MP3 CDs...
Author
Discussion

Podie

Original Poster:

46,649 posts

303 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
Contemplating an MP3 CD headunit... but don't know a huge amount about MP3's...

Now, according to the bumpf, I can get 10 hours of music on a CD... tidy. But is it going to sound s**t?

What's all this about ID3 tags and filetypes...?

Idiots guide much appreciated....

plotloss

67,280 posts

298 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
10 hours can be put on a CD but the encoding rate isnt great. Much better to have say 5 hours music at double the encoding rate. 192kbps is a good quality level.

IDv3 tags are simply containers for information about a particular track. IDv3 information is stored in the MP3 header on a per track basis and if the MP3 head unit is IDv3 compatible it will read the tag and display the info on the units screen. These are user updateable though so make sure they are populated before you burn the CD otherwise nothing will come up!

Matt.

pbrettle

3,280 posts

311 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
Posted about surround sound systems on friday and bought one at the weekend. Ended up buying a DVD that supports VCD and MP3 playback. Anyway, it works and works well.

What you do is get the MP3's encoded on your PC and then burn them in the order that you want onto a CD (a CD-R or CD-RW). Then stuff it in the DVD player and whoossh - you get track access and the music is played back.... rather nifty and yes, you can get upto 10 hours music on a CD.....

Oh, and if you didnt know an MP3 is a compressed music file. Its a format that is great for music as it doesnt loose quality (depending on the rate that you encode at - usually 192 so you dont loose any quality). And before anyone says anything, I know that the OggVorbis format is better and royalty free, but hey, naff all supports it so there....

Do it - I am really impressed so far and worth the effort. Just imagine - almost 10 albums on one CD.... nice!

Cheers,

Paul

Podie

Original Poster:

46,649 posts

303 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
I appreciate MP3 is compressed (doesn't it stand for MPEG3..?) but wondered how bad the compression is...

I can tell the difference between an MD and a CD and a Vinyl of the same record (blind test, but same track) so wondered how much an MP3 compares to these formats?

Also... what are the availble comprssion ratios, and where do I find a CD-ripper, so I can put my albums onto an MP3 CD..?

plotloss

67,280 posts

298 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
MP3 does indeed stand for MPEG layer 3.

The encoding, if done at the right level causes no degredation of sound at all really. You can encode at 350 and you wont be able to tell the difference on even the highest end reference audio kit.

As for ripping Winamp has a number of plug ins available just for this.

Matt.

Podie

Original Poster:

46,649 posts

303 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
Plotty - YHM.

Fatboy

8,267 posts

300 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
try www.musicmatch.com

I use it and it's really easy to use and free.

Doesn't MP3 remove frequencies we can't hear as well as compression (hence the low drop in percievable quality)?

I never notice and difference with 128kps MP3s, but then again I am half deaf...

plotloss

67,280 posts

298 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
All the rippers you could ever need...

www.share2.com/cdripper/

Matt.

whatever

2,174 posts

298 months

Monday 17th February 2003
quotequote all
I bought a pioneer mp3 head unit to replace the standard tape unit in the cerb. As I haven't upgraded the speakers (or the speaker wire...) I reckon 64kbps is good enough quality considering the background noise levels. My other use for MP3 is for the rio player when I'm at the gym or wherever, and the speakers for that are a bit cr@p too.

The bottom line is I can trade capacity (or in the case of the head-unit getting loads of CDs on a disc) to suit the equipment I'm playing it on, and the listening circumstances.