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to it's patent free nature, ogg vorbis is finding more native
software support month by month, especially with non-commercial
media players.
i can think of no 'commercial' software media players which
currently support the ogg vorbis file
format. by commercial, i mean those made by major companies,
for example microsoft media player. however, since
these companies also have their own proprietary file formats,
you get the feeling that they only include mp3 support because
it became absolutely necessary.
however, many of the most popular software media players
are non-commercial. the most popular one is probably winamp.
this has had support since version 2, with dll plugin available
for download. however, winamp 3 supports ogg vorbis out-of-the-box
(ootb), meaning that you can listen to them without having
to lift a finger!
the other major player in this area is sonique,
a media player which has grown massively in popularity.
this also supports ogg vorbis ootb.
even the giant real
networks has put support for the format
into their realplayer software, making it easy to get cross-platform
support for the format. if you want to install their software,
that is
in addition, ogg vorbis is supported by some hardware mp3
players, and certainly more will support it in the future
(especially those that support firmware updates).
all in all, the ogg format is an extremely advanced,
and sensible format, that should be encouraged in any way
possible. as if this wasn't enough, vorbis is only
one part of the ogg project, which aims to produce
an entire license free media system for all artists and
developers to use. this is a massive undertaking, but there
is no doubt that it will , in the near future, become one
of the most important media formats.
if there are any pieces of software available that can
utilise this format that are not listed here, please don't
hesitate to contact us, and we will update the list.
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