WTF is WMA?!?!

[blazin_azn]

WTF is WMA?!?!

i know its some windows media shxt..but what are its "special features?"

Advantages and disadvantages??

from what i can tell...might as well have a mp3 format CD

enlighten me guys...this asian guy over here isn't a computer tech lol

[OHWJaJae]

The biggest difference is just the name. They are comparable in sound quality with MP3 being a bit on the upper hand when you get into the higher bit rates. At lower bit rates the WMA sounds better than a comparable MP3.

But really the biggest difference is the name and who puts it out. WMA is a Windows codec and is protected. MP3 is open source and the standard.

[blazin_azn]

ohhhhhhhh cool

[2k4CamThrilla]

Windows Media Audio!

[klaymen333]

Its Crap!!!!!!!!

[82 RA64]

WMA for life!!! No not really, all my cd's are ripped 128KBPS mp3.

[klaymen333]

i try not to touch anything less than 192

[Corollacrazy42]

same with me klaymen lol why listen to low quality.. just doesnt seem right.. i try and look for the (VBR) or Variable Bit Rate, so that it rips the music at its highest standard from the cd

[REN69]

160 is the lowest I like.. 128kbps is bearable for me but usually 160 or higher for sure.

[OHWJaJae]

I'm usually not satisfied with 192... occassionally I'll find a good rip at 192, but usually I still have issues with it. Overall mp3s and me don't usually mix unless I rip them myself.

[MrSo0h0o]

its a bit off topic, but does anyone know how to raise the bit rate of WMA? or does it not work that way? i have a program to change the bit rate of MP3's but not WMA's, which most of my music is.

[Bruce Campbell]

192 is good most likely you have the space on your hd or ipod or whatever so why not fill it with good quality then use crap quality and save space your not going to use

[Anshu]

128-320 lame vbr

[DMDrew812]

Yeahh... I ripped every CD in the house for 192kbps WMA... then I get my head unit and it can only read about half of the WMA tags (so the head unit displays the track, artist, and album name, but the max character count is half of MP3 tags.) unless theres a highly efficient and high quality WMA-MP3 recoder, boo.

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by Corollacrazy42

i try and look for the (VBR) or Variable Bit Rate, so that it rips the music at its highest standard from the cd

VBR has to do with how a mp3 file is compressed. The bit rate varies instead of the whole file being at 128kbps, 192kbps, etc...

It has nothing to do with ripping audio from a cd.

i have a program to change the bit rate of MP3's but not WMA's, which most of my music is.

Changing the bit rate is not gunna do much. The file size will be smaller/bigger, but the quality goes down or stays the same.

Lets say you have a mp3 thats 128kbps. You change the bit rate to 256kbps, its still gunna sound the same cos the original file is at 128kbps. You can't put back whats not there to begin with.

If your concerned about quality, you need to rip the song off a cd then compress it.


I use EAC (exact audio copy) to rip. LAME w/RazorLame (gui frontend for LAME) to compress into a mp3.

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de

http://jthz.com/~lame

http://www.dors.de/razorlame/index.php


Mostly everything that I rip is compressed at 256kbps, 44.1khz, stereo.

Don't use joint stereo or forced joint stereo, its whack.