What compression format to use: MP3, WMA, ????

[mariner]

I have been using EAC/Lame to make MP3s. Will MP3 last? Will WMA take over? Where are we headed and how can we plan for it?

 

[JellyBaby]

WMA is proprietary to MS and thus I hope it never dominates. The only time I actually use it is when a web site only offers media in that format.

 

[mariner]

I found this at www.r3mix.net:


<< Analysis about other formats as VQF, WMA, AAC, LQT, TAC and others? (Pepe Iborra)

Most of these formats are more recently developed than mp3, and mainly aimed at lower-bitrate encodings. Up to 128kbit/s, many outperform mp3. Since the main goal of this site is to obtain a cd-quality archive with bitrates of 170-180kbit/s using Lame VBR or 256kbit/s using some FhG or Lame cbr, these lower bitrates are of no interest to me. At bitrates this low any encoder to date has clear artifacts and is incapable of producing transparent encoding.

About VQF and WMA it is known that they produce distinct artifacts at any bitrate because of their drastic encoding methods.
AAC and PAC are stil in serious development stage and LQT and TAC and all these formats (beside aac) in general have very restrictive and closed architecture. This means you don't have 3rd party encoders, decoders, players or source code of the algorithms available. Some of these encoders restrict exporting to wav, some encode only encrypted data (maybe watermarked) and some are only available in hacked versions on the web.

Even though they are more recent, and should (after a great deal of optimalisation) be able to produce a better quality/size ratio than mp3, the current use for these is restricted to very specific music storage solutions at lower bitrates and audiophile testing and comparing.

The main strength of mp3 is that it has available ISO sourcecode, open architecture and numerous of soft and hardware encoders and players available and it has been proven to be cd-quality at decent bitrate. Mp3 is here to stay, and might eventually only be replaced by a better open standard in future. >>



My vote is for MP3; but I hate to get gobs of MP3s archived and in 10 years not be able to find a good player for them 'cause M$ has taken over with WMA.

 

[Delusion2001]

microsoft sucks

go with mp3

 

[mariner]

In this situation, opinions are good. But as in stock picking, everyone has opinions, but most are not money makers.

If a person is going to begin archiving 1000's of tunes, it would be nice to put thim in a format that will be viable for many years. Maybe original CDs are the only sure way?

 

[DeeK]

I vote Ogg Vorbis. It's 100% patent-free and non-proprietary, and sounds better than MP3 at the same bitrate.

 

[demenion]

mp3 more universal.

 

[fobbman]

When you are recording for personal use then why worry about whether the format is more universally-accepted? Go with Ogg Vorbis.

 

[mariner]

Universally accepted would be nice. I would like to have some choices of hardware to play 'em on in 15 years. If the format isn't widely accepted then player manufactures are not likely to put much money into it.

 

[Quickfingerz]

Just because something is better doesn't mean people will switch to it. People don't want an entire industry to be revolutionalized. Until there is a compression format that can encode at 64kbits/sec and sound better than mp3 at 256kbit/s you're pretty much going to stick to Mp3.

If you are using a portable Mp3 player with regular earphones, i'd reccomend using WMA @ 64 kbit/sec because you can store twice as much music than mp3 @ 128 kbits. If you are using good quality headphones, you should go for LAME VBR or 256 kbit CBR if you have a 128 mb flash card.

 

[mariner]

Hey Quickfingerz, I have never made any WMA compressions, can it be done easily? I have never even heard of anyone else doing it; is the .wma format proprietary? My sig says it all

 

[Suppafly]

go with mp3.. its certainly becoming a industry standard.. you can buy portable mp3 players and get home and car audio players that support mp3.. granted eventually it may go the way of the lp or the 8track but nothing lasts forever..