2007-01-23 04:30:46 · 8 answers · asked by timma07 1 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Music & Music Players
wma is about half the size of mp3 so you can get twice as many tracks on your player. not all mp3 players support wma.
2007-01-23 10:50:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Essentially they are two different ways of compressing sound information. They use different algorithms to decide what sounds the human ear can hear.
Windows Media Audio (WMA) files use a more recent algorithm and therefore benefits from the more recent understanding of human hearing. This results in music or noises that sound more realistic.
The MP3 format uses an older algorithm and therefore would need to retain more sound information (or a higher bit rate*) to produce a sound as good as WMA.
Bit rate = how many individual noises per second is used to make the overall sound.
Sorry if I lost you in the middle of that!
2007-01-23 05:56:22 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
MP3 (Mpeg-3) is a format that's over a decade old, and has muffled sound in the high range. Due to its age, it is both the only truly universal format for portable digital audio players, and the worst format you can encode to.
WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a proprietary format that Microsoft came up with for the Windows Media Player. Most high-end iPod-clones use this because someone already invested the development costs for them, and they just need to design their players to be compatible with it. Low-end budget players will generally stick with just the MP3 format because it's less expensive to develop a single-format player, and most online download services (besides iTunes) only offer MP3 formatted music.
AAC/M4A (Mpeg-4 Audio) is the default format used by the iPod lineup, which accounts for 90% of the hard-drive-based player market (generally the 30GB+ range) and 70% of all player formats. While the WMA format may be used by a wider variety of players in general, the tiny market share that they compete for, and the fact that WMA is not superior to AAC/M4A (the second most commonly used format), means that it is not, in fact, anywhere near becoming a universal audio format as there's no reason for the dominant player lineup to ever adopt it.
2007-01-23 09:13:47 · answer #3 · answered by the_amazing_purple_dave 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
MP3 is a MP3 file. WMA is a Windows Media fille.
2007-01-23 04:34:16 · answer #4 · answered by osufan 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
mp3 file is a file that plays on ipods, mp3 players etc.
wma file is a file that plays on your windows media player or anyother player on your computer and most cell phone only use wma files.
2007-01-23 04:40:02 · answer #5 · answered by cecilia 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
wma is superior to mp3, due to smaller file size.
wma is beginning to be just as 'universal' as mp3 as most mp3 players in the market can now also play wma
2007-01-23 04:41:28 · answer #6 · answered by rafael e 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
mp3 is the customary for compressed audio archives, wma is Microsoft's proprietary format. some say on account that mp3 is compressed greater right into a smaller record length that that's decrease high quality, yet truthfully you will greater effective than possibly no longer be conscious the difference.
2016-11-26 21:13:52 · answer #7 · answered by meeks 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mp3 has more quality
2007-01-23 05:10:49 · answer #8 · answered by phillipe 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋