Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Promise of lossless at 60% compression ???

Just getting back from some travel to read the great advice and say thanks.

'm now hoping to convert my CDs to FLAC and tinker with the add ons for Windows Media Player. I'm not a big fan of the MS player but I already own Dell Media Player software. It pretends to be it's own WMC software but it obviously is just a front end for Windows Media Player except that it lets me use a remote control. I use an RF remote control and an IR blaster to change my tunes from anywhere in the house.

One Question for the last poster. If WMA Lossless is already 'lossless' then why use FLAC first and then change to WMA? Better compression?

There is no reason to go from FLAC to WMA unless you have already ripped your entire collection of music on your computer as FLAC and want some low-quality copies of your music for an MP3 player or something.

Who is selling PC's with cablecard support? I've been looking every once in a while, but haven't seen one yet.

I use Apple Lossless for music that might be subjected to critical listening. Otherwise, 192kb MP3's for me.

For the vast majority of music, I usually can't tell a difference between the original CD and the 192kb MP3 - but every now and then there will be something that sneaks in that sounds compressed. I'm thinking things like subtle overtones on a saxophone, or brush strokes on a quiet cymbol. I have heard compression artifacts there on 192kb mp3's when doing critical listening. They are subtle, very rare, and require concentration to hear them, but I've heard them. For every other circumstance (in the car, working out, background at a party, etc) they're fine.

I have never heard any sort of compression artifacts using the Apple Lossless format (Rip CD -> Reburn to CD -> play on stereo), and I've found that CD's usually boil down to about 300mb, which is roughly 50% compression.

I did a quick spec of one and it came to about $2300. I'll probably wait until August or so and then look at getting something. Prices should be down a bit by then. It being new plus there being limited places that carry them I'm sure is bringing up the price. I wonder what places like Dell and the other big companies will do as far as a case goes for these. They don't have any HTPC style cases now that I am aware of.

Guys... you might want to check this thread out before you buy any Cable Card PC.

FLAC, EAC, and a Sqeezebox. You'll never use your CD player again.... well, almost never.

Seriously...now that you have speakers that will allow you to hear just how bad MP3's are you'll truly appreciate a lossless format. Flac is open source, you can convert it to anything, and it's as future proof as anything can be. I use my Sqeezeboxes 99.9% of the time.