Why is wma so bad ?

[Gori]

I can't understand why all lot of people thinks that the wma is fuck up
format.

could somebody enligthen me
please do not remind me of m$
stay to the facts

[cjules13]

As long as the wma files are drm free, makes no real difference to me as I use WMP anyway...

I think people prefer not to use .wma cuz only WMP player can play them... right? Apple and Linux users are SOL, so why not use the universal mp3 format?

I've ripped a lot of CDs using WMP to create .wma files - they're not that bad IMHO...

[QuickSurfer]

i use wma on my mp3 player because its really easy to save space

an 80kbps wma file is rouchly equivalent to a 128kbps mp3 file

[Aaron73153]

Why use a proprietary format that only windows can play, while OGG gives you the smaller files and is open source.

[epilef19]

:blah :blah i am new to the forum i just wanted to say hi to all! :shy

[cjules13]

Welcome epilef19!

[nasrules]

i use wma on my mp3 player because its really easy to save space

an 80kbps wma file is rouchly equivalent to a 128kbps mp3 file

No, no, no...that's what Microsoft say.

[cjules13]

Here more info on what rate .wma = what rate .mp3....

http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=17181

[isus]

wma sounds bad. thats why it is so bad. the high pitches sound tinny.

besides, wma is made by who? microsoft... aac and mp3 are made by who? audio professionals.

i'll take something developed by audio guys over something software guys made.

[DainBramaged]

www.hydrogenaudio.org will answer alot of your questions.

The bad thing about WMA is the way it encodes. Other lossy codecs offer much better audible sound quality than WMA, the forerunners being VBR mp3 and VBR AAC. Others are better still but consume more space, as they are virtually lossless.

High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) was designed to sound great at low, low bitrates and would serve you much better than the overhyped WMA and mp3 formats at these bitrates.

WMA can be played with any player that supports it. Almost all of them do: Winamp, foobar, QCD, and of course, WMP.

[thewhitrbbit]

WMV can't easily be converted to MPEG for use in DVD players and will yield crappy results because it is such a lossy codec. That's why i hate it.

[fireforce555]

I have noticed that wma doesnt carry over much bass from the original wave for some reason. I encoded a cd track(real cd not burned) as a 128wma and the base wasnt the same as that in the 128mp3. But for songs without alot of bass its pretty good I guess. Its only really alive now because 1. It supports DRM 2. It saves download time for the online services since they tend to be a bit smaller.

[muffenme]

:fire

I don't like VBR mp3.

Some people tell me that Real Audio has lots of bass but the high end Treble is mission. I never really tested the wma format.

Oh, hi to all the new people that just sign up with ZP. I hope we can help you out as best we can.

:hole

[Rickio]

I really wouldn't care if wma is Microsoft if it sounded good. It all comes down to the sound. It just does not have a good quality sound. Tinny as others say.

The best lossy codec I have heard is mpc. you should compare that with mp3.

[DainBramaged]

VBR mp3 has a very high quality level for the amount of space it consumes, as compared to other formats like Musepack, APE, or WAV.

[aboi]

what about AAC ? i started rippin all my cd to AAC format. and it sound waaaaaay better then Mp3/WMA

[crackerjacker]

i love wma drm :)
*not*

use what u like
if i download a file and its a rare file and its wma format and its not drm i dont care.

if i want to listen to rare file i dont give a rats ass what format it is as long as its drm free.

[BopZee]

I have found wma to sound better than mp3 at a given bitrate, with more high frequency content available, and the bass about equal. Depends on the ear I guess....

[bobhss]

My new in-dash CD/MP3 player does wma. BUT the wma files it can play don't display the text. The text is what I want. I like to know which song(s) are being played, especially when I've got several albums on one CD now.

[phalkon30]

What I've found, is wma is an ok format if you have small speakers with a limited range. In my experience .wma cuts the low range, and really limits the high range too.

I'll even be bold and say it may sound better than an .mp3 with some speakers. If you try to push too low of a sound through a small speaker, its going to distort. If the low sounds are cut, your speaker will only produce the sounds it can well, and things may sound "better".

Not to mention you have issues with copyrights, and .mp3 is really the universal music format right now. Wma files are like .ra (real audio) files, you can only play them in special players....which really limits them.

[WE_DELIVER]

I like OGG although as far as I know, there is no way to play OGG on my iPod...so what's the point