Difference Between MP3 and OGG Vorbis

MP3 and OGG Vorbis are the types of compressed audio files and are probably known as lossy compression audio formats. Both are considered the favorites to download, store and copy. OGG Vorbis is not only free, but also an open audio encoding format. MP3 is a proprietary media encoding format. The designers of the MP3 format claim that they can charge royalties for any type of file or application that uses their MP3 format. The compression bitrate can be varied in OGG Vorbis as needed, but in MP3 the compression bitrate cannot be varied and remains constant.

What is MP3?

MP3 is an audio format and is short for “MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3”. It was developed by Thompson Multimedia and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in the late 1980s. Basically, MP3 is an audio format that revolutionizes the digital audio format in smaller sizes while maintaining the same sound quality. Even a 50 MB WAV file can be compressed to a smaller size of 3 MB using this MP3 while maintaining the same digital sound quality. The compression bit rate cannot be changed with the MP3 compression format. MP3 supports two discrete channels and also a “Joint Stereo” which is used to minimize the amount of data to store the audio stream.

What is OGG Vorbis?

OGG Vorbis is an audio format that revolutionizes the digital audio format in a smaller size without sacrificing digital sound quality. OGG Vorbis was developed by the Viph.Org Foundation and first released in 2002. It is also a lossy compression audio format. It is open source and free for everyone to download and use. The bitrate for encoding can be varied in OGG Vorbis as needed. It is open source and is gaining popularity among developers due to its superior sound quality. It is also making a place for itself in the game development industry. OGG Vorbis uses more than 2 channels.

1. OGG Vorbis supports more than two channels at most up to 256, while MP3 supports two discrete channels and also “Joint Stereo”.
2. OGG Vorbis is not only free, but also an open audio encoding format. MP3 is a proprietary media encoding format. The designers of the MP3 format claim that they can charge royalties for any type of file or application that uses their MP3 format.
3. While at 192 kbps the encoding for OGG Vorbis is better than MP3, at 128 kbps both are of similar quality.
4. MP3 is more familiar than OGG Vorbis.
5. MP3 is more popular than OGG Vorbis.
6. The sound quality of OGG Vorbis is superior to MP3.
7. The size of the compressed file in OGG Vorbis format is smaller than the size of the same compressed file in MP3 format.
8. OGG Vorbis is open source, but MP3 is limited by patents.
9. The compression bitrate can be varied in OGG Vorbis as needed, but in MP3 the compression bitrate cannot be varied and remains constant.
10. OGG Vorbis was developed by the Viph.Org Foundation, while MP3 was developed by Thompson Multimedia and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.