SumnerH;246108 Wrote: > The boneheaded, no thought at all method would be even more disk-space > efficient, wouldn't it? If you just convert everything file from the > old format to the new one (without trying to do a save of all the old > files until they're all converted or do some percentage of the library > at a time), you'd only use as much disk space as the single largest > song file to do the whole conversion.
That's true, but I'd probably never use this approach. I'd want some level of assurance that the new files work before getting rid of the old. But you are right, you could use this approach and effectively use very little "additional" disk space. Believe it or not, I actually had a disk rip completely incorrectly and songs were mixed together and the start/stop points were in the middle of songs. Admittedly, it wasn't a conversion, but rather a rip, but it just reminded me that something can always go wrong. SumnerH;246108 Wrote: > Yeah, but make sure it's WMA *lossless* if you have the disk space. > > I don't quite buy the "Today, 500GB disks are under $100 at your local > big box. What was important then is not very much of a concern now." > argument--I don't just go throwing more drives into an already working > setup willy-nilly, especially when it's been heavily balanced for > quietness and so forth. And I'm not going to replace a perfectly > functional machine just because it's a few years old. > > But if you _have_ a new machine with big drives, going lossless out of > the gate is absolutely the way to go. I'm kind of glad you said that because I feel there are many cases where it's not that simple...you own a laptop and disk space is limited and you want your music with you because it's your only computer (real world example I'm thinking of). In my case I have a 2Tb NAS, but because I store video, I actually don't have a lot of extra space to store multiple copies of my music. I know there are workarounds for these scenarios, but I get back to my original thought which is like you said...it's not always a no-brainer. I see it simply as a safety net. In that case, sure I'd invest a few bucks to do the conversion...I just might not do it until I have to. There are other issues like a PC or drive burning up after running pegged for 24 straight hours converting files, etc. I've had many external drives fail...I suspect because of heat issues. In any case... I guess I'm speaking from frustration of maintaining a FLAC and MP3 collection. It's a manual process to keep them in sync (album art doesn't copy over even though the files do). Maybe there's a fully automated approach, but I haven't found it yet. Admittedly, I haven't spent hours on end trying to locate it, but then that only support the original point that it's not simple. I will say that I'm definitely not as concerned as Pale Blue Ego about proprietary technologies. My concern has a everything to do with being limited in file use options through the controlled formats of MS or Apple - not much else. -- thomsens ------------------------------------------------------------------------ thomsens's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1352 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=40632 _______________________________________________ ripping mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/ripping
