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Windows Media 9: Better sound, smaller files | |
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| Time: 04:47 EST/09:47 GMT | News Source: ZDNet | Posted By: Alex Harris | ||
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Covering last week's well-hyped launch of Windows Media 9, most of the press focused on how Microsoft is using the latest version of its media player to woo Hollywood. (Bill Gates, James Cameron, and LL Cool J together again!) But that coverage overlooked some of the product's technical enhancements--new features that should leave digital audio fans just as starry-eyed. For starters, Media 9 improves on what, in my humble opinion, was already the best audio codec around. Before the latest enhancements, a 64-bit Windows Media Audio (WMA) file sounded just as good (to me, anyway) as a 128Kbps MP3 file. Now, sure, if you've got a 40GB hard disk to work with, you might not care much about saving space (though I still do). But if you're using a portable audio player (and presuming it, like my current favorite, Creative's Nomad MuVo, supports the format), WMA files let you double the amount of music you can carry around. | ||
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| #1 By 2332 (12.105.69.158) at 9/12/2002 11:37:05 AM |
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I have an iRiver 2 mp3 player (CD based), and it supports WMA, including the new stuff thanks to a firmware upgrade.
I can fix 2x the songs (sometimes more) on a CD, and it sounds just as good in most cases. MP9 is cool too, especially the task bar thing and the mini-movie window. |
| #2 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 9/12/2002 11:47:10 AM |
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ekapshi, I wouldn't recommend compressing orchestral music at all--all compression mechanisms that I've tried have some high-frequency consequences. Cymbals sound particularly bad when compressed--they have an almost "flanger"-like quality to them.
In a way, I'm amused by the popularity of mp3 and such compression formats. When the CD came out, its main selling point was the quality and fidelity of the audio. Now we take a step backwards, about to or maybe even beyond the point of 1/8" tape (really! It has greater headroom and finer resolution than mp3). I have to laugh when WMP says 64kbps audio is "CD quality." Please. Does that imply that the higher bit rates are better than CD quality? And if 64kbps is already CD quality, why would we need higher bit rates to encode music you're most likely from CDs in the first place? |
| #3 By 116 (129.116.86.41) at 9/12/2002 1:05:55 PM |
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Ekasphi I totally agree with you about Windows Media v8... However in In Windows Media 9 Series the story is very different. You have the ability to rip a "mathmatically lossless" version from a cd. Its called Windows Media Professional. In my opinion it is exactly true to the original source. You pay for it with file size but there is no other format that can do this with competitive file sizes. Check it out ekapshi it totally blows Ogg away. As for WMV its state of the art. Much better than Divx and much better than MPEG4. The only downside is you need a machine to run it well.
MS just opened a whole keg of whoop ass on everyone. |
| #4 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 9/12/2002 2:22:08 PM |
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bluvg - Agreed. MP3 does end up sounding about the same as a good audio cassette. The one benefit you still have from the digital encoding is that the sound quality doesn't decay over time and you don't have the background hiss.
Of course about half the computers I have used, the sound output is absolutely horrible on them anyway with far more than just hiss being introduced. |
| #5 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 9/12/2002 3:25:06 PM |
| Use System Restore to uninstall it. You can't uninstall Windows Media Player 8 from XP either. |
| #6 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 9/12/2002 4:51:10 PM |
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Sorry, I guess my tone was bad in my last post. I quite agree with you. It should be uninstallable, or rollback-able. I had a bad experience with one of the leaked builds and couldn't for the life of me get rid of it. I didn't have system restore turned on at the time.
I was just trying to point out an option. |
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