Re: MP3 vs. WMA

[Nigel Orr <Nigel.Orr@xxxxxxx>]

At 15:42 11/06/00 +0200, you wrote:
>It's probably been covered here before but does anyone have an opinion
on
>MP3 Vs. WMA?

I'm sticking with MP3.  As Keith has said, WMA was designed to be more
'secure', to address the music industry's priacy worries.  MP3 has been
around longer, and isn't proprietary (maybe WMA isn't either?).  Another
bonus for me is that MP3 is very well supported under Linux.

Quality- yer pays yer money etc etc... I can't speak for WMA, but MP3 has
two quality issues.  First off, you pick a data rate for the encoded audio,
that's straightforward enough.  However, like other MPEG standards, all
that is defined by Mpeg 1 Layer 3 is the decoder, the encoding algorithm
can be anything you want.

It's a bit complex, but basically the data is encoded psychoacoustically,
so parts of the signal which are masked by other parts are ignored.  There
are good ways and bad ways to go about deciding which bits to throw away,
so there is room for some encoders to be better than others.  It's actually
a deliberate feature of the standard, so as technology advances, or more is
understood about audio perception, encoders can be improved without
changing the decoders.  (That's one of the reasons that the fastest encoder
is not necessarily the best).  I don't know if WMA is the same sort of
standard.

>  What's the difference in file sizes and quality?

From what I've heard discussed elsewhere, of the data compressed formats,
and assuming a fairly typical 10:1 data compression ratio, ATRAC (only used
in MiniDisc machines, as far as I know) is the best, followed by MP3, with
WMA further behind.  It could also be said that the system backed by a huge
company and years of ongoing research (Sony's ATRAC) is top, followed by a
well-researched open standard, followed by a latecoming proprietary
format... interesting...

I've personally only heard ATRAC and MP3, and the latest ATRAC is superb, I
would describe MP3 as being 'noticable but not distressing'.  I should say
that I'm cursed with a fairly critical listening ear (that doesn't mean I
spend thousands on my hi-fi, just that too long running and fixing pro
audio stuff makes you very sensitive to odd sounds!), and the Average
Listener seems to think MP3 is CD quality....

Nigel


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