Broadcasts in Windows Media only?

[thedqs]

Also you can suggest BYU to stream in OGG and then BYU would put the resources into the project to get BYU TV another venue of distribution.

[cannona-p40]

I believe the OGG/Theora folks are working on a protocol to support peer-to-peer video streaming, somewhat like BitTorrent, except for video. Assuming permission was granted, this could be one way to distribute general conference. If the Church and BYU weren't interested in doing the work, perhaps the Church would grant permission for someone else to do it. With the new protocol, bandwidth wouldn't be as big an issue. Unfortunately, its currently all theoretical as the program doesn't yet exist.

Another possibility would be for someone with a satellite feed to stream the conference using an EC2 server and a more Linux friendly codec. If someone were to listen through the entire 8 hours at 56KBPS, the bandwidth would cost about $0.02. People could be asked to make a small donation to help offset costs. If the broadcast were sent as audio only, the cost would be about a third of that.

Anyway, I'm not sure its worth it; its just a thought.

[EarloftheWest-p40]

Hello, everyone.

I've recently been using Ubuntu GNU/Linux as my primary OS for awhile now.

I too would like to watch archives of General Conference on my computer.

I understand that there are some work-arounds to allow Linux users to be able to view Windows Media and Quicktime content, but it some countries, these work-arounds could be illegal.

The mplayer plugin for Firefox may be installing proprietary codecs that may not have been licensed.

Bypassing the legal questions would be the better path.

The best option is for Church content to be encoded in the ogg format.

The ogg format is an open format. There are add-ons available for most of the popular operating systems (including Windows, Mac & Linux) and folks who don't have a ready made player with ogg could build one if they wanted to since the format is open.

The Church has Windows users install the Move Networks add on to their machines to watch content. This shows that the Church is not opposed to asking it's viewers to install software to see content. Is there much difference in asking viewers to install the ogg codecs?

The Church could provide General Conference content in the ogg format in addition to the current options. Conversely, the Church could simply provide content in the ogg format exclusively and have folks install the ogg codec. Perhaps a low-res and HD version of General Conference in the ogg format wolud be all that is needed for viewers around the world.

This issue will become more important as time moves on. I suspect more and more folks will be asking for the ability to view General Conference archives on their computer without having to install codecs whose legality may be questionable.

As an aside, using an open format could save the Church money in not having to pay fees to distribute content in proprietary formats.

Thank you for your time.

[rmrichesjr]

(No endorsement is intended by any mention of any brand names.)

I too use Linux at home. I don't even have any modern software from Redmond, Washington in my house. I use Mandriva, but Ubuntu is probably where I would go if I were to switch to anything else.

I would also like to see the Church use more open formats for their content. The situation has improved considerably in the past several years. I expect there will likely be gradual improvement into the future. However, I don't think we can realistically expect the Church to go fully to open formats until the lambs and lions are lying down together. Perhaps the pace of improvement will increase as open source software (Linux and other) gains popularity, but there are still too many people in Church IT and elsewhere who aren't even aware of the existence of operating systems from places other than Redmond. I don't know whether there is any truth to the rumors that the company in Redmond still uses leverage in their licensing to keep its customers from using alternative formats and such.

For the current situation, I am using the "free" version of Mandriva with (as far as I am aware) no proprietary codecs installed, and I just watched a bit of conference in the pre-9 WMV format without difficulty using mplayer. The version 9 WMV had caching problems that might be solved by downloading the file and playing it from local disk. For me, the MP4 had no audio.

If I am informed correctly, at least for mp3, the legal issues are with the encoding end. If that is correct, open source software for mp3 playback would be clear of any legal issues. Hopefully, the same would also be true of other formats, that the encoding method is what the patents protect, leaving the file format itself and playback methods in the clear.

I think I recall reading that Move Networks (for BYU TV over the net) said they would be doing a Linux version, so there may be hope in that direction, too.

[mkmurray]

...but there are still too many people in Church IT and elsewhere who aren't even aware of the existence of operating systems from places other than Redmond.

I highly doubt that. That is not the impression I got at all over a year ago when they held the Tech Talks here in UT.

I think many of you could benefit from some sort of online Tech Talk.

[rmrichesjr]

I highly doubt that. That is not the impression I got at all over a year ago when they held the Tech Talks here in UT.

I think many of you could benefit from some sort of online Tech Talk.

I would be very pleased to stand corrected on my earlier impression.

I would also be very pleased to listen to an online tech talk. I don't believe I have seen them available, but I would be happy to be shown wrong on that point, too.

[Jesse Smith-p40]

Is there a reason some broadcasts don't have mp3 option? For example, Funeral Services for President Gordon B. Hinckley don't have mp3, and the audio of the scriptures *used* to be mp3, along with the option to download fill books in one click, but now they are .awx.

[rmrichesjr]

Is there a reason some broadcasts don't have mp3 option? For example, Funeral Services for President Gordon B. Hinckley don't have mp3, and the audio of the scriptures *used* to be mp3, along with the option to download fill books in one click, but now they are .awx.

I still see the scriptures in MP3 format. From lds.org home page, go to Gospel Library, then Media Formats, then Audio, then The Scriptures. I had downloaded NT and the triple combo some months ago. I see the OT is now available. I'm downloading the ZIP file as I type this, so I haven't unpacked the ZIP file, but the individual chapters have the "mp3" extension.

[JamesAnderson]

There does seem to be some inconsistency here on what things show up in what formats, I thought the idea was to make things available in the most common formats that people used.

Typically, most people use mp3, some use .wma, and right now the standard for video is .wmv or .flv (youtube.com) format.

But yes, the President Hinckley funeral was only in wma, I got my mp3 version from KSL.

The other one that was not made available in mp3 was the Scouting broadcast last year. In fact there is no audio-only file for that one, it was all video, and only a pdf for the transcript.

For wma audio files, I get around this by using a 300kb software item known as 'Free WMA to MP3 converter', just search Google on that to find it.

Virtually all media players will play mp3 files, iPods however won't play wma files, and Microsoft Zunes won't play Apple AAC files, I know of very few media players that play ogg or other side formats. Even Sony abandoned its 'Atrac3' format it appears.

[JamesAnderson]

Found some audio files on the Broadcast Archives page that are in a format that most people don't have the players to use anymore.

The file extension is .mms, and it's being used still for some older, about 2000 stuff, like the 'Six B's ' fireside (November 12, 2000). My system, a Win2000 machine, doesn't even have the required player for it, although it is a Windows Media file apparently.

Those need to be updated to mp3 also. Found these a week after the last posting in this thread, which was mine as well.