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action_owl

Member

From: WWW, The Internet 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 73

BEST GNU audio format ?

I am looking to convert my entire .mp3 collection
over to something more GNU friendly, any suggestions?

bangkok_manouel

Member

From: indicates a starting point

Registered: 2005-02-07

Posts: 1,556

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

transcoding is a bad idea but i guess it's ogg you're looking for.

Ashren

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2007-06-13

Posts: 1,229

Website

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

ogg?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg

It's not exactly GNU but its free.

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Runiq

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-10-29

Posts: 1,053

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

Hello, fellow KoLer.

Yes, transcoding's a bad idea. Any two lossless format use different algorithms to compress file size, and information invariably gets lost in the process. So, unless you have the original data in a lossless format (e.g. FLAC), you probably shouldn't do it.

<edit>Changed non-compressed to lossless. :-/

Last edited by Runiq (2009-08-29 12:06:57)

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Dotfiles

action_owl

Member

From: WWW, The Internet 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 73

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

@bangkok_manouel & Ashren - Thanks

@Runiq I see, unfortunately I'm willing to sacrifice the quality, I made a tough choice: Netbook or mp3Player(ipod)

(Netbook) > (iPod)

Most of the mp3s were ripped from cds at 192 so I'm hoping that after the -> Transcoding & Netbook soundcard it will be tolerable.

Any suggested converter tools?
Thanks again

Last edited by action_owl (2009-08-29 09:06:07)

Profjim

Member

From: NYC

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 658

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

Still don't understand why you need to convert. Political objections to mp3? Your netbook should be able to play mp3 files as well as ogg.

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

Unnecessary degradation of quality in my opinion

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ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

You'll have to weigh the (presumedly) political objections (anyone who mentions GNU-friendly reminds me of Stallman...) against the high probability that your music will sound sucky. Its not a contest, for me, I'm a realist. If you DO feel so strongly about it, then may I suggest FLAC, though that will kill your HD space...

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Babets

Member

Registered: 2008-02-07

Posts: 47

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

Any suggested converter tools?

Sound converter.

Unnecessary degradation of quality in my opinion

I agree, unless you start from a lossless format as flac.

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

If he had FLAC he wouldn't have to convert in the first place .

Seriously - I wouldn't do it. It is technically possible but not recommended at all, as other people said, trading piece of mind for sound quality is a debatable thing imho.

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skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

Leave them as mp3 if you can. It has the highest compatibility with the greatest number of devices. There's no reason to transcode unless you're going to lossless which is utterly pointless anyway. Making the file size many times larger to have it sound exactly the same is silly.

Changing audio formats because of some ideology is ridiculous. There's no common format that isn't bound legally, including vorbis. It'd be nice if people would stop believing that lie.

action_owl

Member

From: WWW, The Internet 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 73

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

I was just tired of having to install mp3 codecs on any distribution that I use.
I was in hopes that there was something more.."universal" or "GNU-ish"

Perhaps I should just start saving new music to .ogg?
But I like the idea of uniformity, Ill see how degraded they sound and decide.

dunc

Member

From: Glasgow, UK

Registered: 2007-06-18

Posts: 559

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

If you can re-rip from a lossless source, Ogg does sound better at lower bitrates, which is a far better reason to use it than ideological purity. But I agree with the others: transcoding from MP3 won't give any advantage, and in all probability will actually sound worse.

Perhaps I should just start saving new music to .ogg?

That's what I did, and re-ripped stuff I have on CD. Anything I have only as MP3, I've just left. There's no point.

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jfca283

Member

From: Santiago, Chile

Registered: 2007-10-09

Posts: 177

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

i heard mpc is the best lossy format
flac the best loseless format
both are free

GogglesGuy

Member

From: Rocket City

Registered: 2005-03-29

Posts: 610

Website

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

ogg?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg

It's not exactly GNU but its free.

You mean Vorbis. Ogg is just a media container.

Zeist

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

Registered: 2008-07-04

Posts: 532

Re: BEST GNU audio format ?

i heard mpc is the best lossy format
flac the best loseless format
both are free

Flac is kind of the golden middle road of lossless formats, it's not really spectacular in any way but it compresses quite well and fast. Also it's supported by everything.

MPC is good. It has quite low hardware support though. I would prefer using Nero AAC or AoTuV OGG instead.

Last edited by Zeist (2009-09-01 22:46:44)

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