Hello all,

I just bought a brand new Honda Civic 2006 and the included CD player can read MP3 as well as WMA files.

I'd like to take a few of my CD and convert them to the WMA format and I was wondering which program would be the best for this task?

My favorit convertor is SOUNDTAXI - a new one, I consider... It's advantage is in braking DRM-protection on media files, so you should listen to your iTunes music any way u like)))
Check their site for more info! http://www.soundtaxi.info

mencoder












/me is already out.

why not just use Lame Encoder and encode them to Mp3, its a far better audio format than crappy old wma.

yep!
/me agrees

i'm a big fan of advanced mp3 converter

but now i'm curious, why is WMA so terrible?

just answered my own question. and now i'm embarrassed to have ever believed the m$ hype.

glad i only have a gig or so of WMA

I dont agree, wma isnt old there is three versions of wma 7 8 and 9 and i see its really wonderful good quality and small size, there is a converting option called variable bitrate its change the bitrate depend on the richness of the audio which save the size, i use Plus! Digital Media Edition converter which nice and easy, but there is Windows media encoder and its do the same job with more advanced options, its available as a free download at microsoft you can give it a try generally 64 bit converting gonna do a good job.

wma just has poor sound quality. actually go out and read some technical information like i did.

why does it have poor sound quality, i prefer it over mp3, i know its by ms, but i find its better overall, smaller files with better quality? i've also read up on it, and used it, and generally ifind the anti ms people seem to find all these things that no one else can find thats bad about it

Ask any Audio expert which format is better, they will all agree and say Mp3 is far superior. Dont you think if WMA was so great everyone would be offering music downloads in wma format and not mp3. The only ppl that try to get u to download wma are greedy money hungry corps that "attempt" to stop ppl copying music by using DRM (I Say attempt because its extremely easy to get around)

For me WMA is ok good quality with good size, i can make it in the same quality of mp3 file and with 4mb mp3 file it will be something less than 3 mb while you save its quality you can make it smaller if you used a lower bitrate i have some wma files smaller than 1 mb and its hard to recognize its defference than mp3,ScubaSteve try to check wma varibale bitrate to beleive me.

i read the articles then did my own test...with my ears.

my wmas sound like the treble is turned up a notch, and the bass is a little flat.

and that was at high bitrate.

To each their own.

But, comparing Low Bit Rate to Low Bit Rate WMA usually wins.

It's only when you go outside WMA limitations, you actually benefit from MP3.

Also, WMA only offers a standard encoder. So, you won't have the option to
tweak it like using a Lame Encoder.

Personally, for my MP3 player, I prefer WMA over MP3.

Try, listen, and come to your own conclusion.

Good Luck!

and mp3 is so great? the only reason ppl offer mp3's is b/c its small. the quality suck compared to the original. a lossy format is just crap.

If you're talking about a home media center with oodles of disk space, then fine - go for FLAC or some other lossless format. If you're limited on space, like for a portable music player, then MP3s will do you just fine. Chances are at 320kbps VBR format (quality 2) you won't hear the difference between it and the CD when you're walking down the street or in your car. There's all the background noise that gets in the way.

The problem with WMA is that it's very proprietary. There are very few media players out there that can deal with WMA reliably, while just about every audio software and portable hardware out there supports MP3s.

Excellent software, works like a charm. Do some price comparison first, though. I bought the software at 30% off http://www.nautage.com/products/soundtaxi.php

breaking DRM is as easy as 1,2,3 you dotn need to pay for any software todo it for you. Obviously i wont explain how todo it on these forums as it would be breaking the rules.

Can't directly edit the audio CD track, import the audio CD track to PC, then using Mp3 editing/ converting software, suggests to try FlexiMusic Wave Editor. Using "Save As" command convert and save the audio CD track to Mp3 file format. Play the Mp3 file in the software, from file menu, choose “Export to WMA" option, here choose the bit rate of your choice and click "ok" to save the files as WMA. To convert Mp3 to WMA need to install a separate command line encoder. "WM8EUTIL.exe" encoder will be of use.

The GCN sound format that is used in GameCube games is way better then using mp3 for the size.

WMA sound will give you great sound no diffrent from MP3 to a regular listeners ears but WMA is Microsofts format and I consider anything a promtion to Microsoft a bad thing.

You have to consider the player is using a codec to play these files.

To my ears, MP3 really sounds better than WMA. At least >=192Kbps, with lame --vbr-new. Plus, lame is now threaded and encoding my music at 24x on my laptop is great.

I havn't an expert audio ear but all my music collection is in 96kbps wma format and the quality is enough for me. I burn some wma files and read in my Alpine 9815RB and the quality is enough too, no people in my car say to me "I think you have wma in your cd .." yet !
But I'm agree in the fact that wma is dragstic (on the paper) to encode sound, but for me it isn't enough ^^

I use Sony Sound Forge - absolutely superb qualititive wave editor. It support ALL formats, many-many properties.






believe me, WMA better than MP3

Do you even know what MP3 with lame is?
Do you think it is exactly the same thing it was 15 years ago?

It's not like WMA isn't changing either (MS has the money to develop it too). In the latest hydrogenaudio tests (@192kbps - just like you said before), WMA comes ahead of mp3. Link Just because one prefers a non-proprietary format doesn't make it sound better...

Mind you I still use mp3, just because it sounds good enough at decent bitrates, and plays everywhere, on absolutely anything (be it hardware or software), no plugins or whatever necessary. It would take a HUGE difference in quality for me to even consider AAC or WMA (ogg is just out of the question).

The best WMA encouder I have found is WMA MP3 Converter which could encouder any WMA files in a good quality:
http://www.wmatomp3-converter.com/wma-mp3-converter.html