m4a variable or constant?

[Special Ed]

High, first question here.

What is higher quality 256 bitrate M4A Variable encoding or 360 bitrate Constant M4A encoding.

Also, if I decide to rip my cds to M4A, am I married to the iPod in the future or will most all players (except zune) handle M4A coding at some point?

[LtData]

Re: m4a variable or constant?

320 CBR would be higher quality, I would guess.

As for m4a, I know more players are starting to support m4a but most still do not.

[Special Ed]

Re: m4a variable or constant?

I did my first 320 constant bit rate m3a encoding (with iTunes as a test) and the bit rates in iTunes are showing as 319, 322, 321, 323 kbps

Is this normal? I ripped all my cds previously at 192 Mp3s and they all show a solid 192kbps

[Spoon]

Re: m4a variable or constant?

Perhaps a problem with iTunes bitrate dectection routines.