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  1. #1
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    How to download or synchronize music to USB Flash Drive devices as MP3s

    Hi, I'm new to the forum and have a question about downloading in the MP3 format. I'm currently using WMP-11 to synchronize music to my USB Flash Drive device, however, I was told that I shouldn't use WMP and that I should synchronize music to my USB Flash Drive device as MP3s. Well, I really have no idea on how to download or synchronize music to my USB Flash Drive device as MP3s and would like to know if anyone here could help to explain to me how this is done. Thanks for your help in advance.

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    My question can't be that difficult...

    I have a hard time believing that this is an "Audio" forum and no one is able to answer a question about USB Flash Drive devices and MP3s.

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    Big science. Hallelujah. noddin0ff's Avatar
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    Patience, people who can help don't always log in hourly on a weekend...

    Well, I'm a Mac person and don't use WMP. Your post could use some specific info such as the brand of player you are using and the file types you're using.

    You say you're currently using WMP-11 to synchronize and then say you have no idea how to do it. Which is it? If you're currently using WMP the question is, "Do you get files on your player that you can listen to?"

    The first thing anyone new to digital audio should do is read up on audio file types. If you don't have a basic understanding of what digital audio files are and the various flavors they come in you will likely remain confused forever. Try this link
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

    WMP (Windows Media PLAYER) is not a file type, it is a software application that can play various audio file types. WMP can play and manage MP3, which are file types. There is a filetype that Windows promotes and is used by WMP. That file type is WMA (Windows Media Audio); many confuse WMA and WMP.

    I would suspect that most USB Flash players come with directions that explain how to manage files on them. After you read about file types you should read the directions. Many players don't require software like WMP to manage their playlists, instead you just drag and drop. Drag and drop is preferred by many.

    The player's directions will also be useful for determining what file types your player is capable of playing. It all comes down to file types. Start there.

    Hope this helps you get started. Welcome to AR!

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    Music Junkie E-Stat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AudioLearnerGuy
    Hi, I'm new to the forum and have a question about downloading in the MP3 format. I'm currently using WMP-11 to synchronize music to my USB Flash Drive device, however, I was told that I shouldn't use WMP and that I should synchronize music to my USB Flash Drive device as MP3s.
    What is the problem you are trying to fix? I have a mix of MP3 and WAV music files on my laptop that I sync via WMP to a SD card in my Treo phone for listening. Only the WAVs are converted to the WMA format during the transfer.

    rw

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    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    Your post could use some specific info such as the brand of player you are using and the file types you're using.

    You say you're currently using WMP-11 to synchronize and then say you have no idea how to do it. Which is it? If you're currently using WMP the question is, "Do you get files on your player that you can listen to?"

    The first thing anyone new to digital audio should do is read up on audio file types. If you don't have a basic understanding of what digital audio files are and the various flavors they come in you will likely remain confused forever. Try this link
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

    WMP (Windows Media PLAYER) is not a file type, it is a software application that can play various audio file types. WMP can play and manage MP3, which are file types. There is a filetype that Windows promotes and is used by WMP. That file type is WMA (Windows Media Audio); many confuse WMA and WMP.

    I would suspect that most USB Flash players come with directions that explain how to manage files on them. After you read about file types you should read the directions. Many players don't require software like WMP to manage their playlists, instead you just drag and drop. Drag and drop is preferred by many.

    The player's directions will also be useful for determining what file types your player is capable of playing. It all comes down to file types. Start there.

    Hope this helps you get started. Welcome to AR!
    Quote Originally Posted by E-Stat
    What is the problem you are trying to fix?
    Hello, noddin0ff and E-Stat, and thanks for the replies and the welcome. As far as what I said about having no idea how to do, what I was referring to was synchronizing MP3 files to a USB Flash Drive device. Currently, I think that I have been synchronizing music files to my USB FD device as lossless WMAs which is how I have my WMP Options set. But what the problem is as E-Stat asked is that I recently purchase a Sony CDX-GT610UI FM/AM Car Radio/CD Player that has a USB port from Circuit City, and at the beginning of each song that I synched to my USB FD device, there's a slight pause. I called Circuit City and talked to the store manager about this "flaw" in my recordings and he asked me how I was downloading or synching my music to my USB FD device and told me to stop using WMP and to synch my songs as MP3s. I told him that I really didn't know how to do that and he told me that their tech department called "firedog" could instruct me on how to do it for $30.00. I told him that it reallly didn't sound that hard to do, but I just didn't know how to do it and that I probably could learn how to do it from the internet, and here I am. Now I don't know if the manager was trying to divert my attention away from a possible defective USB Flash Drive device(which are $34.00 a pop for the ones that have 4GB....and that was a sale price ), but I wasn't about to pay $30.00 to learn how to do MP3s. Besides, WMP Options has a selection to rip music from CDs(which is esentially where I get my music from) in the MP3 format, but then, the CC manager told me not to use WMP.

    Also, as far as the directions that came with my USB Flash player(which is the Sony car radio/CD player) that noddin0ff had mentioned, I'll admit that I haven't gotten around to completely reading the directions(so much to do and so many electronic toys and so little time to learn how to properly use them ), but I just looked through it and read the page "About USB devices" and there was a sentence that said: "For details on the compatibility of your USB device, visit the Sony support website...," however, I called the "800" number on the back on the manual and was told by a rep that the USB device that I am using, which is the PNY USB 4GB Flash Drive, is not listed as being compatible with my Sony player. The rep told me that the only PNYs that they have listed as being compatible with my player is the 128MB and the 512MB, but that there may be updates from further testing which may indicate that the 4GB may actually be compatible. Therefore, I guess the conclusion that I came away with was that the problem that I am having with this PNY device is that it may not be compatible with my Sony player....however....after future testing and updates, it may actually end up being compatible with my Sony player. By the way, in the instruction manual, there was a small paragraph that mentioned, "Corresponding codecs differ depending on device type," however, right now, I am too worn out from this post and have spent way too much writing this post for me to list the details about that.
    Last edited by AudioLearnerGuy; 01-15-2008 at 05:16 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AudioLearnerGuy
    Hello, noddin0ff and E-Stat, and thanks for the replies and the welcome. As far as what I said about having no idea how to do, what I was referring to was synchronizing MP3 files to a USB Flash Drive device. Currently, I think that I have been synchronizing music files to my USB FD device as lossless WMAs which is how I have my WMP Options set. But what the problem is as E-Stat asked is that I recently purchase a Sony CDX-GT610UI FM/AM Car Radio/CD Player that has a USB port from Circuit City, and at the beginning of each song that I synched to my USB FD device, there's a slight pause. I called Circuit City and talked to the store manager about this "flaw" in my recordings and he asked me how I was downloading or synching my music to my USB FD device and told me to stop using WMP and to synch my songs as MP3s. I told him that I really didn't know how to do that and he told me that their tech department called "firedog" could instruct me on how to do it for $30.00. I told him that it reallly didn't sound that hard to do, but I just didn't know how to do it and that I probably could learn how to do it from the internet, and here I am. Now I don't know if the manager was trying to divert my attention away from a possible defective USB Flash Drive device(which are $34.00 a pop for the ones that have 4GB....and that was a sale price ), but I wasn't about to pay $30.00 to learn how to do MP3s. Besides, WMP Options has a selection to rip music from CDs(which is esentially where I get my music from) in the MP3 format, but then, the CC manager told me not to use WMP.

    Also, as far as the directions that came with my USB Flash player(which is the Sony car radio/CD player) that noddin0ff had mentioned, I'll admit that I haven't gotten around to completely reading the directions(so much to do and so many electronic toys and so little time to learn how to properly use them ), but I just looked through it and read the page "About USB devices" and there was a sentence that said: "For details on the compatibility of your USB device, visit the Sony support website...," however, I called the "800" number on the back on the manual and was told by a rep that the USB device that I am using, which is the PNY USB 4GB Flash Drive, is not listed as being compatible with my Sony player. The rep told me that the only PNYs that they have listed as being compatible with my player is the 128MB and the 512MB, but that there may be updates from further testing which may indicate that the 4GB may actually be compatible. Therefore, I guess the conclusion that I came away with was that the problem that I am having with this PNY device is that it may not be compatible with my Sony player....however....after future testing and updates, it may actually end up being compatible with my Sony player. By the way, in the instruction manual, there was a small paragraph that mentioned, "Corresponding codecs differ depending on device type," however, right now, I am too worn out from this post and have spent way too much writing this post for me to list the details about that.
    SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE HAVING FUN
    Where to begin?
    Have you thought about a small portable mp3 player? That is probably what your usb is intended for.
    Also what will your car stereo play?
    If it plays wma then try that, almost anything is better than Mp3, which sux.
    Wma has something that they "mathematically lossless" which, unlike Mp3, doesnt throw away any of your music.
    Go to your settings on your WMP and set it to that. the file sizes are larger but the sound is way better.
    And try different sever software, which WMP is, basically.
    Itunes has some great features, but I use Winamp (winamp.com)
    I like winamp because it supports just about ANYTHING, and ripping is as easy as itunes, and its not Apple.
    Everybodies situation is different, I am currently burning my entire collection to HD, using a lossless format called Flac, which winamp has a plugin for. Its as easy as ripping in wma or Mp3. I am only using it at home, finding a portable device that will use such a format is difficult, so for portables try lossless wma.
    Theres another format that Sony uses called ATRAC, which they used in their minidisc format. A so-so format with a great codec, I always found atrac to be a great lossy
    format.
    But the key is lossless, we are quickly getting out of the age of mp3, which is lossy (throws away information to save space).
    A lossless format like Flac, or APE, or wma lossless can cut the size of a CD in half,
    without losing musical information, and with todays large storage devices that is often enough.
    Another thing you might want to try is WAV files, which are the original Cd type, they are huge but they will work on your player.
    Your "quiet time" BTW sounds like a handshake issue, your player takes a minute to
    read the input and decide what to do with it, and the song is underway by the time it finishes sampling it.And it starts over with every song.
    There are different ways of formating information on a disc or drive, you probably need to format your memory in a different way (lay out the directory structure in a different way)
    Every CD player that plays MP3 has instructions on how to set up the directories on your disc or memory to better acconodate your player, doublecheck your cd player instructions, I cant beleive it doesnt have such
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  7. #7
    Big science. Hallelujah. noddin0ff's Avatar
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    Hey ALG,

    I'm going to put my vote in. I think you're doing everything correctly and that the CC guy is shooting blanks. He doesn't have a clue. Now, I see what you mean by flash devise, that's cool. I need a new car stereo!

    The problem, if I understand is the pause between tracks when you play songs that are stored on the USB flash drive. I'm going to guess that some of that pause is due to the player accessing each file. It's not like a CD where the tracks flow into each other. It's more like a computer where the player has to access a hard drive, locate the file, transfer it to a buffer and decode. Each file song is a unique file and the player doesn't seamlessly switch. The only way I can thing that *might* minimize the delay is to buy fast, high-quality flash drives. But, I also think that anything that is USB 2.0 is fine and it's nearly impossible to figure out what high-quality would be. The 'not being compatible' issue is obviously not the answer because it plays.

    The 4Gb issue, I don't think would create delays. More likely you would only be able to play some of the files and the player just wouldn't be able to see the rest, ie it would only see the first 512MB worth of files.

    If you are album oriented and want to listen to a whole album without breaks, it may be possible to rip the whole album as a single track/file. You'd have to look into the software you are using.

    good luck!

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    Forum Regular pixelthis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    Hey ALG,

    I'm going to put my vote in. I think you're doing everything correctly and that the CC guy is shooting blanks. He doesn't have a clue. Now, I see what you mean by flash devise, that's cool. I need a new car stereo!

    The problem, if I understand is the pause between tracks when you play songs that are stored on the USB flash drive. I'm going to guess that some of that pause is due to the player accessing each file. It's not like a CD where the tracks flow into each other. It's more like a computer where the player has to access a hard drive, locate the file, transfer it to a buffer and decode. Each file song is a unique file and the player doesn't seamlessly switch. The only way I can thing that *might* minimize the delay is to buy fast, high-quality flash drives. But, I also think that anything that is USB 2.0 is fine and it's nearly impossible to figure out what high-quality would be. The 'not being compatible' issue is obviously not the answer because it plays.

    The 4Gb issue, I don't think would create delays. More likely you would only be able to play some of the files and the player just wouldn't be able to see the rest, ie it would only see the first 512MB worth of files.

    If you are album oriented and want to listen to a whole album without breaks, it may be possible to rip the whole album as a single track/file. You'd have to look into the software you are using.

    good luck!
    Hes working at CC so of course he doesnt know anything.
    These idiots, right before Christmas, fired all of their sales staff, guys making 14, 15 bucks an hour, in a "money saving" action.
    the young idiots they hired for minimum wage didnt know squat, and teh company almost went under.
    And good for em
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  9. #9
    Big science. Hallelujah. noddin0ff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    Hes working at CC so of course he doesnt know anything.
    These idiots, right before Christmas, fired all of their sales staff, guys making 14, 15 bucks an hour, in a "money saving" action.
    the young idiots they hired for minimum wage didnt know squat, and teh company almost went under.
    And good for em
    I've met several fairly well informed CC employees but even the best would be hard pressed to understand every conceivable function on every player they have, down to the resolution of how a player may interact with 3rd party flash drives...

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    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    Have you thought about a small portable mp3 player? That is probably what your usb is intended for.
    No, the USB port is intended for a USB Flash Drive device(like the ones in the PNY link that I provided). Also, I have an AUX input jack on the front of my Sony player for portable audio devices, plus, there's a cord that extends out of the back of my Sony player into my glove compartment that has a dock connector on the end of it that you can connect an iPod player to. By the way, I just read in my owner's manual that when either an iPod or a portable audio device is connected to my Sony unit that these devices are controlled by the Sony unit. However, the sales associate and one of the car techs who helped me to select this unit told me that I would be using the controls of either an iPod device or some other type of portable audio device(such as an MP3 player) that would be connected to my Sony player, but that with a USB Flash Drive device I would be able control to the music through the Sony player(which I can), therefore, the USB FD device sounded more practical and desirable because I had compared having to use the controls of an iPod or other portable audio device to having to divert my attention to using a cell phone...which we all know isn't the best thing to do while driving. And obvisouly the sales associate and car tech were incorrect on this point, but that's not a problem with me because I've never really been a headphone or earphone/portable audio device kind of person, plus, in comparison to the price of either a 4GB iPod or MP3 player, I saved big time. (Although, I can't wait until the price of all of this technology goes down. )


    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    Also what will your car stereo play?
    Okay, I guess I feel like answering this question now. Straight from my owner's manual:

    Corresponding codecs differ depending on device type.
    - Mass Storage Class: MP3/WMA/AAC
    - ATRAC Audio Device: ATRAC/MP3/WMA/AAC


    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    If it plays wma then try that, almost anything is better than Mp3, which sux...
    Go to your settings on your WMP and set it to that. the file sizes are larger but the sound is way better.
    I'm curious. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?


    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    And try different sever software, which WMP is, basically.
    Itunes has some great features, but I use Winamp (winamp.com)
    I like winamp because it supports just about ANYTHING, and ripping is as easy as itunes, and its not Apple.
    I tried Winamp, but from what I remember, it did something to my computer(slowed it down or something), therefore, I uninstalled it. As for iTunes, I used to use that too, but there was an issue about it's software(that I don't remember) that I didn't like, so I uninstalled it also.


    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    But the key is lossless, we are quickly getting out of the age of mp3, which is lossy (throws away information to save space).
    A lossless format like Flac, or APE, or wma lossless can cut the size of a CD in half,
    without losing musical information, and with todays large storage devices that is often enough.
    Curious. What do you mean by "we are quickly getting out of the age of mp3"? Are you referring to just the use of the MP3 format, or are you are also referring to MP3 players, which I'm assuming only use the MP3 format?


    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    Your "quiet time" BTW sounds like a handshake issue, your player takes a minute to
    read the input and decide what to do with it, and the song is underway by the time it finishes sampling it.And it starts over with every song.
    Now that sux!

    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    There are different ways of formating information on a disc or drive, you probably need to format your memory in a different way (lay out the directory structure in a different way)
    Every CD player that plays MP3 has instructions on how to set up the directories on your disc or memory to better acconodate your player, doublecheck your cd player instructions, I cant beleive it doesnt have such
    Directory structure? Hmmm. Unfortunately, I haven't come across the instructions on how to set up the directories on my disc or memory to better accomodate my player. I'm not sure if that's in my instruction manual. If not, can this be looked up on the internet?
    Last edited by AudioLearnerGuy; 01-19-2008 at 01:54 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    Hey ALG,

    I'm going to put my vote in. I think you're doing everything correctly and that the CC guy is shooting blanks. He doesn't have a clue. Now, I see what you mean by flash devise, that's cool. I need a new car stereo!
    Thanks. It is pretty cool. Especially for people like me who aren't into portable audio devices like iPods and MP3 players, but who are tired of using CDs.

    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    The problem, if I understand is the pause between tracks when you play songs that are stored on the USB flash drive. I'm going to guess that some of that pause is due to the player accessing each file. It's not like a CD where the tracks flow into each other. It's more like a computer where the player has to access a hard drive, locate the file, transfer it to a buffer and decode. Each file song is a unique file and the player doesn't seamlessly switch.
    That sounds similar to what pixelthis was saying. Either way it sux!

    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    The 4Gb issue, I don't think would create delays. More likely you would only be able to play some of the files and the player just wouldn't be able to see the rest, ie it would only see the first 512MB worth of files.

    If you are album oriented and want to listen to a whole album without breaks, it may be possible to rip the whole album as a single track/file. You'd have to look into the software you are using.

    good luck!
    Yes, I am more of an album oriented person than I am singles and I think that's a good suggestion about ripping the whole album as a single track/file. Hopefully, I can find software that will do that. BTW, do you have a general opinion about WMP?
    Last edited by AudioLearnerGuy; 01-19-2008 at 07:52 PM.

  12. #12
    Forum Regular pixelthis's Avatar
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    Lets say you have three directories, jazz, hos, bros.
    open jazz, thats one level, then you have artists, open miles davis, thats another level.
    then you have albums, open kinda blue, thats another level.
    Limit the number of levels, etc, cant hurt.
    As for the age of MP3 being over, Mp3 was never intended as a music format, it was the soundtrack from mpeg1.
    Hackers stripped it off and started using the codec to download music in a 56k world,
    and it was very usefull, although not audiophile grade since it was lossy (threw away information).
    In todays cable modem world massive compression to transmit files is no longer nessesary, with 1.5 meg speeds you just dont need that anymore, and the tech has improved, Flac, etc are perfectly fine, and still cut file size in half, the important thing is that, unlike Mp3, they dont throw away data.
    I suggested WMA lossless because I didnt think your player handled flac. etc
    Not surprized it handles atrac, this is the codec that Sony uses for its almost defunct minidisc, and while lossy its still quite good. Most of the newer codecs take better advantage of newer knowledge, mp3 is getting kinda long in the tooth, tech wise.
    And I have never been a headphone, portable type of guy either, but it was very conveinent
    to put my entire music library on a 30gig creative player and listen to it in my car.
    And you were told wrong, the special plug on an Ipod is to allow basic control functions
    from whatever device you have it plugged into, the targets are full of devices that take advantage of this feature. This is one of the main selling points of an ipod
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    Big science. Hallelujah. noddin0ff's Avatar
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    Hi ALG,

    If this is strictly car listening, lossless isn't so critical. But, I always rip my CD's to lossless and generally I don't convert when I load my Ipod (which I plug into my car).

    Lossless is best. From your list only WMA offers that capability.

    MP3 and AAC? AAC is considered to be the better format. BUT, it really is more strongly influence by bitrate. Lots of downloads are 128 kbps (kilo bits per second, per second making this a rate, or speed value). The more data you are moving per second the better quality the file. I find 128kbps to be too noticeably inferior. In my car experiences, 192kbps is the threshold where quality difference are almost no longer noticed. 256 is a nice default value. At 256kbps, files are still small but quality is nearly as good as lossless. Many may notice its short comings in a good listening environment. 320kbps, is very good quality but the size is so big you might as well do lossless.

    I don't use WMP, and haven't since I use Mac's. I use iTunes but, at least on the Mac platform, you can't use iTunes to load a flash drive. iTunes only interfaces with iPods for file managment.

    You can use a flash drive as you iTunes library and get a 3rd party script to manage multiple libraries, so in truth you could use iTunes with a flash drive if you were highly motivated. You have better options though already.

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    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    As for the age of MP3 being over, Mp3 was never intended as a music format, it was the soundtrack from mpeg1.
    Hackers stripped it off and started using the codec to download music in a 56k world,
    and it was very usefull, although not audiophile grade since it was lossy (threw away information).
    Oh wow! I didn't know that MP3 had such a shady origin.

    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    In todays cable modem world massive compression to transmit files is no longer nessesary, with 1.5 meg speeds you just dont need that anymore, and the tech has improved, Flac, etc are perfectly fine, and still cut file size in half, the important thing is that, unlike Mp3, they dont throw away data.
    I suggested WMA lossless because I didnt think your player handled flac. etc
    Not surprized it handles atrac, this is the codec that Sony uses for its almost defunct minidisc, and while lossy its still quite good. Most of the newer codecs take better advantage of newer knowledge, mp3 is getting kinda long in the tooth, tech wise.
    Pixelthis, I have this thread posted at another forum and I was told to make sure that I was making MP3s and not WMA files for the reason that MP3s files are more compatible on just about every music playing device.

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    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    Hi ALG,

    If this is strictly car listening, lossless isn't so critical. But, I always rip my CD's to lossless and generally I don't convert when I load my Ipod (which I plug into my car).
    I didn't know that you could convert from lossless when loading to a portable device.

    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    MP3 and AAC? AAC is considered to be the better format. BUT, it really is more strongly influence by bitrate. Lots of downloads are 128 kbps (kilo bits per second, per second making this a rate, or speed value). The more data you are moving per second the better quality the file. I find 128kbps to be too noticeably inferior. In my car experiences, 192kbps is the threshold where quality difference are almost no longer noticed. 256 is a nice default value. At 256kbps, files are still small but quality is nearly as good as lossless. Many may notice its short comings in a good listening environment. 320kbps, is very good quality but the size is so big you might as well do lossless.
    Thanks a bunch for that lesson, noddin0ff. Until something is taught or explained to someone at head level, it will continue to remain at "over-head" level.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AudioLearnerGuy
    Oh wow! I didn't know that MP3 had such a shady origin.



    Pixelthis, I have this thread posted at another forum and I was told to make sure that I was making MP3s and not WMA files for the reason that MP3s files are more compatible on just about every music playing device.
    There might be a few players that dont handle wma, but they would be very cheap.
    The Sony car player in question handles it.
    And "the whole worlds doing it" is the dumbest reason for doing anything, the files I rip to HD arent good for anything but playing on my computer and a few obscure chinese
    players that probably have the menu in Mandarin, but its only going to be used in my system, so it works for me.
    MP3 is known by everyone because its been around forever, but the reason to forgo it
    IS because its been around forever.
    If your car player plays wma , this is am exelent format that is capable of lossless,
    has smaller file sizes for lossy, and is all around better than MP3.
    mpeg CAME OUT IN THE LATE EIGHTIES, and so did mp3.
    Some things get better with time, but not audio codecs, they are only good until something better comes along.
    And somethings come along
    LG 42", integra 6.9, B&W 602s2, CC6 center, dm305rears, b&w
    sub asw2500
    Panny DVDA player
    sharp Aquos BLU player
    pronto remote, technics antique direct drive TT
    Samsung SACD/DVDA player
    emotiva upa-2 two channel amp

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by pixelthis
    MP3 is known by everyone because its been around forever, but the reason to forgo it
    IS because its been around forever.
    If your car player plays wma , this is am exelent format that is capable of lossless,
    has smaller file sizes for lossy, and is all around better than MP3.
    I didn't know that that WMA was capable of having smaller file sizes for lossy. But I'm curious. From what some people seem to be indicating, do you think that smaller sized lossy files in the WMA format might be better for use with my USB Flash Drive device and my Sony player?

  18. #18
    Big science. Hallelujah. noddin0ff's Avatar
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    Filesize vs. quality is the cornerstone tradeoff in digital audio. If you want a small filesize (because space is limited or you want to fill the space you have with as many songs as you can) you need to discard information from the file. Encoders that produce lossy compression look at the harmonics of a file and start discarding frequencies that they don't think you can hear. That removes data. Then they start compressing the harmonics for file size. I'm not a math wiz, but I've been told that the basic principle is Fourier transform where a sound wave is mathematically described as a sum of its harmonics. You just start leaving out, or merging together, the harmonics. This lowers the resolution.

    Different codecs (mp3, aac, wma) use different procedures for determining what they think you can't hear. When people say one format is 'better' than the other this is part of it. But the majority of what makes a codec 'better' is the efficiency with which it does this. AAC will give you a slightly smaller file than mp3 at the same quality and do it faster, e.g. Only programmers really care about efficiency...The more modern codecs are hard to distinguish from each other audibly.

    At some point, you start to notice the loss. If your goal is more music on the device, you want to find the resolution at which you don't notice the loss. I suggest 192kbps for the car, or 256kbps if you're picky and have a great car system. Most stuff sold online is worse, 128kbps.

    If you have the space, go lossless. It's simpler in the long run. You can't upconvert a lossy file to a lossless one, however. What's lost is lost.

    With a flash drive, you probably can't convert lossless to lossy 'on the fly' as you load the drive. If you 'sync' a player through WMP, maybe it can do it. I don't know. iTunes w/ iPods will do it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    At some point, you start to notice the loss. If your goal is more music on the device, you want to find the resolution at which you don't notice the loss. I suggest 192kbps for the car, or 256kbps if you're picky and have a great car system. Most stuff sold online is worse, 128kbps.

    If you have the space, go lossless. It's simpler in the long run.
    Thanks, noddin0ff, for clearing that up. Also, do you know of any good players besides WMP, iTunes, and Winamp? At another forum, I was given some good reasons not to use WMP...and I don't care for iTunes...and I heard that the new version of Winamp is bloated and cumbersome, even though at one site Winamp's older version was recommended. However, I installed the older version of Winamp that was recommend from that site, but I keep getting messages from the older version player to download the new version to be able to see or do the latest this or that. Also, in another post, you had mentioned that from my list, only WMA(Windows Media Audio) offers lossless. Well, I would prefer to stay away from WMA since it requires the use of WMP.

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    Quote Originally Posted by noddin0ff
    The 4Gb issue, I don't think would create delays. More likely you would only be able to play some of the files and the player just wouldn't be able to see the rest, ie it would only see the first 512MB worth of files.
    BTW, I almost forgot to mention that if what you said in the quote above is true, then what a waste of $34.99.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AudioLearnerGuy
    Also, do you know of any good players besides WMP, iTunes, and Winamp?
    No takers?

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    Hello. I just wanted to say that I found the answer to my above question about other media players from a few other forums and also got the answer to my main question in this thread at another forum. BTW, it seems to have turned out that the Circuit City store manager was right about me needing to synch my music to my USB device as MP3 files and to not use the Windows Media Player. However, I still would still like to thank everyone at this forum for their contributions, especially noddin0ff in particular. Well, take care now everyone and once again, thanks.

  23. #23
    Big science. Hallelujah. noddin0ff's Avatar
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    Thanks for the follow-up!

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