WikiDiscuss

WikiDiscuss


Is the audio available other than as WAV-encapsulated MP3s?

posts: 1

First, the good: Parallel 2 is a very effective tool. Next, the bad: I can't run it (except on my Windows machine at work, which I don't have anymore — it's become a Linux-based server). The audio doesn't play on my wife's home Windows computer, and my Linux systems don't have RealPlayer installed.

> Dear Lojbanists! It would be great if you post here your comments, suggestions and opinions! I will have a stimulus for further work! wink

The use of MP3-encoded WAVs is unfortunate: SDL can't play them, sox can't convert them, speexenc can't reencode them. I'd like to build a single, cross-platform implementation of Parallel 2 (the current Python one doesn't work on Windows, and the depedency on RealPlayer (which I don't run and won't run on my Linux box for philosophical reasons) is harmful as well).

Encoding the audio to the Ogg project's Speex format will yield tighter compression than MP3, and is supported by SDL (so a cross-platform implementation using only Free software will be possible). Are the original audio files still available (such that the generational loss caused by reencoding content already processed by a lossy compression algorithm can be avoided)? If not, does anyone know of a tool for batch reencoding of WAV-encapsulated MP3s?

(Also, Speex is not subject to licensing fees; MP3 is subject to patents held by Fraunhofer and Thompson).