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Digital music: New computer, rebuilding collection. Best format/program?
New computer, rebuilding collection. Best format/program?
by dannosliwcd - 6/9/08 4:49 PMI just bought a new computer for college, and I'm getting ready to move my music onto it. My previous collection is a mix of WMAs, MP3s, and AACs (unprotected), and I'd prefer to have a uniform collection here. I plan on playing my music from my laptop, but I might burn some mixes onto CD in the future. I currently do not have an MP3 player, but I might get one in the future. I'm not an audiophile, but I don't want really low quality music either.
What's the best audio format for me? Also, what's the best media player for me? I'd like to use windows media player for audio playback, just because it's already on vista and I want to install as little extra crap as possible. But I would like suggestions for the right free CD ripping software.
I understand that there are already a few similar topics to this one in these forums, but they all seem to end in some kind of microsoft against the world rant, so I'd prefer that each poster respects the opinion of others. I'd like to know your opinion, but if the reason of your post is to disprove what someone else said, please base your argument off of more than opinion.
I think that's all the critical information for making a choice in this, and maybe too much. Oh well. Thanks in advance.
What's the best audio format for me? Also, what's the best
by R. Proffitt
- 6/9/08 7:00 PM
In reply to: New computer, rebuilding collection. Best format/program? by dannosliwcd
"What's the best audio format for me? Also, what's the best media player for me? I'd like to use windows media player for audio playback, just because it's already on vista and I want to install as little extra crap as possible. But I would like suggestions for the right free CD ripping software."
1. Your choice.
2. See #1.
3. I use CDEX as it does what I want without any encumbrance of WMP thinking it should "protect content." It's also puts my rips in simple folder directory order which works for me.
As to "argument" I have none since these are choices we make and don't force upon others.
Bob
Well it depends...
by MJM573 - 6/10/08 9:28 AM In reply to: New computer, rebuilding collection. Best format/program? by dannosliwcdQuestion 1:
The audio format depends on what you find important, quality or quantity. If you like your music to sound great you're going to want a format with a high bit rate or that is lossless like WAV or FLAC. The problem is that the higher the bit rate the more space it takes up, the lower the bit rate the less space is used but the poorer the sound quality. So try and find a middle ground. To find that middle ground, get a CD Ripping software that you like and a CD that you listen to a lot. Start ripping the CD in various formats at different bit rates. The format that sounds good to you and doesn't take up too much hard drive space is the format for you
Another thing to consider is what kind of personal media player you're planning on purchasing. Almost all PMP's play MP3's while other players support specific file types.
Personally, I like mp3's but I have a pretty good sound system and anything below 192kb/s doesn't sound that great. I have a 160GB WD Hard Drive devoted to my music so size isn't that big of a deal for me but over the years I've been buying and downloading a lot of stuff so typically I make sure that I rip my CD's to MP3 at 256kb/s using VBR or variable bit rate. Careful though some players, if you plan on purchasing one, aren't compatible with VBR.
Question 2: The best media player depends on what you use your computer for. If you're gonna bring your laptop around you're going to want a player that can play anything from your DVD's to movies you've downloaded legally 
. Right now I would HIGHLY recommend the VLC Media Player. It plays almost everything and has its own encoder and can even play damaged or incomplete video downloads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC). Also, you mentioned that you wanted to use Windows Media Player. WMP 11 is pretty good and it has a pretty sweet encoder for CD ripping. The only problems I have with it is that it may require you to download or purchase some codecs to play some media like .avi or Divx or even some DVD's. So be mindful of that.
For CD Ripping, I mentioned WMP but I would also recommend doing some research on Audiograbber and EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and the LAME encoder.
Best of luck!
Thanks
by dannosliwcd - 6/10/08 6:55 PM In reply to: New computer, rebuilding collection. Best format/program? by dannosliwcdThanks for the replies. You've been a good help, and I feel prepared to make my decision now.
Tough questions...
by Kennethj2010 - 7/12/08 7:23 PM In reply to: New computer, rebuilding collection. Best format/program? by dannosliwcdI like the other guy's response.
But I like AAC audio files.
1: Better Quality than MP3's
2: Lots of devices support it, though not as many as MP3
3: A lot of my music is already in AAC format (blame iTunes)
My Zune 80 supports AAC, MP3, and WMA. So I like all of those, though I prefer (in this order) AAC, MP3, and WMA.
WMP is a good program, built in, integrated well, and plays a lot of formats.
iTunes sucks. Don't go with that. It takes up tons of disk space, requires a lot of memory to run smoothly (I have not seen one computer that is not a mac that runs iTunes as smoothly as it should run)
VLC plays everything there is, and it is a small program that doesn't get in the way. I just don't like the UI.
But this is my personal preference. What works for me might not wokr for you. Good luck though.
Thanks
by dannosliwcd - 7/12/08 8:54 PM In reply to: Tough questions... by Kennethj2010I decided to go with WMA at a 192 kbps bitrate. I agree with you on the iTunes thing. I don't like how iTunes adds a bunch of extra junk you don't want, such as the always-running iTunes updater or iPod helper (even if you don't use an iPod). Nor do I like the Quicktime player, but I had to get it because no .MOV players or converters seem to be able to work with whole videos. I initially had crashing issues with Quicktime, but that was fixed when I updated to vista sp1.
Anyways, I just picked WMA because I had previously done MP3, and just wanted to see how it compares. To me, they seem the same, so I'll keep it. I chose WMP because it integrates all my media into one program that is optimized for use on a Windows OS (which is what I use). Thanks again for the advice.
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