Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 12:39:38 -0800 (PST)
From: David Chien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: MP3 vs WMA
> First question is, what is the down side of the format?
WMA is totally incompatible with most other players out there and require you
to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player. In other words, it's propriatary,
non-open, non-freeware, and it'll lock all of you're songs to the OS and Player
you have today from Microsoft. They certainly don't guarentee that today's
songs will play in tommorrow's players, and they certainly haven't released the
specs free to the public.
You can only use Microsoft's encoder to get the songs into WMA format; vs.
the dozens of free and pay-for MP3 encoders out there. In fact, LAME mp3
encoder is so good as a free encoder, I recommend it highly over the rest, esp.
at higher than 128Kb/s bitrates.
In short, it's like using 8-track tapes to save all your songs to when
everyone else is using CDs. Good luck if you use WMA...
Forget about burning your MP3 collection to CD-R and playing them in your
desktop/portable CD/MP3 player for 10 hours of non-stop music as well. No such
thing as a portable WMA player.
Forget about using the vast majority of popular MP3 players out there as they
usually don't care a whit about WMA files.
Forget about using most CD Rippers as they won't support encoding to WMA
either.
> Second, the ripper I use will also "convert" mp3's to WMA. What bit rate
> would I have to have in the source MP3 to end up with a good 64 bit WMA.
Higher the better naturally. MP3s encoded at 128Kb/s will normally have a
bandwidth of 20-16Khz. (Yes, just about every MP3 encoder out there chops off
there, and if you even silly attempt to force it to encode the higher 16k-20kHz
range, it's just noise and junk - http://www.silverace.com/ for my MP3 article
on the quality of various MP3 encoders.)
Thus, if you expect the best WMA, you need the best source. Original CDs
would be nice; if not and you've only got 128Kb/s MP3s, then expect the same
20-16Khz limitation to exist in the WMA file. Also, because most MP3 encoders
out there are based on the fast-but-horribly-poor-quality Xing encoder, expect
added noise and distortion reencoding a Xing-encoded MP3 into WMA. (See my MP3
article for details. Best bets? Frauenhof MP3 encoder (their dog-slow one) or
LAME. I even wonder how people don't hear the fish-bowl effect of Xing-based
encoders on their songs.... Xing-based encoders include Music Matchbox,
Audiocatalyst, Real, and just about anything that seems to encoder too fast to
be true.)
----
In short, my recommendation is this:
1. MP3 is the default, world-wide standard. Unless you absolutely need 2x+
more space and can't buy another HD or use CD-Rs, then use MP3s.
2. Encode using LAME or Frauenhof MP3 encoders only. The rest are junk and
introduce far more audio distortion and noise than these two that are the best
in the world.
3. If you don't want FM quality MP3 songs (ie. 20-16Khz bandwidth), you must
encode at 256Kb/s or 320Kb/s. Both will provide full 20-20Khz coverage, with
320Kb/s being better naturally -- do audio tests to see if you even can hear
the difference in picking 256Kb/s or 320Kb/s. (eg. for rock music, you can use
256Kb/s almost all the time because there's so much 'noise' generated by the
guitars and drums in the background. But if there's an excellent singer's
voice in the foreground, you may need 320Kb/s to capture the full quality and
tonality of her voice - eg. 320Kb/s for Miwa Y. when she sings Dreams Come True
band songs.)
However, for the vast majority of listeners who don't even have speakers
than can reproduce anything above 15Khz correctly or at all, feel free to stick
with 128Kb/s as you won't hear it anyways.
4. Apex DVD/MP3/CD/VCD TV-top player for $179+ at Circuit City stores or
online at www.dvd-wizards.com will allow you to play 10 hours non-stop from a
single MP3 CD-R disc filled to capacity. Other players are listed at
www.mp3.com -> hardware -> players. The nice thing about the Apex from DVD
Wizards is that it can be region-free and macrovision-free.
5. If you must pack the most amount of music into your HD, look at Real.com's
free encoder and player as well. It is the world's best low-bitrate encoder
for most projects, and it'll whip WMA's ass at lower bit-rates. Between lower
bit-rates and 128Kb/s MP3s, you may need to test both to pick the better
encoder. However, due to RealPlayer's availablity across numerous platforms
(Linux, Mac, Windows, etc.), their constant improvements in encoding quality
and technology (faster than WMA has been releasing), and their greater
popularity, I'd strongly consider Real first for low-bit-rate encoding.
As an added plus, it encodes Real Videos in real-time even on a slow
400Mhz AMD K6-2 system with a really old ATI All-In-Wonder original video
captrue card - thus, you can pack into your HD, those music videos as well.
=====
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