[CUBE] AAC vs MP3 vs CD - a comparo (was TiVo)

[Alan Thompson]

On May 19, 2004, at 3:02 PM, Eagle wrote:

> I don't believe I posted my report but I will do so if there is 
> interest in my findings.


please do.

i'm not sure why i'll tell everyone this, but about 75% of my 
electronic music collection is in mp3 format.  I began ripping my own 
CDs (still not finished) and stealing music starting in '98.  That was 
about enough time to amass about 20 or so odd GB of MP3s.

Now, I prefer AAC to MP3 (sort of, sound wise, but it depends on the 
music), so, all my future ripping of my existing CD collection, plus 
the songs (85 so far) that I've purchased from the Apple store, I have 
in AAC.  The majority of music that I still occasionally steal, or rip 
from streaming music are in mp3 format still.  I am not about to re-rip 
all my CDs (over 500, and since being married, who knows how many), 
into AAC, nor re-steal files in the minority AAC format from 
acquisition (the application).

So, anyway, I am very interested in hearing your findings.  I guess I 
just regaled you all with my ramblings about my music collection 
characteristics b/c i'm surprised to find others who have no mp3s.

Just to clarify, AAC is simply mp4, correct?  Aside from the fairplay 
(or in my case, playfair purchased music) DRM, they are mp4?

I've been on the Mac platform for about a good 2+ years now with my 
cube w/OS X (sgi all the way prior to now).  So, the other day, someone 
shared their music folder with me at work.  Lots of WMA.  What is WMA?  
Just another compression algorithm for music, not based on mpeg?  What 
are its advantages/disadvantages.  I asked him how he liked WMA, but he 
really couldn't give me much there.

So, then this brings me to my ultimate jack handy big thought for the 
day - why would you go WMA or AAC, when MP3 is really the truly 
cross-platform, hands-down most portable, compatible, de-facto standard 
for electronic music files out there?  Having MP3s ties you into to no 
one.

Who knows where AAC or WMA will be, or their respective companies 
(appl, msft) in the future, but this is getting me thinking about it.  
Now that I'm ripping all my remaining to be ripped, non CD-rot having, 
CDs, what format should I use?  I'm kinda torn.

Sorry for the long one here, and I know it's off topic, so KMA.

--alan


On May 19, 2004, at 3:02 PM, Eagle wrote:

> I don't believe I posted my report but I will do so if there is 
> interest in my findings.