Which format should it be?

F

fdsa

Active member
Hi, like to know what format is best for music to be transfered to... like for CD file(wav) to.....what? is the best? mp3? wma? org? ...etc etc Prefer the least file size with best quality sound as possible, which format for this? thx
 
All lossy compression have size versus quality compromises. How much file size reduction do you need to accomplish? For the perfect packing / unpacking you could take the native PCM (wav) and apply something like MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) or even just use an entropy coding scheme like Zip. If you need a lot of reduction and don't mind the resultant loss in quality, then perceptual coding schemes like wma and mp3 can be used. Of the two, wma is slightly better but by neither is close to the original quality.
 
wma file is smaller than mp3 right? is it still better even it's file is smaller? I transfered to both and the wma is like 1/2 the size of mp3, same quality settings.
 
The resultant size or either a wma or an mp3 is based upon the duration of the file and the compression scheme used (usually expressed in the units kb/s). A wma can be either larger or smaller (in size) than an mp3 of the same duration depending upon what data rate was used.

It is my experience that wma is a better compression scheme, so at a give bit rate a wma will sound better or a wma can be made smaller with similar performance as a mp3. Just look at the duration, multiply it by the data rate and you can get a very close estimation of the file size.
 
fdsa said:
So why is everybody listening to mp3s and not WMAs....?
Click to expand...

A really good question. Same could be said of a lot of human traits. Just because something is popular doesn't make it superior.

Why not try both for yourself and see if you prefer one over the other. To be fair, make certain that they use the same data rates and come from the same original material.
 
I tried; both 128kbps 44.1k 16bit from the same song, the mp3 2.31M wma 2.32M, looks like mp3 is smaller. :cheesy:
 
fdsa said:
Hi, like to know what format is best for music to be transfered to... like for CD file(wav) to.....what? is the best? mp3? wma? org? ...etc etc Prefer the least file size with best quality sound as possible, which format for this? thx
Click to expand...


A lot depends on which codec and how it's manipulated. At very low bit rates (16kbps) , Real Audio does better than MP3s.

Ty Ford
 
fdsa said:
I tried; both 128kbps 44.1k 16bit from the same song, the mp3 2.31M wma 2.32M, looks like mp3 is smaller. :cheesy:
Click to expand...

This is an insignificant difference in file size and can probably be accounted for by a difference in the meta content. Did you prefer one over the other in terms of sound quality? Frankly, I find that the quality of perceptual coded compression is unacceptable for anything other than very low fidelity playback or as a sort of "thumbnail" reference of the actual PCM file.
 
well.. if u listen to it by winamp, can't tell difference, even if it's wav aif pcm mp3 wma ... except those have bigger file size 5-10 times bigger.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top