[Trevor]

On 15/05/2017 8:19 PM, John Williamson wrote:
On 15/05/2017 09:09, Trevor wrote:
On 14/05/2017 11:05 PM, John Williamson wrote:
LAME has been doing a very good job of producing MP3 compatible
files for a long time now, and is available for all platforms
except, maybe, Apple.

What will mainly be affected are small hand held recorders, if
the makers are licencing the mp3 production software and hardware
from Technicolor. Companies like Zoom will either have to find
another way to encde the files or start using other formats,
which opens a wjole can of worms for playback, as most players
are firmware enabled for .mp3 or .wav only.

What have I missed? Why should Zoom need to stop providing MP3
recording and playback? Not that I have EVER used my Zoom to record
in MP3 anyway. (can easily convert later if needed, and I don't
need to record days at a time onto one card.) It does make a nice
MP3 player though. Rather have one than any iPod.


Technicolor and Fraunhofer have announced they will no longer be
issuing licences to use their patented software and hardware to
create mp3 files, and will be withdrawing support for it. As Zoom and
other makers need licences to legally give their products mp3
capability, they will no longer be able to make new designs that
encode audio as mp3. Current designs are licenced, and production can
be continued under the terms of that licence, but new stuff isn't and
won't be able to be.

NOT so, the reason it is no longer to be licensed is that the patents
expire and it won't be necessary any more. As for support, I don't think
Fraunhofer have done anything with MP3 for years anyway.



Alternative methods of producing files compatible with mp3 players
are not affected, so we may see LAME or other encoders embedded in
standalone recorders, and the firmware modified to use a Linux
kernel. The problem for the makers is that they are not permitted to
call the compatible files "mp3 format" or use the trademarked logo.


They will still be able to call them MP3 once the patents expire, and I
doubt anyone cares about the LOGO anyway, assuming the trademark is even
renewed. However I expect most companies won't bother supporting MP3
recording as there are better formats now and storage costs have
diminished substantially since MP3 was invented. I do expect (and sure
hope) they continue to support MP3 playback for legacy files however.
Since that is not difficult or expensive to do, I would expect most
will. Companies like APPLE who like to NEVER do anything that is the
norm, will probably ignore it I expect. No loss there.

Trevor.