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(written by MODatic)...
The only differences between WMA V7 and WMA V8 are that WMA V8 encodes a little faster and the higher bitrates (128 and above) sound a little better but still not as good as MP3's higher bitrates. WMA's strength with lower bitrates (less than 128 ) has also been weakened, don't know why, a 96 WMA V7 used to be the same as a 128 MP3 but now it (WMA V8 ) seems to fall over in hard songs and produce artifacts.
OGG is a free, Patent-free, open source format. Ogg is more acceptable than WMA at 64Kbit/s and roughly on par with MP3PRO (not as metallic, more frequencies left intact than with WMA). Depending on what you value in your music OGG 64 is probably better than MP3PRO. It leaves more frequencies in the song but sounds a little more mettallic with the percussions.
OGG at 80Kbit/s pulls off quality on par with an MP3 at 128Kbit/s and definately way better than a WMA at 80 or 96Kbit/s.
The only dowside to OGG is that it is a bit slower than MP3 or WMA. On a PIII 733, 256mb of ram, MP3 and WMA encode at about 6x real-time whereas OGG only encodes at 3.5x real-time (small price to pay).
I personally recommend OGG, most software players are planning to support OGG by default as soon as it goes into official release. Your MP3 player should support OGG about the same time too. There will be a an RC3 release and then maybe a RC4 release before Ogg goes into official release. These releases will just be minor tweaks unlike the big changes we have seen in RC2
You can get to the Ogg Vorbis homepage here:
If only more people knew about OGG!!!
The only differences between WMA V7 and WMA V8 are that WMA V8 encodes a little faster and the higher bitrates (128 and above) sound a little better but still not as good as MP3's higher bitrates. WMA's strength with lower bitrates (less than 128 ) has also been weakened, don't know why, a 96 WMA V7 used to be the same as a 128 MP3 but now it (WMA V8 ) seems to fall over in hard songs and produce artifacts.
OGG is a free, Patent-free, open source format. Ogg is more acceptable than WMA at 64Kbit/s and roughly on par with MP3PRO (not as metallic, more frequencies left intact than with WMA). Depending on what you value in your music OGG 64 is probably better than MP3PRO. It leaves more frequencies in the song but sounds a little more mettallic with the percussions.
OGG at 80Kbit/s pulls off quality on par with an MP3 at 128Kbit/s and definately way better than a WMA at 80 or 96Kbit/s.
The only dowside to OGG is that it is a bit slower than MP3 or WMA. On a PIII 733, 256mb of ram, MP3 and WMA encode at about 6x real-time whereas OGG only encodes at 3.5x real-time (small price to pay).
I personally recommend OGG, most software players are planning to support OGG by default as soon as it goes into official release. Your MP3 player should support OGG about the same time too. There will be a an RC3 release and then maybe a RC4 release before Ogg goes into official release. These releases will just be minor tweaks unlike the big changes we have seen in RC2
You can get to the Ogg Vorbis homepage here:
If only more people knew about OGG!!!