[chriscu1]

I'm not pro-Microsoft, but I thought I'd share this with the group.

The new Windows Media Encoder (version 9) has the ability to compress losslessly. It's only between a 2:1 and 3:1 compression, but that still at least doubles your music while maintaining the exact same source quality. Any devices that decode WMA will probably have to put out a new firmware to take advantage of it. If something like the Nomad can support it, that would increase its value as well.

 

[Wodgy]

Do you know if there's a way to use the lossless encoder directly from Windows Media Player 9? I can't find the option. I was trying the Windows 2000 version of WMP9, not the Windows XP version. Not sure if that would make a difference.

 

[Squalish]

Your average CD is 650-700 megs. At 1/2 compression, thats about 350megs. On a high-end MP3 player, that's about a third of a CD that fits. I think that only MP3CD and Jukebox devices will have any use for this.

 

[chriscu1]

Squalish is right. The best use for this new compression is if you have something like a Nomad and listen to pure WAV files. This essentially makes your 20 GB player a 40 GB player for free. Of course your battery life goes down the tube since the hard drive will be accessed a lot more, but if you are use your player always hooked up to the AC outlet, you get a lot out of this.

 

[chriscu1]

Wodgy,
Here's what you do in XP to encode using the new lossless:

1. Go to Tools->Options.
2. Go to the "Copy Music" tab.
3. Under "File Format", select "Windows Media Audio Lossless".

Does this approach not exist in Win2K?

 

[Wodgy]

Thanks for the info. That option doesn't exist in WMP9/Win2k (at least on my machine).