WMA conversion question

[bmoore09]

I have a whole library of WMA Lossless music.

Unfortunately, my new Creative Labs Zen Xtra 40GB portable player wont do lossless. :(

So I got this program and it just has SO many formats and bitrates I can use, and I cant seem to figure out where to start. I want the LEAST amount of quality lost, no matter how big the file is, and i want to keep the ID tags. i would just use WAV format on my player, but there are no tags (or are there?)

So what should I convert to for best quality? WMAv9 at VBR 90, 48? Or mp3 at 320kbps? Whats the best non-lossless format here?

Thank you

[adaywayne]

Re: WMA conversion question

I have a whole library of WMA Lossless music.

Unfortunately, my new Creative Labs Zen Xtra 40GB portable player wont do lossless. :(

So I got this program and it just has SO many formats and bitrates I can use, and I cant seem to figure out where to start. I want the LEAST amount of quality lost, no matter how big the file is, and i want to keep the ID tags. i would just use WAV format on my player, but there are no tags (or are there?)

So what should I convert to for best quality? WMAv9 at VBR 90, 48? Or mp3 at 320kbps? Whats the best non-lossless format here?

Thank you

A little research indicates that particular player supports only wma, mp3 (not mp3 pro) or wave. Is that correct for your particular player?

I would not use wave because of the huge file sizes. Also, the audio quality you will get out of any portable player and cheap headphones does not warrant using wave. I would choose wma over mp3, and use settings of VBR quality 90 or 98, 16 bit, stereo.

Arnie

[adaywayne]

Re: WMA conversion question

A little research indicates that particular player supports only wma, mp3 (not mp3 pro) or wave. Is that correct for your particular player?

I would not use wave because of the huge file sizes. Also, the audio quality you will get out of any portable player and cheap headphones does not warrant using wave. I would choose wma over mp3, and use settings of VBR quality 90 or 98, 16 bit, stereo.

Arnie

PS. You could even go down to wma VBR quality 75 or even 50. Do a little experimenting and see if you can hear any difference. Also see the last post in the following thread:http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthre...2&page=2&pp=15

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA conversion question

If your player does not support VBR, you can use .wma CBR @ 128KBPS and that shoud be very good and safe.

[bmoore09]

Re: WMA conversion question

Ive been using the alt-preset INSANE and its been tough to tell any loss of quality yet.

Will that do as well as what youll spoke of? I do NOT care about file size, just the best quality that will play on my player.

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA conversion question

Ive been using the alt-preset INSANE and its been tough to tell any loss of quality yet.

Will that do as well as what youll spoke of? I do NOT care about file size, just the best quality that will play on my player.

Well, why don't you do some testing yoruself with one file converetd to various specs and saved under different names? You willl be the ebst judge of what's best for you.

The preset stuff is for mp3's. Just experiment with other settings, and also use the no presets and do your own selections of specs, as then you'll be able to understand what the best specs are for you.

[bmoore09]

Re: WMA conversion question

Am I using LAME encoding when i use the INSANE presets?

And which would TECHNICALLY be better, mp3 320kbps or the INSANE?

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA conversion question

Am I using LAME encoding when i use the INSANE presets?

And which would TECHNICALLY be better, mp3 320kbps or the INSANE?

I'd think Lame is used once you select Lame mp3 for a codec. After that you select your settings.

INSANE corresponds to manually selecting 320KBPS, 44.1KHz, and joint stereo (instead of just stereo). You can see that after you convert when you check the file attributes.

[bmoore09]

Re: WMA conversion question

So is the quality better with Stereo , rather than JOINT Stereo?

Uses less compression?

[LtData]

Re: WMA conversion question

Joint Stereo gives the same result as stereo, but shrinks the file size. It does this by having a set of data that's common to both channels, then the unique data for each channel.