The following are the standards for all new audio and video we provide on Church sites. (Not all current media files meet these standards, but all new media we create will meet these standards.)Downloadable Audio: MP3 with an ID3 tag version of 2.3 or newer.
- Talks and music – Stereo at 128k Bit/s 44.1 kHz.
- Talks only – Stereo at 64k Bit/s 44.1 kHz.
- Music only – Stereo at 128k Bit/s 44.1 kHz.
Streaming Audio: Windows Media Audio
- Talks – Mono with a 16k compression rate.
- Music – Stereo with a 96k compression rate.
Downloadable and Streaming Video:
- Windows Media 8 300K (320×240). Broadcast archives include 56k version.
- Windows Media 11 MBR (640×480). This is a multi-bit Rate (56k, 300k, 1MB) that allows multiple quality levels in the same file.
- QuickTime h.264 (.mp4) (640×480). 1MB compression.
- Mpeg 2 VOB. This format is for purposes of copying to a DVD to be played through DVD players. It will be provided only on specific products that are also distributed as DVDs.
- Note: American Sign Language (ASL) will be encoded as QuickTime only.
We believe these standards provide an acceptable experience for both broadband and dial-up users.
You comments are welcomed.
Note: This post replaces the standards previously stated in Standard Formats for Audio and Video on Church Web Sites.
Why is audio of priesthood sessions not available for download? The ASL version is available for download. So I suppose I could extract the audio from the file and use that, but why not just make it easier for those of us who want ALL of general conference.
The church likes to keep the priesthood session a little less public than the other sessions, since it is by invitation only to priesthood holders. We provide the text, but have been asked not to post audio and video files.
The ASL version of priesthood sessions are posted. It contains audio and video.
Is there any chance that there will be open formats sometime too? With some Windows Media files/streams I still have problems on my Linux machine. I’d really appreciate that! 🙂 Ogg would be great, Vorbis and Theora are really good and Speex would be just perfect for talks. And because it’s open there are no license fees and there are media players for every platform that can play those files/streams. For example VLC is a great (open source) media player that can play those files and streams and it runs on Windows, MacOS X, Linux and other Unices.
I know most people use Windows but it would be a great addition for all other people.
Thanks for including h.264.
I apologize for a ‘me too’, but I wholeheartedly second Andreas Ermler’s comment on open formats. It appears as if the Church is ‘buttressing monopolies’.
We’re not trying to buttress monopolies. We simply try to provide files compatible with the players most people have installed on their computers. At this point, not many people have Ogg, Vorbis, Theora, or Speex. We simply can’t provide tens of thousands of files in lots of formats each, so we have to pick just a few formats that hopefully meet most people’s needs.
I understand the reason for doing it the way it is. Most people do use Windows on their computers and can access those files without having to install anything new.
But by using _only_ proprietary formats it’s really hard, in some countries illegal or often just impossible to access those files for users who don’t use that software.
The thing about open formats is that they can be accessed on _every_ system. Programs that can access them run on Windows (even the Windows Media Player can play those formats if you just install the codecs), on Linux, on MacOS etc. So basically everybody can use those formats and not just people that use Windows. So users would have the choice what they want to use, what program, what operating system, etc. But by just offering files in a proprietary format you actually _are_ supporting monopolies and discriminating people who can’t use that format.
I’m reading a lot of IT-related news and it is my impression that there is a trend at the moment, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that a lot of governments, schools, etc. everywhere around the world are switching to open formats (especially OpenDocument) and Open Source Software (if you want links, tell me). So it’s my impression that supporting different platforms could become an important subject in the future.
You wouldn’t have to support lots of formats, it would be just Ogg Vorbis for audio and Ogg Theora for Video. Wikipedia for example is doing that. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_help)
Hi
Thxs for your work,
which is the possibility of using divx?.
My point is that the divx turning into the common standard of audiovideo, in fact, till now, to see the conferences in my dvd (with divx support) I have to transform from WMV to Divx and then record them in a dvd disk.
Some suggested reading:
http://www.openformats.org/
http://perens.com/OpenStandards/Definition.html
Not sure where else to post this but I am having issues with the Quicktime downloads for the WWLT that was just posted this weekend. I can’t open the files once they’ve downloaded as I get the following error: Errpr -37: a bad file name or volume name was encountered. Is anyone else having this issue? It only affects the first two files, the others downloaded correctly.
Update: OK so I fixed the playback issue in iTunes etc. (had to rename the files) but now I can’t get the files to convert for use on my iPod as I get audio with no video in iTunes, but the newly converted files won’t even play on my iPod. Any suggestions, I have sent feedback on the Church website but am just wondering if anyone else was having these issues. BTW, I have iPod Video 80gb. And iTunes 7.1.1.5
As I understand most material is possible to get in “Mpeg 2 VOB” format. Where can I find those files for the General Conference to download?
I want DVD quality of the video signal, english sound and then will I make subtitles in Swedish (and maybe other languages also) and burn DVD copies för the Stake.
/Sven
Sven, we don’t provide Mpeg 2 VOB format. The Church publishes DVDs with video and audio in many languages, including Swedish.
I know this is a really old thread but I wanted to add my 2 cents.
I’m using Ubuntu GNU/Linux as my primary OS now.
The only thing my Ubuntu experience is missing is being able to watch the General Conference downloads without having to install proprietary (and most likely illegal in the US) codecs on my computer.
We’re seeing a shift in technology towards ultra low cost PCs (laptops). Many of these machines are running Linux distributions.
These folks are out in the cold and won’t be able to view General Conference.
I completely understand that adding one additional format is a little more work for the folks in the multi-media department. It is well worth the effort however.
Today, only Windows and Mac users are able to view video archives of General Conference. By adding ogg versions, everyone in the world will have access to them.
The Church asks viewers to install codecs to watch content. For example, if folks want to watch BYU TV over the Internet, they need to download the Move Networks application onto their computer.
In the medium to long term, the Church could provide video content in just one format: ogg and have folks install the codecs on their computer to view the content. The Church would only have to produce one version of content and everyone in the world would have access to it. A low-res and a HD version of the content could be provided in ogg.
I suspect that there are folks out there that would be happy to convert the current feeds or rip the DVDs to create ogg formatted content of General Conference and provide those files to the Church if creating ogg files is an additional burden.
I believe that this will become an increasingly important issue in the near future.
As a side note, does Microsoft and Apple charge folks to stream Windows Media and Quicktime content? If so, by switching to an open platform, those dollars could be saved.
Thanks for your time.
I also apologize for a me-to. But I only use linux and affirm that virtually everybody can watch with ogg format. I can even watch wav if you don’t block it.., on MPlayer, I believe. Also PAF5 should be available for linux. Thanks for listening. –Dan
I also support the open source alternatives, and I’m willing to help out.
In the meantime, Linux users should know about Fluendo—you can buy legal codecs for Linux (and a few of them are free, such as the MP3 one). It does cost money, but it does work, and it is legal. I recommend that the church inform users of this, as it is probably the only truly legal option for many codecs on Linux.
Anyway, I have another question:
Are church DVDs encrypted? If so, why?
It is currently impossible, according to my research, for Linux users to watch their own encrypted DVDs on their computers legally (it’s quite easy to do it illegally—well it’s against the letter of the law, anyway, although I’m sure the people who made the law didn’t intend to prevent people from ‘watching’ their own DVDs on Linux). There are plans for a legal player to be sold, but I don’t know how much it will cost.
I’m just meaning to suggest that future DVDs be unencrypted—this shouldn’t cause problems for anyone (and likely, no one but truly honest Linux users will notice the difference). It’ll probably save time and money, anyway.