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I'm similar. I store FLAC on my desktop and then transcode it to opus before putting it on my music streaming server. MP3 doesn't really seem to have much relev

I'm similar. I store FLAC on my desktop and then transcode it to opus before putting it on my music streaming server. MP3 doesn't really seem to have much relevance in the modern world other than legacy.

LeoPanthera 8y ago
It does have the advantage of being patent free, since they have all expired.
- baroffoos 8y ago
  So is opus and flac. Pretty much all modern audio codecs are patent free.
  - LeoPanthera 8y ago
    Can this be proven? No chance of submarine patents?
    - nitrogen 8y ago
      Someone would have sued by now.
vonseel 8y ago
For someone out of the music codec game, is Opus generally the best codec to go with these days? Any alternatives that work with iOS? What software do you use to listen to music on your computers? Is there a good media streaming server with iOS / desktop apps which I could use and then store FLAC on my server and have it transcoded to serve to clients?
- leeoniya 8y ago
  > For someone out of the music codec game, is Opus generally the best codec to go with these days? not for compatibility. mp3 is ubiquitous. my 2017 VW can play mp3 and even flac from an sd card. i doubt it even knows what opus is. i think you'd be hard pressed to tell a difference between a well-encoded (flac source) 192kbps vbr mp3 and 160 kbps opus. the file size of the latter will be 30% smaller. > What software do you use to listen to music on your computers? on windows, foobar2000. it's superb, no bs and has tons of optional plugins.
  - vonseel 8y ago
    > on windows, foobar2000. it's superb, no bs and has tons of optional plugins. Old school. I was using that back in the early 2000s. Had a lot of fun with it. But, I've been over in Apple-land for years now... and mostly Spotify for music.
    - teknico 8y ago
      foobar2000 is excellent on Android too.
- mosiuerbarso 8y ago
  Jriver is good media player which works on IOS, Linux and on raspPI's. However, it's not free. But you can do a lot with it and it'll play movies too. I use on Jriver on my work PC to stream lossless audio to a couple of Raspberri PIs i have around my house/work. I even have it set up for streaming over the internet for when I go away on Holiday. Best thing is about this setup is that all my playlists and ratings stay synced as I'm using just the one library on my main PC.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- 8bitsrule 8y ago
  Opus can be amazing at lower bit rates. e.g. try encoding some music you know well at 64bps and compare to a 128k mp3. The higher bitrates (above 128) aren't so advantageous. https://wiki.xiph.org/Opus_Recommended_Settings https://wiki.xiph.org/Opus_Recommended_Settings (Dec. 2018)
  - chrismorgan 8y ago
    > The higher bitrates (above 128) aren't so advantageous. That’s just because by about 128Kbps Opus is already effectively perfect, where it takes closer to 200Kbps for MP3 to achieve that. Opus is just all-round better than MP3.
- shmerl 8y ago
  Opus is the best codec. There is VLC for iOS, which should be able to play Opus files.
  - vonseel 8y ago
    VLC leaves quite a bit to be desired in terms of library navigation.
shmerl 8y ago
> I'm similar. I store FLAC on my desktop and then transcode it to opus before putting it on my music streaming server. Yep, this seems to be a common practice.

LeoPanthera 8y ago

It does have the advantage of being patent free, since they have all expired.

baroffoos 8y ago
So is opus and flac. Pretty much all modern audio codecs are patent free.
- LeoPanthera 8y ago
  Can this be proven? No chance of submarine patents?
  - nitrogen 8y ago
    Someone would have sued by now.

vonseel 8y ago

For someone out of the music codec game, is Opus generally the best codec to go with these days? Any alternatives that work with iOS? What software do you use to listen to music on your computers? Is there a good media streaming server with iOS / desktop apps which I could use and then store FLAC on my server and have it transcoded to serve to clients?

leeoniya 8y ago
> For someone out of the music codec game, is Opus generally the best codec to go with these days? not for compatibility. mp3 is ubiquitous. my 2017 VW can play mp3 and even flac from an sd card. i doubt it even knows what opus is. i think you'd be hard pressed to tell a difference between a well-encoded (flac source) 192kbps vbr mp3 and 160 kbps opus. the file size of the latter will be 30% smaller. > What software do you use to listen to music on your computers? on windows, foobar2000. it's superb, no bs and has tons of optional plugins.
- vonseel 8y ago
  > on windows, foobar2000. it's superb, no bs and has tons of optional plugins. Old school. I was using that back in the early 2000s. Had a lot of fun with it. But, I've been over in Apple-land for years now... and mostly Spotify for music.
  - teknico 8y ago
    foobar2000 is excellent on Android too.
mosiuerbarso 8y ago
Jriver is good media player which works on IOS, Linux and on raspPI's. However, it's not free. But you can do a lot with it and it'll play movies too. I use on Jriver on my work PC to stream lossless audio to a couple of Raspberri PIs i have around my house/work. I even have it set up for streaming over the internet for when I go away on Holiday. Best thing is about this setup is that all my playlists and ratings stay synced as I'm using just the one library on my main PC.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
8bitsrule 8y ago
Opus can be amazing at lower bit rates. e.g. try encoding some music you know well at 64bps and compare to a 128k mp3. The higher bitrates (above 128) aren't so advantageous. https://wiki.xiph.org/Opus_Recommended_Settings https://wiki.xiph.org/Opus_Recommended_Settings (Dec. 2018)
- chrismorgan 8y ago
  > The higher bitrates (above 128) aren't so advantageous. That’s just because by about 128Kbps Opus is already effectively perfect, where it takes closer to 200Kbps for MP3 to achieve that. Opus is just all-round better than MP3.
shmerl 8y ago
Opus is the best codec. There is VLC for iOS, which should be able to play Opus files.
- vonseel 8y ago
  VLC leaves quite a bit to be desired in terms of library navigation.

shmerl 8y ago

> I'm similar. I store FLAC on my desktop and then transcode it to opus before putting it on my music streaming server. Yep, this seems to be a common practice.