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Topic: Best audio format?? (Read 4356 times) previous topic - next topic
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Best audio format??

Ok, i had enough with reading through this EXTREMELY large fourm...... could somebody just answer me a simple question.

I want to archive all of my music from my CDs to my computer with the best quality possible. But not wav because i can't afford to buy so many harddrive to saves all these 40Mb files........

so which format should i use?? I mean i personally haven't try any of the next generation sound format such as MP3 Pro , MPC, nor OGG..... How ever i personally does not like ogg simply because of its name and prefer MPC just as it sounds better....

Anyway.... which format should i use??????

And finally.... what is replay gain?

Best audio format??

Reply #1 –
Quote
Originally posted by iwod
Ok, i had enough with reading through this EXTREMELY large fourm...... could somebody just answer me a simple question.

I want to archive all of my music from my CDs to my computer with the best quality possible. But not wav because i can't afford to buy so many harddrive to saves all these 40Mb files........

so which format should i use?? I mean i personally haven't try any of the next generation sound format such as MP3 Pro , MPC, nor OGG..... How ever i personally does not like ogg simply because of its name and prefer MPC just as it sounds better.... 

Anyway.... which format should i use??????


The answer might be MPC. Or Ogg. Could be AAC too. Or perhaps MP3 anway. Could also be MA. Or FLAC. But perhaps you'll prefer LPAC. And, God forbid, even WMA. If you think the actual name matters, MP3Pro could surely also be an option.

Quote
And finally.... what is replay gain?


www.replaygain.org

--
GCP

Best audio format??

Reply #2 –
Quote
Originally posted by iwod

so which format should i use?? I mean i personally haven't try any of the next generation sound format such as MP3 Pro , MPC, nor OGG..... How ever i personally does not like ogg simply because of its name and prefer MPC just as it sounds better.... 

Anyway.... which format should i use??????

And finally.... what is replay gain?


i recommend mpc. ogg is cool. you should not prejudice it for it's name...

mp3pro and wma suck.

Best audio format??

Reply #3 –
id you really had read the forum you woudl notic the every codec have strong points and weak spots.

what fits you is your taste

what bitrates do you wish t use

are you aming at decent qualtiy at low bitrates (E.G. mp3pro /WMA) ore are you more after hifi quality en high bitrates (mpc)

maybe somethign in between (oog/AAC)

maybe you need somthin easy for other to plays (mp3)

maybe you woulde want archieve quality (lpac/ monkeys audio)

actually your question is only simple beacuse you dont knwo what you want and/or are asking for...


personally i use .aac with psytell'e encoder (-streaming)
it gives me bitrates around 111-136 which fit me perfect.
also it gives higher quality then mp3
and i dont care playbakc stadards as it only me who is going to listen to my music files
Sven Bent - Denmark

Best audio format??

Reply #4 –
Best quality:
- low bitrates (under 100 kbps): ogg and aac.  These are better than wma and mp3pro.
- medium bitrates (100 to 160): ogg and aac.
- high bitrates (160 and above): mpc is generally thought to be best here, especially if your ears are more sensitive to time-based quality issues.  Ogg is quite close in quality on the vast majority of clips, and may be better if your ears are more sensitive to tonal quality issues than to time-based issues.  Ogg could surpass mpc in quality in the near future, although that isn't certain.  AAC is also generally quite good up here, although its strength is at lower bitrates.
Others: mp3pro is specifically optimized for low bitratres and streaming audio.  Microsoft's wma isn't bad, but isn't as good as ogg or aac, and isn't that much better than mp3 at 128 and 160 kbps.  Mp3 is standard, but overall the poorest sound quality for a given bitrate and filesize.

Best hardware support: mp3, because it's the standard and has been around for so long.  Microsoft's wma has some hardware support because Microsoft is pushing it.  Ogg looks to be moving forward in getting hardware support.

Open source: ogg is the only patent-free codec.  Mp3 and mpc generally have no limitations on their useage.  AAC is patent-encumbered, although Psytel is allowing individuals to have free usage of their encoder.  WMA is heavily protected, although you can choose to encode in without "digital rights management" so that you are able to pass files around between people.

My picks: ogg, and maybe some mpc at high bitrates.  But I don't do any file exchanging and don't need hardware support (though I am counting on ogg's having hardware support in the future).
God kills a kitten every time you encode with CBR 320
 

Best audio format??

Reply #5 –
For CD archiving w/ maximum quality I would pick:

  Either OGG or MPC.

OGG might be a tiny bit more flexible (for now)
MPC might be a tiny bit higher quality (for now)

Note that OGG might have a better chance of gaining more mainstream popularity and support than MPC, but things change quickly, and nothing is certain.


(FWIW, As of RC3 + Replaygain, I now encode my personal CDs with OGG, and I haven't looked back. I am very satisfied with the quality [and it's still under development - it will only get better])