Xiph.Org Foundation is a
nonprofit organization that produces
freemultimedia formats and software tools. It focuses on the
Ogg family of formats, the most successful of which has been
Vorbis, an open and freely licensed audio format and
codec designed to compete with the patented
WMA,
MP3 and
AAC. As of 2013, development work was focused on
Daala, an open and patent-free video format and codec designed to compete with
VP9 and the patented
High Efficiency Video Coding.
In addition to its in-house development work, the foundation has also brought several already-existing but complementary
free software projects under its aegis, most of which have a separate, active group of developers. These include
Speex, an audio codec designed for speech, and
FLAC, a lossless audio codec.
The Xiph.Org Foundation has criticized
Microsoft and the
RIAA for their lack of openness.[6] They state that if companies like Microsoft had owned
patents on the Internet, then other companies would have tried to compete, and "The Net, as designed by warring corporate entities, would be a battleground of incompatible and expensive 'standards' had it actually survived at all." They also criticize the RIAA for their support of projects such as the
Secure Digital Music Initiative.
Chris Montgomery, creator of the
Ogg container format, founded the Xiphophorus company and later the Xiph.Org Foundation.[8] The first work that became the Ogg media projects started in 1994.[9] The name "Xiph" abbreviates the original organizational name, "Xiphophorus", named after the
common swordtail fish, Xiphophorus hellerii.[10] It was officially incorporated on 15 May 1996 as Xiphophorus, Inc.[11] The name "Xiphophorus company" was used until 2002,[12][13][14] when it was renamed to Xiph.Org Foundation.[15]
In 1999, the Xiphophorus company defined itself on its website as "a distributed group of Free and Open Source programmers working to protect the foundations of Internet multimedia from domination by self-serving corporate interests."[16]
In 2002, the Xiph.Org Foundation defined itself on its website as "a non-profit corporation dedicated to protecting the foundations of Internet multimedia from control by private interests."[15]
In March 2003, the Xiph.Org Foundation was recognized by the
IRS as a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization,[17] which means that U.S. citizens can deduct donations made to Xiph.Org from their taxes.
dshow, Xiph's
DirectShow filters for their suite of
Ogg formats, including Theora and
Vorbis
webmdshow, the DirectShow filter for WebM maintained by the WebM project
An
ActiveX plugin adding HTML5 video capability to Internet Explorer older than version 9
QuickTime Components
Xiph QuickTime Components are implementations of the
Ogg container along with the
Speex,
Theora,
FLAC and
Vorbiscodecs for
QuickTime. It allows users to use Ogg files in any application that uses QuickTime for audio and video file support, such as
iTunes and
QuickTime Player.
Since QuickTime Components do not function in
macOS Sierra and above, the project was discontinued in 2016.[22]
^"libao: a cross platform audio library". Xiph.Org. Retrieved June 29, 2009. Libao is a cross-platform audio library that allows programs to output audio using a simple API on a wide variety of platforms.