Ogg extensions in the wild

FLAC 1.2.1 was released a few hours ago. Among the changes was a new file extensions for the Ogg FLAC format. The new .oga (audio/ogg) extension is a part of Xiph's new file extension and MIME type specification for their media formats. FLAC's implementation is one of the very first seen in the wild.

The MIME Types and File Extensions page on the Xiph wiki explains the new file extensions and MIME types. As the page specifies: Most are not registered yet. But immediate adoption is encouraged.

One of .mp3's advantages have always been that everyone knows what they get (an audio file). With the .ogg extension it has been hard to tell whether it is an audio or a video file. The new file extensions and indeed MIME types will make it even easier for new users to interact with the Ogg container format. This will be an improvement to free multimedia formats that the average user actually will be able to take advantage of.

I encourage every encoder to upgrade to the newest version of FLAC. The speed improvements are very nice!

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One comment

Sadly there is not many software players that support Ogg FLAC. Not to mention this new variant of Ogg FLAC.

I think it is great that Xiph is finally clearing up in their file extensions though.

Comment by Matt at 2007-09-18 @023.

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