Mp3 licence???

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Mp3 licence???

D4NM4N(Posted 2004) [#1]
is it true you have to pay fees to use mp3 in a game?


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2004) [#2]
yup. If youre lucky and have a publisher, they MAY (only MAY) have a licence already.

Use OGG instead- theres no licensing worries to think of there!


TomToad(Posted 2004) [#3]
Technically, you don't need a licence for using an mp3, but you need one for an mp3 decoder. 75c for each copy of the decoder sold (or game using the decoder) with a minimum of $15,000 per year.
Hmm, just checked and discovered I was wrong about not needing a licence for using an mp3. Seems in using mp3s for comercial uses, you need to pay 2% of relative revenue (whatever that means) with a minimum of $2,000 per year.
http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html


Boiled Sweets(Posted 2004) [#4]
Use OGG.


.rIKmAN.(Posted 2004) [#5]
Is ogg supported in Blitz by default?
(haven`t used the music commands for aaaaages)


Boiled Sweets(Posted 2004) [#6]
yup


Banshee(Posted 2004) [#7]
The last time I looked at the mp3 license it wasn't a case of commercial users must pay and free users dont - the definition was defined by units. If your product reaches over 5,000 users then somebody wants some money off you.

Who are these people, wasn't the Motion Pictures Encoding Group formed in order to resolve these issues? Apparently their Mercedese isn't powerful enough already.


Caff(Posted 2004) [#8]
Don't risk it - use OGG all the way. It has far superior compression anyway.


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#9]
The last time I looked at the mp3 license it wasn't a case of commercial users must pay and free users dont - the definition was defined by units. If your product reaches over 5,000 users then somebody wants some money off you.


That's correct. And getting 5,000 downloads of a free game or free demo is hardly difficult, so you can pretty much guarantee that you will qualify if you use MP3.


Hotcakes(Posted 2004) [#10]
It has far superior compression anyway.

Actually from my personal experience (although I'm sure I've probably been doing something wrong:) mp3s give slightly better compression, but ogg gives superior quality.

And it's free. And there are less fiddly limitations involved. The sound sections of the Blitz docs really should be amended to point out not to use mp3 in anything serious.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2004) [#11]
I prefer OGG too-

On the unsupported list, id mark NCA v2.0 Comparible with mp3 but does much smarter maths to detect frequencies... so a smaller file has a higher definition sound.


BTW, NCA was designed with Blitz...


_PJ_(Posted 2004) [#12]
Anyone know of an mp3-OGG converter then?


.rIKmAN.(Posted 2004) [#13]
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=mp3+to+ogg+converter&meta=

Of course the difficulty lies in finding a free one that lets you convert more than 60% of a file.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2004) [#14]
do NOT convert a compressed audio file to an even more compressed audio file. argh, my ears.. high pich squeaky noises. nooooo!

Go get the original WAV and create an OGG out of that. Please ^.^


Caff(Posted 2004) [#15]
Anyone know of an mp3-OGG converter then?


http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

You also need to install the OGG codec:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-ogg.htm

With this you can right-click on a WAV or MP3 file in Explorer and say 'Convert to'. Then select the options, e.g. bitrate.

You can also use 'Normalize' to make sure all your music has a consistent volume across several tracks.


Hotcakes(Posted 2004) [#16]
As Cygnus said, please use original wavs to create an ogg out of, unless you really have no other source than the mp3. mp3s, being lossy, cause a good deal of audio quality to go flying out the window. Loading an mp3 gives you a poor form of the original wav, converting -that- to ogg, also lossy, will, at the very very best, give you the -same- quality as the mp3. But due to the differences in the way ogg and mp3 work, you will very likely have a lower quality ogg than you did mp3, because the ogg will compress different frequencies than the mp3 did, including some of the dud frequencies created when decompressing the mp3, which means there's then less room for the real frequencies, which, if the bitrate is set low enough, will get squeezed out, leaving you with double the dud (or filler) frequencies.

That was a long sentence...


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2004) [#17]
Shame not many people know about this subject realy, isnt it?

By the way, Toby, i keep reading your name as Toby ZuydBerg.. ^.^ (Futurama.....)


_PJ_(Posted 2004) [#18]

do NOT convert a compressed audio file to an even more compressed audio file. argh, my ears.. high pich squeaky noises. nooooo!

Go get the original WAV and create an OGG out of that. Please ^.^



Okay - How do I convert to OGG. I use Goldwave and PowerConverter. Neither of which export to OGG as far as I know.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2004) [#19]

Anyone know of an mp3-OGG converter then?



www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

You also need to install the OGG codec:

www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-ogg.htm

With this you can right-click on a WAV or MP3 file in Explorer and say 'Convert to'. Then select the options, e.g. bitrate.

You can also use 'Normalize' to make sure all your music has a consistent volume across several tracks.




That still stands in its place. itl do WAV to OGG too.


_PJ_(Posted 2004) [#20]
sounds cool - thanks :-)


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2004) [#21]
;D have fun.


morduun(Posted 2004) [#22]
GoldWave converts to ogg just fine. If you have a slightly older version you may need the plugin download -- just grab it from the site.


Hotcakes(Posted 2004) [#23]
just grab it from the site.

Can you still? He might need to upgrade. I didn't see the plugin information last time I was there.


Perturbatio(Posted 2004) [#24]
Just a thought here:

If you create a piece of software in Blitz that allows custom playlists, even if you filter all files with the .mp3 extension, mp3's can still be played (by simply renaming them).

Therefore you would either have to check the file for an mp3 header and filter that out or pay for the license since the decoder is still functional (even though you have not distributed any sounds encoded in mp3 format with the software).


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2004) [#25]
theoreticly blitz isn't allowd to have an mp3 player inside. But I think it's hard to say if it ireally breaks the patent - it's a border case.

However, just don't let it play mp3 extensions. If a user thinks he has to fool the player and rename an mp3 to wav and then copy it to the music folder, it isn't your fault.


Sledge(Posted 2004) [#26]
There should be a command to disable mp3 playback completely though. Maybe something for a patch? Just to keep us all on the safe side (you know what patent holders are like).


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2004) [#27]
I doubt we'll see such a switch in Blitz3D. But since nothing happened yet, I guess it isn't really a problem.

What they really still are after, that's MP3 Encoders.


Cyntium(Posted 2014) [#28]
Looks like we only have a short wait until the mp3 patents run out and we can start using them for free!

As early as 2015 in USA and 2017 rest of world!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3