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Topic: ReallyRareWares launched (Read 56434 times) previous topic - next topic
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ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #25 –
This was a great idea...  The Eight-Tracks of Audio Codecs, many of these are.   

The historical value alone makes it all worth while, but it would also have research value (e.g., "the progression of MPEG encoding formats"), satisfy "curiosity" of what some of the codecs are that so many people have talked about but haven't been around in a while, and also provide retroactive support for anyone still using any of these codecs.

Well done!


P.S...Would it be relevant or worth the effort to put original publish dates with each codec to give people an idea of when they were released and were used?  Sort of a "chronology of audio encoding".  You wouldn't have to make it as thorough as a wiki by any means, but it's already like a museum as it is.  A few "chronology notes" might not hurt.  Just a thought...


Edit:  Expanded an idea...

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #26 –
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it seems to be included in rJPa

Shhhhh... Don't say that out loud or RealNetworks will come after me

But yes, after you istall rJPa, you'll notice that tompg.exe 3.0 (latest version) miraculously appears at your /System (or /System32) folder.

That is the encoder EncSpot recognizes as "Xing Old", so I bet you can imagine the superior quality :B

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Here in Germany it is impossible to create such a site. You can't even put a few Icon-Themes on your Webpage without make your post adress public available. I should leave Germany


Hehe. Ironically enough, that site is hosted by a german provider (1und1), but probably in their new USA datacenter. I'm using that crazy offer of professional package for free for 3 years.

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P.S...Would it be relevant or worth the effort to put original publish dates with each codec to give people an idea of when they were released and were used?


Hrm... I already show the release date (as accurate as I could find out) with every file hosted there.

Or did you mean something else? Maybe a timeline?

Regards;

Roberto.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #27 –
yup, the background info is the best part
muchos gracias

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #28 –
This is excellent thanks! I have been after Plugger a long time for the reason of just being curious?

If space is not a premium how about adding some early versions of programs such as CDEX, Audiograbber etc. A sort of Oldversion.com for rippers/encoders.

Anyway thanks again for this bit of history 

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #29 –
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But yes, after you istall rJPa, you'll notice that tompg.exe 3.0 (latest version) miraculously appears at your /System (or /System32) folder.

That is the encoder EncSpot recognizes as "Xing Old", so I bet you can imagine the superior quality :B

Ah, so that's probably the encoder EMusic used for their 128kbps MP3s. At least, the ones I got get identified as "Xing Old" by EncSpot.

I can definately confirm that the sound quality is... erm.... "astonishing".  >_<
Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #33 –
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must be http://old-lame.chat.ru/

No use.

I also tried pinging both addresses from Hydrogenaudio's SSH server, to no avail.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #34 –
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I also tried pinging both addresses from Hydrogenaudio's SSH server, to no avail.

Both addresses working fine here...
Code: [Select]
C:\>ping old_lame.chat.ru

Pinging old_lame.chat.ru [195.161.119.97] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 195.161.119.97: bytes=32 time=234ms TTL=238
Reply from 195.161.119.97: bytes=32 time=234ms TTL=238
Reply from 195.161.119.97: bytes=32 time=219ms TTL=238
Reply from 195.161.119.97: bytes=32 time=219ms TTL=238

Ping statistics for 195.161.119.97:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 219ms, Maximum =  234ms, Average =  226ms

C:\>ping old-lame.char.ru

Pinging old-lame.char.ru [195.161.118.168] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 195.161.118.168: bytes=32 time=235ms TTL=47
Reply from 195.161.118.168: bytes=32 time=219ms TTL=47
Reply from 195.161.118.168: bytes=32 time=219ms TTL=47
Reply from 195.161.118.168: bytes=32 time=235ms TTL=47

Ping statistics for 195.161.118.168:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 219ms, Maximum =  235ms, Average =  227ms

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #35 –
Very weird!

I already trying logging in to the page using all SSH servers I have access to (3 in the US and one here un Brazil), and I keep not being able to connect. So it can't be a DNS error or something like that.


Edit: Ah, finally found a working solution (lynx old_lame.chat.ru at the 1and1 SSH server)

Thanks for the help

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #36 –
Visiting that site reminds me of my first command-line sessions with L3enc on Windows and using Blade on my old BeOS box.  Thanks, Roberto.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #37 –
Another update: oddities (ePAC, PAC, MP+ SV4, Astrid AAC, QDesign...)

Vocodecs will probably come later tonight.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #38 –
Nice work Roberto... our very own museum!!

Regards

AgentMil
-=MusePack... Living Audio Compression=-

Honda - The Power of Dreams

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #39 –
Added the vocodecs section. And VQF, that was meant to be a separate section, ended up with oddities (no point in creating a section for only two pages).

Tomorrow, if I have enough time, AAC and Lame!

Regards;

Roberto.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #40 –
I still have mp3 producer pro 2.0 not radium release. The radium release says its "freeware" in the installation  I think i have a phillps mp2 player somewhere too. And posibly FHG's winplay3. Perhaps it would be interesting to have winamp 1.x versions, i know they released a command line only around 1.8 but forgot...

How about dist10 sources? its no fun to have old lame diffs without dist10 to apply the patches to... There were also l3enc linux binaries i remember i used.

Oh wait, this is no abandonware site? ah well...
She is waiting in the air

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #41 –
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I still have mp3 producer pro 2.0 not radium release. The radium release says its "freeware" in the installation

Well, that one is surely warez, so I can't host it there.

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I think i have a phillps mp2 player somewhere too. And posibly FHG's winplay3.


I have 2 Philips players, 1.1 and 2.0beta. Will upload them this weekend. What version of WinPlay3 do you have?

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Perhaps it would be interesting to have winamp 1.x versions, i know they released a command line only around 1.8 but forgot...


Nah, that's a job for Winamp Heaven

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How about dist10 sources? its no fun to have old lame diffs without dist10 to apply the patches to...


Well, I only have Lame binaries there. But you can get dist10 sources here:
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/multimedia/Berkele...t/dist10.tar.gz

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There were also l3enc linux binaries i remember i used.


They are available at the l3enc page

But they require some deprecated libs, so I couldn't get them to run on Debian Woody.

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Oh wait, this is no abandonware site? ah well...


Well, abandoned software is OK. But only if it's freeware or shareware, since retail versions (I.E, warez) could get my account with 1and1 cancelled



I uploaded the Lame page now. All versions from 3.59b to 3.88b. If you have binaries older than 3.59 or version 3.89b, please contact me.

Regards;

Roberto.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #42 –
Quote
Quote
P.S...Would it be relevant or worth the effort to put original publish dates with each codec to give people an idea of when they were released and were used?


Hrm... I already show the release date (as accurate as I could find out) with every file hosted there.

Or did you mean something else? Maybe a timeline?

Actually, you've already included a lot of what I was thinking of (I didn't see the dates there before...sorry).  Descriptions, creators, versions, release dates for each codec.

But one thing I was thinking that may "tie it all together" for encoding newbies like myself, and since it's already such a great "tour" of audio encoding history, is a timeline on the first page.

Duration would be from the earliest codec in your list to the newest in the list.  One side of the timeline could have marks for each codec's initial release, then, not a notation for every subsequent version of it, but perhaps milestones could be shown.  The other side of the timeline could mark specific encoding functions that made the codecs possible, or enhanced their performance, such as Huffman encoding, Fast Fourier Transform, DCT and MDCT, and so forth (forgive my lack of knowledge of these details, but someone with such knowledge would obviously be better qualified to fill in this info).

Each codec and codec milestone shown on the timeline could be linked to the description page you already have for the codecs, and each encoding function could have a brief description as well, linked from each matching timeline entry.  The encoding function descriptions could also include applicable patents, creators and creation dates.

The timeline, links and descriptions of the major encoding functions would not take too much work to create, I don't think.  The patent info for the functions may take more involved research, but could come later perhaps, if there is too much work to do at the moment on everything else.  I'd recommend still having the categories and lists of codecs for people who know exactly what they're looking for, but a timeline with links from it to each codec and function description would be a great interface for the "less experienced" folks like me.  And if one timeline for everything would be too crowded, then maybe one each for lossy, lossless, and vocodecs, or one for each format type.

You've got such a valuable cache of information there at the moment, and will have even more as you're building the site, so taking that "extra step" to make it even more educational for newbies curious about the history of audio encoding would be a great addition in my opinion.  Re-reading my post here, I'm realizing that this could all be more work than I originally thought, so breaking it into manageable "bites" would be preferable, if you wanted to pursue it that is.  Perhaps one very general timeline of all codecs, the major encoding functions, and a few of the milestones would be the best way to start, then later breaking it into more detailed chronologies could be done.

If you and other folks see any value in this idea and think it would be worthwhile, then I'd love to help.  However, I don't have a very deep knowledge of audio encoding techniques or history, and most of the codecs shown on the site I've never heard of.  (Big help I am, huh?    )

Anyway, just an idea whose value would have to be determined to justify the work involved.  Either way, you've done great work on the site so far!

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #43 –
Very nice, I also like the background comments.

I can't help but think what could have become of these projects had it not been for FhG.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #44 –
How about add SCMPX to ReallyRareWares?
The site is still available here.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #45 –
Quote
Hehe. Ironically enough, that site is hosted by a german provider (1und1), but probably in their new USA datacenter. I'm using that crazy offer of professional package for free for 3 years.

Hi, Roberto. Is the offer you'r talking about is something publically availible for everyone? It sounds good, but I didn't find anything about this on their web site. However, I tried to read their site with a translator, because my knowledge of German language consists only of some episodes of WW2 movies (-;

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #46 –
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Hi, Roberto. Is the offer you'r talking about is something publically availible for everyone?

It's publically available for anyone in the United States until January 14th.

Let's say I found a way of being considered an american resident

Quote
It sounds good, but I didn't find anything about this on their web site.


http://order.1and1.com/xml/static/Home%3Bj...3C9C1FFAA.TC60b

It's only available at their american site - 1and1

Quote
How about add SCMPX to ReallyRareWares?
The site is still available here.


Thanks for the idea. I'll add it today after I add the AAC section (that, not surprisingly, will be hosted here in Brazil)

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #47 –
Next step, bring back VQF forum, with anonymous posting enabled.
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.
 

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #48 –
Quote
Duration would be from the earliest codec in your list to the newest in the list.  One side of the timeline could have marks for each codec's initial release, then, not a notation for every subsequent version of it, but perhaps milestones could be shown.  The other side of the timeline could mark specific encoding functions that made the codecs possible, or enhanced their performance, such as Huffman encoding, Fast Fourier Transform, DCT and MDCT, and so forth (forgive my lack of knowledge of these details, but someone with such knowledge would obviously be better qualified to fill in this info).

Hrm... Problem is, I don't know anything about dates when these algorithms (DCT, Huffman, Fourier...) were created. We would need some sort of guru to come out with all that information.

Quote
Each codec and codec milestone shown on the timeline could be linked to the description page you already have for the codecs, and each encoding function could have a brief description as well, linked from each matching timeline entry.  The encoding function descriptions could also include applicable patents, creators and creation dates.


Well, that one would be easier. There are still codecs that I'm not sure about the release date, but it's guessable.

Patents can also be easily researched at USPTO.

Quote
The timeline, links and descriptions of the major encoding functions would not take too much work to create, I don't think.  The patent info for the functions may take more involved research, but could come later perhaps, if there is too much work to do at the moment on everything else.  I'd recommend still having the categories and lists of codecs for people who know exactly what they're looking for, but a timeline with links from it to each codec and function description would be a great interface for the "less experienced" folks like me.  And if one timeline for everything would be too crowded, then maybe one each for lossy, lossless, and vocodecs, or one for each format type.


I'd prefer a vertical timeline for everything, that could become huge if needed.

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Re-reading my post here, I'm realizing that this could all be more work than I originally thought


Right

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so breaking it into manageable "bites" would be preferable, if you wanted to pursue it that is.  Perhaps one very general timeline of all codecs, the major encoding functions, and a few of the milestones would be the best way to start, then later breaking it into more detailed chronologies could be done.


I think an easier approach would be to do a timeline at the same pace you gather information. That's another reason of making it vertical - you can stretch it as much as you want.

Here's what I have in mind:
http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/timeline.html

So, the template and the guidelines are there. Also, you can find the dates at each program's page. Any good soul wiling to help me on this one?

Regards;

Roberto.

ReallyRareWares launched

Reply #49 –
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Next step, bring back VQF forum, with anonymous posting enabled.

LOL. So you miss trolling there?