WMA or MP3??

[Raffaz]

Ive just bought a creative jukebox zen player, just wondering what format is the best sound quality between these? Cheers

Mick

[BurnFEST]

WMA has a far better soundquality:bitrate ratio, but its Microsoft (eww). What I'm hanging out for is a portable player which plays OGG/Vorbis, then I'll be buying one for sure

[Radical Dreamer]

WMA has better sound quality and smaller file size, but its not as widely supported as mp3

[kato2274]

I converted 160kb mp3 collection of 20+ GB to under 11GB by using 80kb wma. I was able to fit a ton more onto my creative jukebox1 (6gb)for my car.

[arch0nmyc0n]

how would one go about converting a bunch of mp3s to wma quickly? is there a batch converter out there?

[craigmodius]

Media Monkey the free version should set you strait.

from their site...

"Convert audio files from almost any audio format to OGG, MP3, WMA, or WAV files. For example, with the MP3 Converter you can convert MP3 to WAV, WAV to MP3, MP3 to OGG, or MP3 to WMA. With the OGG Converter, you can convert OGG to WAV, WAV to OGG, OGG to MP3, or OGG to WMA. With the WMA converter, you can convert WMA to MP3, WMA to WAV, WAV to WMA, or WMA to OGG. Lastly, using input plug-ins you can convert from other formats such as FLAC, APE, AAC, or MPC to WAV, MP3, OGG, or WMA. Note that tags are also converted when converting between MP3, OGG, and WMA formats."



And this thing does alotta other stuff too.

[kato2274]

how would one go about converting a bunch of mp3s to wma quickly? is there a batch converter out there?

there's several third party ones. I used the microsoft one that was bundled in XP plus pack mainly because I was able to put the files in another directory and mirror the directory structure.

[Raffaz]

WMA it is then. What bitrate is the equivelent of cd quality in WMA format. Cheers

Mick

[Gabriel]

Just one wise remark whaen you convert Audio Format you are certainly going to loose quality.

I prefer MP3 - widespread and Easy to use,
Gabriel

[Trout]

how would one go about converting a bunch of mp3s to wma quickly? is there a batch converter out there?

Heres a great converter that I use regularly,, very simple to use,, extremely adjustable as far as bitrates and converts to wav, or wma, or mp3 in any direction. Heres the site Acoustica
I also use very often due to its ease of use, the audio/mp3 mixer to compile larger groups of files into one bigger multi song file for my mp3 player.
Even though we do most of our recording and editing with Cubase SX,The acoustica products are great,easy to use, less complicated products than most on the market.
Trout

Heres a copy of claims that entire folders can be converted all at once.

Not only will it convert freely between MP3, WMA & WAVs, but it will also
Read & convert play lists from WinAmp (M3U, PLS) to MP3,WMA or WAV
Convert entire folders and sub-directories of audio files with a single click! Imagine converting 2000 songs with a single click!
Trim unwanted silence before and after a song!
Detect and warn you about incomplete songs, a potentially embarrassing situation!
Normalize or increase the volume of songs that are too low to hear.
Hope That Helps

[CeeBee]

WMA may produce smaller files, however it's a Microsoft format. You never know what might happen one day with rights management. MP3 is a wider spread format and has become a standard. The quality of the encoded file depends on the codec you are using, they were all made after the original created by Fraunhofer. In my sole oppinion, that codec, while not being the fastest on the market, gives the best sound quality, but that could be a subjective oppinion. I still keep all my music in MP3 format.
BTW, changing the format will result in quality loss, there is no doubt of that.

[silencio]

I like mp3 also. Rights are one issue but not as important to me as stardards. My home dvd player and car stereo both use mp3 but not wma. As for quality, I use 320kbs encoding for high quality cds (Buddy Guy's Sweet Tea) or the hightest variable bitrate of lame 3.93.1 for everything else. There's no advantage in audio quality of wma at the high bitrates although you can get a smaller file with wma.

[orkalass]

No No No. Here's the deal. Yes wma can theoretically have the same sound quality as mp3s with a much lower bitrate. However that is wrong. When you lower the bitrate you lose unique instruments. eg: instead of hearing 3 guitars, u hear a muffled one guitar. If you don't listen for it it might sound similar. However, it will never be of equal quality. Secondly, even though ogg takes much less computing power, it has it's downsides. So the reason that mp3 is most widely accepted is because it is, as of right now, the one that works. There are also reasons why dvds are encoded with mpeg audio instead of ogg or wma. Furthermore, microsoft is being an @$$ and requiring authentication. i encoded over 20 songs to wma format over a year ago, and now i can't play them. So i say stick with mp3 for now.

[arch0nmyc0n]

After reading everything, I don't think I'll convert anything and I'll stick with MP3 in teh future. At least, for now...