Re: MP3 vs. WMA

["Mark McCall" <mark@xxxxxxx>]

On the subject of encoders has anyone got an up-to-date version of BladeEnc
for Windows?  Last time I looked the binaries had been taken off the
website
for "legal" reasons ?

Thanks

M.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nigel Orr [mailto:Nigel.Orr@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 12 June 2000 09:09
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] MP3 vs. WMA
>
>
> 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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