mp3 vs wma, how funny!

[Astro Forever]

I'm trying to decide which format I will use to encode my music on my new mp3/wma Creative Labs player.

I can't seem to be able to take a decision based on my ressearches, so I went on creative.com.

On one page (or actually Flash movie), it says mp3 is better than wma, which I agree with based on the audio sample they provide. However, they won't say anything about the bitrate they used.

On another page, they say wma is just as good as mp3, while taking less space.

How enlightening! (BTW, I have a 1 GB player, so I want to encode at 128 Kb).

[DrFrag]

I recommend encoding at 160k or higher. I notice problems at 128k, especially with claps and clarinets. I have a 1GB player too, I think I have 19 or 20 hours on it. But some of it is audio books.

[Astro Forever]

Hmmm. I guess there is not that much of a difference in file size between 128 and 160. Did you go with mp3 or wma?

Thanks.

[fafner]

You may think I am rather off-topic, but I will throw away my opinion about that...
wma is a proprietary format from Microsoft, that means that Windows is likely to be mandatory to play the file (or any Microsoft related software/hardware). On the other hand, mp3 is a more open format and can be played on most plateforms, even though it is covered by a patent. I would suggest using the flac format, but I'm afraid that the software you plan to use doesn't support it.

[Astro Forever]

You are right, I can only go with either mp3 or wma. That said, I do prefer mp3 over wma when it comes to the fact that the first isn't Micro$oft's, but when it comes to this player, it doesn't matter to me, I want to best compromise between quality and file size.

[Astro Forever]

I think maybe half of my songs were downloaded from itunes, so it's not worth going for more than 128 for those since they weren't wav to begin with, and I can't tell the difference between mp3 and wma anyway.

For those I'll take from official CDs, I'll go with mp3 192.

Interestingly, between wma or mp3, wether it's 128, 160 or 192, there are never more than a few Kb of difference in the file size. In the end, going with wma might make it possible to put at most one more song on the player, and maybe not!

[Latu]

1GB? Wow, my mp3 player only has 128MB internal memory.

[Astro Forever]

But you probably have had (grammar?) it for a while! I just got my first one. Since I waited, it's only fair that I got to get a more advanced one... isn't it?

[Astro Forever]

Who's the idiot who put in, on a real, legitimate CD, track titles like "g-moll", "d-moll", "F-dur"...? Yeah, that really tells me which of Brahm's Hungarian Dance that is! As if I didn't already have enough titles and artists to manually type with all the CDs I have to import because, of course, iTunes won't allow me to directly export my music on my player, and not even put it directly in mp3? (Like Apple is so much more better than Micro$oft....).

[Latu]

I got my mp3 player a little over a year ago. It was about 100 USD. It also came with a 128MB memory card.