Hi, i am considering a new mp4 player. Mainly for music, but i like to put some movies on there too, to listen to when i've had enough of music.
I want to support these Free formats by specifically getting a player that supports them; my current walkman, does not. I know that ogg is like the Free equivalent to mp3, but i'm not aware of the Free equivalent to mp4.
Could someone fill me in please?

Never used them myself, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s#Video_codecs has a list, some of which I've heard of

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.mp4 is a 'container' format. Thats why you can get different audio (and video) compression codecs in .mp4 files (eg AAC, ALAC)

.ogg is also a 'container' format. Most 'ogg' files are technically 'vorbis compression in an ogg container', but there are lots of other codecs you can get in .ogg files.

For video, theora is free open source codec. You wont find many video around in theora format. You wont find many (if any) portable media players that support theora (I'm not aware of any).

Even if theora WAS common, and you could get portable media players that played theora, it stil wouldnt help much. Most video is compressed to larger screen sizes than portable media players can display (320x240 is a fairly common max resolution for video on portable media players). Video looks pretty bad @ 320x240 on 3-4'' screens. You'll probably have to convert whatever video you want to play to smaller screen sizes if you do decide to it.

Playing video also tends to really eat the battery. Its not worth it IMO.

BTW, if you want to support free open source codecs, try to get a media player that supports ogg vorbis and flac. Speex support is farily uncommon, but possibly handy. Wavpack (.wv) and APE (.ape) support exists on some players, but it and .ape are farily pointless (unless of course you have a huge collection of .ape or .wv files.....even then I would consider conversion, .flac uses less CPU to decode than .ape or .wv).

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vp8/webm is the closest technical equivalent to mpeg4 avc that I know of. It's still relatively new and some people question whether it's really patent free.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VP8


Slightly lower on the performance scale (apparently) is the dirac codec, but it's less well-supported.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac_(...ession_format)


A more mature option is ogg theora, but its more of an equivalent to xvid in quality/filesize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theora


Finally, note that codec and the container formats are a separate, but interrelated issue. A single container, like avi or matroska, can often support many different codecs, with varying levels of support and features. Make sure your player can handle the container you want to use as well as the codecs.


Edit: BTW, if you want to go free, consider getting a player that supports the rockbox open firmware.

http://www.rockbox.org/

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Thanks heaps for the tips guys. I'm yet to try out these other formats, but knowledge is the first step. (-:

True.....pity that a lot of manufacturers just list the container supported, not the codec.

'AVI' support doesnt mean that much, what you really need to know is 'XviD/DivX in an avi container' is supported (BTW, 95%+ of 'avi' support is actually xvid/divx).

Wouldnt it be better to get a player that supports open formats 'out of the box' over media players that are flashable with rockbox?

If you can find one, sure, I suppose. But from what I've read of it, rockbox offers a lot of benefits. It provides a single, standardized and open system that supports multiple players, is completely under your control, and it generally has more and better features than anything supplied by the manufacturers themselves.

I suggested it because it's probably easier to pick up a rockbox compatible player (if perhaps a used one) and flash it than to find one that comes pre-loaded with firmware that supports everything you want.

If I ever need to get a portable player, that's what I'm going to do.

It may not be the case now but back when I used Rockbox it had problems with battery life on some systems -- so much so I stopped using it on my iRiver.
Without knowing the type of player and price this may not be of help but for higher-end players I've found Cowon to be most supportive of open source formats -- the only downside (to some people) being they don't support DRM.

Its not that hard to find media players that support the 'big' open source codecs (ogg vorbis, flac).

The only benefit of rockbox over a getting a (fairly) open soruce codec friendly player is the 'extra' formats supported by rockbox compared to most (all?) of the portable media players...which dont matter much IMO.

The 'open source friendly' versions tend to support ogg vorbis and flac, sometimes speex or ape.

Rockbox adds support for
Lossles-
wavpack, shorten, monkeys audio (.ape), apple lossless and true audio

Flac uses less CPU to decode than any of the other lossless codecs. Since they are lossless, and easily convertered, its better to just use flac for portable use. Shorten is totally obsolete, monkeys audio is pretty awful in general, true audio is very rare.

Lossy-
Cook, musepack, lossy wavpack part files.

Cook I've never seen 'in the wild' AFAIK, musepack is rare now, wavpack lossy part files mean you should have the full lossless version (so can be transcoded easily and with no risk)

To me it just makes sense to get a portable media player that is made by people that provide open source codec support over getting a media player that will work with rockbox from 'unfriendly' manufacturers.