is there a command line converter to convert mp3's to .ogg?

use any decoder to decode it into wav
then use the oggenc to encode into ogg
but converting mp3 to ogg is a bad idea
becoz they have different algoritms
both of them are lossy(means that they are not "transparent":transparent means sounding exactly like the original wav)
that means if you convert your mp3 back to wav
it will not be like the original wav
now you will encode it again to ogg
it will be more lossy
easily becoz the algorithm are different

so then .mp3 to .wav for better sound eh? then to ogg... i gotcha.. thanks for the help...

if war's not the answer then what is the answer? :-)

Not quite. When you encode to mp3 you information away, that'w why mp3 can compress the music by so much. Then when you play/unencode the mp3 you DON'T get the original waveform back, you get the waveform minus the bits that you threw away.

Ogg Vorbis also uses lossy compression, but it is different to mp3 so it throws away different information. So if you take the waveform from the unencoded mp3 and reencode it as an Ogg Vorbis then you have lost what the mp3 encoder threw away AND what the Ogg Vorbis encoder throws away, leaving you with a less good sounding Ogg Vorbis file than the mp3.

The best solution is to encode the original waveforms (as in from the CD) straight to Ogg Vorbis.

Note: This doesn't mean that Ogg Vorbis is a worse format than mp3, I prefer it over mp3 (the music sounds just as good to me and the licence is much nicer IMO). If you were to do an Ogg Vorbis to mp3 conversion the mp3 would sound worse.

well ogg and mp3 "throws away" different things
that means if you decode mp3 to wave
and then encode it to ogg
the different "throw away" parts means that it will be of less quality than the original mp3
and yes ogg is one of the best(if not the best-maybe the best is mp+) encoding
it definately beats mp3 hats down
i suggest everyone to use ogg instead of mp3
but there is a catch
you can't play ogg in your portable device
(until of course they decide to support ogg)

well nobody likes saddam
but we can't just neglect possible human catastrophe
or even the collateral damage that an war can result
also we have to admit that saddam is a madman
he may be more dangerous when provoked
so i think let him stay
(he is no danger to anyone)
if he had wanted there would have been a bigger casualty list in the gulf war(1991)
at that time too thousands of innocent iraqis died
and due to subsequent sanctions
millions more may have perished
clearly it is the iraqi people who has suffered the most
and will suffer the most
saddam if attacked
will maybe even use weapons against his own people
but there are other alternatives
like continueing the un inspections
(until there is un inspections -saddam can't do anything)
or his exile (if possible)
my choice for the correct answer would be a un administered
election on the country
i do think that war is almost certain
but let's hope that it would be short and
the civilian casualties will be minimum

Have a look here.

Good eh?

Ogg and Warfare(or at least, I hope something miraculous happens and we can avoid it) :-)

So, do any of you know if I can stream ogg files with icecast or any of the other myriad audio servers?

good start hope that other portables will support ogg too

see this
http://www.icecast.org/

I recommend audio-convert, see

http://freshmeat.net/projects/audio-convert

and

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showt...age=3&pp=15