media is actually pretty good 
too,
and you can get them to play on most macs, though not quite as well.

Mark Sottilaro

Clifford Novey wrote:

> I agree- Real One is Satan's spawn- you have to be really determined and
> patient to root out all the pop ups, auto notify, computer scanning, 
>ultra
> infiltrating crap they include with it. And I too think it sounds crummy 
>in
> the end anyways but i was 'forced' to install it yesterday as so many 
>folks
> use it.
>   I prefer .wma format over all others 9yes I know it is MS product)- 
>sounds
> the best and I can use WinAmp to play them. Too bad it doesent play on 
>the
> Mac platform as it is supposed to. It is also interesting to note that
> WinAmp was bought out by AOL. Isn't AOL linked to Real? They prob own 
>them.
>
> Cliff
>
> > Why should
> > they care?
> >
> > Unfortunately, lots of sites use the format, thanks to Real's ascent - 
>on
> > most of OUR backs - to dominance in the codec arena.  I don't know why
> > really, given the awful quality of the results their encoders now 
>produce.