WMA vs MP3

[GrayWolf]

Ok I just recently confused the hell out of myself. Im using windows media player 10 and I rip music from friends n family's cds frequently for my library. However, what is the better file type to use for this? (size is NOT an issue) mp3? or wma?

[Gnufsh]

If size is not an issue, I suggest FLAC (a good, free lossless codec).

[Enablingwolf]

I also like FLAC.

The only reason I would use wma. Is if size is an issue. It is pretty good at compressing.

In turn the only reason I would use mp3 is. If I had a player that did not support FLAC or other lossless or open source codecs. If I did have the limit of which codec I would use. I would make the files as high a bit rate I could. I perfer 320, but 190 is just as good on my MP3 player. I balance out how hard to compress the tracks versus storage. Compress it to hard and the quality suffers.

So I try and balance out what I intend to be doing with the tunes once they are encoded. Then I narrow it down to how they will be stored for future use.

For a home network with loads of storage, FLAC is one of the best I can think of. Since you can have the best sounds you can get.

[TempliNocturnus]

I rip stuff at high VBR mp3 nomally. You might also want to check out ogg's, if your portable media player supports it. is good for size and quality. As for FLAC, if you're ripping alot of CD's you will need alot of harddrive space. I'll prolly go all flac when I set up a RAID0 with those new seagate hd's.