The purpose of this page is to explain how to make and convert video and audio into the format usable on Wikipedia: Ogg Vorbis. For help playing such files, see Wikipedia:Media help.
Wikipedia uses Ogg Vorbis for sound and Ogg Theora for video. The Ogg Vorbis format is similar to the better-known MP3 format except that audio quality is higher and, unlike MP3, the encoders and decoders are not encumbered by patents. A [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2004-July/011514.html decision] has been made that MP3 files will not be hosted at Wikipedia.
==Video==
Because most popular movie/audio formats are patented and require a royalty, there are no free all purpose video converters.
* For video, ffmpeg2theora (http://www.v2v.cc/~j/ffmpeg2theora/examples.html) is a command line encoder capable of converting numerous file formats (.mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .avi) into Ogg Theora. It works on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix.
*You can also use the encoder_example application included with libtheora (http://www.theora.org) in combination with a program like MPlayer [1] (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/) that is capable of dumping raw (yuv4mpeg) video and sound to encode in Ogg Theora.
*For assistance with conversion, try contacting:
**Raul654
**brian0918 (Windows only)
==Audio==
* For audio, Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is a high quality sound editor for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix. To use Audacity on mp3s, it requires that you install LAME.
**Lame download page for Windows (http://mitiok.free.fr/) or the GUI winLAME (http://winlame.sourceforge.net/) which includes Ogg Vorbis encoding capabilities
**Lame download page for Macintosh (http://spaghetticode.org/lame/)
*dBpowerAMP Music Converter (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm) offers an easy-to-use GUI for encoding to Ogg Vorbis. The Vorbis codec must be downloaded separately from the software, but it is freely available from the same website.
*The command-line tool mpg321 (http://mpg321.sourceforge.net/), based on libmad (http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/) is a free mp3 decoder that can be used to play or decode mp3 files. The result can be encoded into Ogg Vorbis using oggenc or another vorbis-enabled encoder.
* The easiest way to play ogg vorbis files on legacy Macintoshes (OS 9 and lower) is to use JustOgg. (http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Abstracts/gst/snd/HyperArchive.html)
===Lists of uploaded music===
* Wikipedia:Sound/list
* Wikipedia:Sound/list/playlist
===More information===
* Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-02-14/Music recordingsWikipedia help
Should this category be fitted into :Category:Technology instead of :Category:Culture?
:Category:Mass media is already in :Category:Culture.
User:Walden 22:53, 2004 Sep 14 (UTC)
I think the dedication to storage media is not helpful. There are plenty of communications media that are not mass media. User:Charles Matthews 17:03, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
:Perhaps you could you add some examples of these? Personally, I think the content of :Category:Mass media should be converted to this category, and leave all kind of special media things in sub-categories of it. Something should be done with this category, thats for sure. regards, User:Walden 17:22, 2004 Sep 20 (UTC)
::I think "mass media" deserves to be its own category. The word "media" is much broader. User:Maurreen 14:50, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
:::Yes, the term ''media'' covers ''mass media'' also. Most readers will associate this word first with this publication/broadcasting term, not the technological storage/communication concepts. That was what this category change was about. If you feel there is a need for a sub-category called ''mass media'', you can implement that, or help to clean-up this category. regards, User:Walden 15:29, 2004 Oct 4 (UTC)