Timwi wrote:
The quantification "almost nobody" applies now, but for how much longer? Ogg Vorbis has taken off quite remarkably. I think Wikipedia should help boost the popularity of these open-source formats, *especially* when they are the only free alternative to proprietary competitors.
I've personally never actually seen a Vorbis-encoded file anywhere except Wikipedia, and non-techies I know typically don't know what to do with them when I send them, especially since apparently they don't play in the installations of Winamp many people have (I don't use Windows, so have no idea if more recent versions of Winamp include a Vorbis codec in the default download package). Basically everyone still uses mp3, with AAC second place, and I've even seen more MPC than Vorbis, though that may not be representatives (codec-elitists tend to like MPC for being a subband, rather than transform, codec, which apparently makes pre-echo artifacts like those you find in MPC/AAC/Vorbis much less of a problem).
At the very least I think we should wait until a reasonably functional player is available for all major operating systems, so even if people can't play them by default, they can go somewhere and acquire software to play them. Even more preferable would be to have reasonably functional encoders available for all major OSes as well, so people could actually contribute the videos. (Vorbis does meet both these criteria.)
-Mark