Quote Originally Posted by Mr Peabody
I saw a setting for "variable bit rate" should I be using that?

There is also a "mp3" option I could select instead of "wma". When I first got my mp3 I got the impression that WMA was a better format than typical mp3.
If you are using your music files on a portable device, or in a car or something, you might want to check to see if variable bit rate (vbr) is supported. If it is (probably if made in the last 2 years) I would highly recommend ripping your music in that form...better sound per unit of file size, IMO.

Variable bit rate takes the busiest, most information packed portions of the waveform and allocates more bits to it, while allocating fewer bits to less busy portions of a song (ie, dead air, not much musical information). Ie, at one setting, it could swing from a low of 135 kb to high of 215 kb accordingly. It's just a much more efficient way of achieving the balance between quality and file size. I use it whenever I can.
Constant bit rate always keeps the bitrate at the size you choose, say 128 kbps whether the whole symphony is playing, or there's dead air, it allocates 128 kbps to reproduce that. File size is more predictable and older devices work, but quality is sacrificed.

WMA's around 128-192 kbps are not really better anymore, at lower bit rates though WMA's are considerably better. Depends on the encoder of course, around 192 kbps, I can't hear a difference anymore between wma's and mp3's. If you're really anal about quality, mp3's can achieve bitrates up to 320 (wma's only 192)...it's a tiny bit better, but you're sacrificing file size.

I tend to support non Microsoft proprietary formats out of principle, but I would preach to you which one you should use, go with whatever's easiest for ya. Mp3 is still usuable in more devices, but you're only worried about the ones you actually own so that's moot.