2006-09-23 10:22:49 · 4 answers · asked by xtof 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
Real Player, it's free and very convenient to use.
http://www.real.com
2006-09-23 10:26:24 · answer #1 · answered by frime 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The "settings" you describe have no universal meaning. In general mp3 is a set of algorithms and compression based on a particular scientific premise. MP3 encoders are free to do whatever they want, so long as they ultimately produce a valid mp3 file. When the mp3 format was developed various patents were filed, and license fees required by those patent holders, have made it so that there are only really 4 mp3 encoding engines out there, and everything else is based on one of those 4.
There are two ways to go with mp3 encoding: Variable bit rate or fixed bit rate. With VBR the encoder is free to determine how many thousand bits per second the source requires. For example, in a section where there's silence, or very little input signal, VBR doesn't need to use much if any storage. I've never had much luck with VBR but some people swear by it.
Fixed bit rate, is where you get space savings. The mp3 format allows for anything from 32k bps to 320kbps. The less bits, the smaller the file. Conversely, the smaller the file, the less fidelity. For music, the sweet spot for mp3 is somewhere between 128 bps, and 256. Of the 4 encoding engines, only one is divergent, and that is the Lame engine. Lame was designed to be free and open source, and the people working on it, evolved it to the point, that they've used a novel approach that gets them around the original mp3 patents. Many people now feel that the LAME codec is the best mp3 codec around, especially for VBR.
Ultimately what is best, is based on your personal preference, the type of music you listen to, the quality of your reproduction environment (portable player vs. mini stereo, vs. big expensive Stereo) and how important it is to minimize file size.of the files.
It's also important to know that if you use an IPod and ITunes, then the target file format is not mp3 at all, but rather aac. The same folks that developed mp3, developed aac. A lot has been made of the so-called Digital rights management (DRM) stuff in AAC. Like most schemes of this nature, it's proven to provide almost no impairment to people who want to strip it out. More importantly, AAC is generally considered to be a bit more efficient. In general, a 128kbps AAC file is considered to sound as good as a 192kbps mp3 file. Since ITunes allows you to play both aac and mp3, I in general rip songs using ITunes, which converts them to 128kbps AAC. Songs you buy on the ITunes store (I buy very few) have the AAC DRM but that doesn't worry me much personally. It's never gotten in my way. I also buy some music on EMusic, which is mp3 format. I import it into ITunes, and for my purposes, I get the best of all possible worlds.
Utlimately, what ends up being most important to me, is the availability and organization of my overall music collection, and the integration with my portable player, rather than the individual file formats and characteristics of the encoder.
2006-09-23 18:19:52 · answer #2 · answered by Gizmo L 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
FLAC. http://flac.sourceforge.net
2006-09-23 17:25:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
itunes..does everything in a few clicks
2006-09-23 17:24:32 · answer #4 · answered by mac_monkey_55 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋