Re: mp3 encoder?

[Craig Dickson <crdic@yahoo.com>]

Andy Hartford wrote:

> Maybe I'm blind, but I can't find any mp3 encoders in Debian.
> Where's LAME, etc??

Not there, presumably due to patent issues surrounding the MP3 format.
You can't GPL an MP3 codec, so lame would have to be in non-free if
Debian had it at all; that it isn't there suggests Debian has elected to
avoid the potential legal issues of distributing it.

There is "toolame", which does MPEG-1 layer 2 audio compression (which
it claims most MP3 players can also handle), but that's probably not
what you want.

Unless you want to make MP3 files for an external MP3 hardware player
that doesn't support any other format, you might want to try Ogg Vorbis,
which is superior to MP3 and patent-free. The Vorbis encoder is in
Debian unstable, along with a command-line player and plugins for other
players (xmms definitely, not sure about others because xmms is all I
use). The Vorbis command-line tools are in the vorbis-tools package;
xmms (at least in unstable) comes with Vorbis support.

Craig