Robert Scoble, Microsoft's most popular blogger, has some thoughts on Windows Media vs. the Apple iPod. I'm a new convert to Apple, so I think I am going to go with an iPod, but there are some strong arguments for the greater diversity found in the Windows Media platform, even if there is no software as good as iTunes and no hardware as good as the iPod.
"But you don't get it, Scoble, I don't like Microsoft," OK, but look at the history of where we've been. One company licensed its OS to an entire industry. One company didn't. Which company is most likely to free you to work with a whole industry's range of devices rather than just its own? Oh, and Microsoft's licensing for Windows Media is out in the open too. That's a significant reason why there are more than 500 devices today using Windows Media, and only a handful using Apple's AAC/Fairtunes.
The Scobleizer -- Geek Aggregator [radio.weblogs.com]
And still more arguments for avoiding both AAC and WMA and sticking to DRM-free formats like MP3, even if you need a higher bitrate for equivalent quality.
I don't download pirated MP3s (not out of any great virtue on my part, just because I listen almost exclusively to classical music and anything available on Kazaa and the like I probably have already in one of my 600+ CDs).
The idea of having to ask Apple or Microsoft, or anybody else for permission to move my music wherever I want is anathema. I will stick to DRM-free CDs, thank you very much, until they are no longer available, at which point I will stop buying music altogether.
Fazal, here's where I get tripped up. AAC really sounds much better than MP3 at much lower bitrates. Both the Audiophile review of the iPod and independent reviews by various music lovers talk about this. I was initially encoding my music at 192k MP3 but after hearing the loss of lows and highs, I went to 320k AAC. This is really close to WAV/AIFF and I cant honestly tell the difference. But 320k mp3 is worse and much larger in file size.
The main reason I havent gone to an iPod yet is sound quality. I hate the idea of buying CDs and listening to less-than-CD quality. So many people are happy with 128k mp3s. I wish I wasn't so picky.
Any advise? How do I balance formats/DRM and file size?
Disk is cheap. Rip at high burn rates and continue to slide along the curve of falling disk prices. you may also want to look into variable bit rate (VBR) MP3 encoding. It saves disk and maintains quality where needed.
The only thing that worries me about AAC is that a lot of devices/stereo components do not yet support it. By owning the CD, you can always rip MP3s now and then rip to AAC later. There are even some 3rd party services that will do this for you now.