Advantages and disadvantages of the ogg format compared to mp3
There are many occasions when users of free software talk about the ogg format. Also a fairly recurring question is:
Which audio format is better? Mp3 or ogg?
After doing a little research and testing I have come to the conclusion that the ogg format is technically superior to mp3.
Furthermore .ogg files are capable of providing superior audio quality with a smaller size.
However, both file formats have advantages and disadvantages that we will detail below.
TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES OF THE OGG FORMAT REGARDING MP3
Some of the advantages of the ogg format over mp3 are the following:
Allows you to store more audio channels
The mp3 audio files only allow to store 2 audio channels. In return, ogg files allow the use of up to 255 channels.
Thus, the .mp3 format does not allow storing 5.1 Stereo surround sound (6 channels), while an .ogg file does.
The .ogg container allows storing audio and video
The .ogg container format is capable of storing both audio and video. Instead the .mp3 container can only store audio.
However in 2007 Xiph.org created the .ogv container and the Theora codec, both specific for video. Since then .ogg containers are only recommended for storing audio.
At equal file size the quality of the ogg format is superior
The Ogg Vorbis compression format is better than mp3 because it is capable of obtaining audio qualities equal to or greater than mp3, with a lower file weight.
Some of the reasons that justify what I have just commented are the following:
Ogg Vorbis is a more current audio compression format than mp3.
Ogg vorbis is free and open so that the community can continue to improve it continuously.
The quality of an .ogg file can be much higher than that of an mp3
In the case that we care a lot about the sound quality, it is better to use the ogg format:
After carrying out several tests I have reached the following conclusions:
A compressed audio to mp3 with lame at maximum quality offers a similar quality to a compressed audio with oggenc at quality 7 or 8.
The highest quality of the ogg format is 10. Quality 10 provides excellent sound quality with an average sampling rate of 520 kbps.
The maximum quality of an .mp3 file corresponds to a file with an approximate average sampling rate of 260 kbps.
Ogg Vorbis is open and patent free
The .ogg container and the vorbis codec are completely open, free, and patent-free.
Instead the .mp3 compression format is proprietary. If someone decides to encode audio files into mp3 for example to include them in a software, they will have to pay royalties to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
Labeling system is better at ogg
The ogg Vorbis labeling system is better and more flexible than the mp3 labeling system.
For example, the Vorbis labeling system allows us the following:
Edit the labels at the same time that we compress the audio files.
We can duplicate labels. In this way, if we have more than one artist, we can have 2 artist labels.
Like ID3v2 we can create custom labels. Therefore, they allow us to add practically all the information that we want.
Use a virtually unlimited number of labels.
We can use a practically unlimited number of characters to describe each of the labels.
DISADVANTAGES OF THE OGG AUDIO FORMAT
Technically .ogg audio files are better than .mp3, but currently have the following problems:
There are audio players that do not play .ogg
There are audio players that cannot play audio in the ogg format. As an example we can find the following cases:
IPods are not yet capable of playing ogg files.
Windows 10 is also not capable of playing .ogg audio by default. If we want to reproduce ogg audio we will have to install additional codecs or download some software that is capable of reproducing them.
In Mac OS the situation is similar to that of Windows. The iTunes player is not capable of playing the .ogg file format.
There are many video players that are not capable of playing the .ogg, .ogv, .ogm, etc. file formats.
My car audio CD is not capable of playing .ogg files. Instead if you can play .mp3 files.
Despite this, in many cases we can find a solution such as installing codecs or software capable of playing .ogg files
