The end of MP3.

6581punk

Fraunhofer have ended MP3 licencing.

Seems like an odd move.

V`cent

Well, it is an old standard.

I can’t help but feel that it’s the most ubiquitous standard though, with more or less nothing coming close. I have no idea what other players could play something not mp3, like AAC or MPG-H (which I haven’t even heard of before now).

I wonder what the consequences of this will be.

6581punk

If you have a lot of MP3s and want to play them in the future on a hardware device then I don’t think you can? unless of course they open source it.

V`cent

Ehh, there’s plenty of devices around that can do it, and even if they stop making those, you could still buy a cheap chinese player capable of playing mp3s. Not exactly like licenses mean a lot there.

mic.w

hm, heise.de reports this rather differently (in german, though). according to their report, fraunhofer’s licensing for mp3 is ending, because the last patent on mp3 has expired. so there is simply no need for licensing anymore – mp3 is now license-free.

t2k

Licensing ending means the patents have expired and you’re now entirely free to implement MP3 decoding and encoding without having to pay a licensing fee. That’s good news. :)

The format is not going away, and very likely never will.

rumpelfilter

I just switched to a media player that can read FLAC, (Fiio X1-2nd gen) – which btw. I can totally recommend – but I don’t think I’ll totally get rid of mp3s any time soon. High-quality mp3 (320kbs) works fine for most types of music to my ear.
@V’cent: taking of Chines players, Fiio is a Chinese brand and the thing feels as high-quality as a portable media player possibly can. Also it’s kind of minimal in its approach, there’s nothing on it that is not functional to listening to music (no pointless extras like games or the such). I was kind of surprised by it, but then if you think about it… it not surprising at all.

Anyway, when licences run out it’s usually a good thing. Mp3 on Linux has been legally complicated for years, that should be settled now :)

loowfizzz

@rumpelfilter: thanks for the heads up on the fiio. Looks like a good exchange for my ipod nano 4g when it dies.

rumpelfilter

yeah the Fiio really feels like an iPod done right in 2017, it does inherit a lot of the ideas the people at Apple came up with for the original iPods (like the touch wheel) but changes it in many ways as well. I especially appreciate the fact that it does not have a touch screen :D

loowfizzz

haha. yes the touchscreen doesn´t work for me as well cause it is not tactile enough for handling while riding a bike.

rumpelfilter

You know you’re not supposed to listen to music while riding a bike, don’t you? :D

loowfizzz

Ääähm yes. But it´s so good and I am a super gently and defensive driver ;)

rumpelfilter

Haha, yeah… I just spent too much time banging my head against German laws on what you are supposed to do and what not when riding a bike, and what your bicycle has to be equipped with… I used to do a lot of brochures about safety topics for people riding bicycles in urban areas and they used to refuse illustrations for things like: the woman is wearing flip-flops, you’re not allowed to drive a bicycle with that… or there must be two orange reflectors for each wheel, one is not enough… or the helmet is not obvious enough as a helmet… stuff like that.
So these things stick… :D

loowfizzz

Haha that´s true – I know these brochures back from school days – I feel with you. Ah damnit I am wearing Flip Flops today – that could be too much :) But if you think ahead and take care of everybody the police has no problems with flipflops and mp3.

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